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Any of you guys sail or fish in BA? I have been looking for a permanent place and this is a key for me. Any info on marinas, sailing, places to go etc. Would be cool.
Being so far away from other places, it is hard to talk to many people who have gone down that way by boat.
We have a boat here at the mansion (affectionately named the "Salty Monger") a 24' little outboard-powered cabin cruiser we use for fishing and general sightseeing. Although I enjoy a day on the water, I feel this qualifies me to advise you that if boating, and especially sailing, is important to you, Buenos Aires is probably NOT where you want to be!
The water here is an unpleasent looking brown (not polluted, but stained with sediment that comes all the way from Paraguay and Brasil) and, IMHO more important, VERY shallow. Outside of some cryptically marked channels, the water depth (even miles offshore) is frequently less then 1 meter! The bottom is mud, so you won't damage anything if (or when) you run aground, but that also can make it VERY hard to get off.
There are some VERY strong currents, and being so shallow, the Rio de Plata can become a pretty serious maelstrom when the wind kicks up.
On top of that, Argentine boaters follow basically the same philosophy as Argentine motorists when it comes to following the "rules of the road"!
The ocean is a LONG way away - the Rio de Plata meets the ocean at Montevideo in Uruguay, many hours away from BsAs.
That being said, there is a sailing community here, and they hold regattas and other events. There is a reciprocal Yacht Club in Olivos.
The Argentine Coast Guard seem to be helpful enough, and for the most part will respond quickly to emergancy calls. They have NOT adopted the "Cops of the Sea" attitude the US Coast Guard has.
Just my opinion.
David
Thanks, that is good info. It might also go a ways to explaining why there is so little info out there. I was looking in Florida and found the same thing. All these houses on the waterway with boats, it looked great. Then you work out it is an hour on the Intra-coastal just to get to the sea.
Only the US could come up with a way to have a traffic jam in the water.