Guadiana River

Sailing to The Guadiana River

For those who don't already know, the Guadiana River is one of our all time favourite places, especially the small village of Alcoutim.
This has been our third visit, although also our shortest, as we need to make progress towards Madeira.

We left the anchorage in Rota (in the Bay of Cadiz) very early in the morning, the log book shows an entry at 0300hrs. Why so early, well two reasons. The first is the length of the passage and it is always helpful to arrive in daylight if at all possible, the next was to arrive at the Sand Bar at the seaward entrance to the river at high tide. This would ensure we had plenty of clearance under the keel.

Having run a weather routing model the previous day, it looked like we would spend the first part of the sail heading adjacent to our destination close hauled. This turned out to be true and also true as it turned out was the change in wind direction later that day, which allowed us to sail to our destination.

More by luck than anything else, we tacked early. Without the new sails Azzy is not pointing as close to the wind as she could, and by daybreak our course was dropping below the line. We had intended to tack, head to the waypoint and motor until the wind changed. As luck would have it, no sooner than we tacked, the wind did change! Although not allowing us to head directly to the river entrance, it was at least taking us somewhere in the right direction. Throughout the afternoon the wind backed a little and before too long we were skimming along heading directly to our waypoint, so much so we acually had to take some sail in to slow down or risk arriving too early!

Below is a screen shot of our track from Vessel Finder to give you an idea of our course.

We started in the bottom right hand corner and if you follow the line along you can see that before we made the tack, our course was heading slightly South. If you follow the tack up you can see the effect on our course as the wind direction backed

On arrival at the river entrance we headed a few miles North to an anchorage we had used before, just to the North of the ferry terminal. We spent the evening and next morning here, waiting for midday when the tide was low to enable us to pass under the suspension bridge.

For anyone that has never passed under a bridge on a yacht, it is hard to convey how close the top of the mast looks. Photographs do not do it justice so we put together a short video clip. Trust me, you had to be there!

We had a pleasant meander up the river for several hours, and as it was a flood tide we went in on, the current helped us along. Before too long we had anchored just North of Alcoutim, very happy to be back.

As the current flows strongly, we waited until we had been on board for two tide directions before making the assumption it would be safe to leave Azzy and go ashore.


Our time literally flew by here, especially for Ian and Stephanie who, being fearless, went on the zip wire across the river. Ian actually went on it twice!

It is the only zip wire in the World where you can cross from one country to another and go back in time (Portugal is an hour behind Spain).

We also went to one of the weekly music festivals in the town square, and it was lovely to see it so well attended.

One day we happened to pass a few off-road buggies in the car park and upon investigation, an enterprising firm had set up an off-roading experience in these crazy things. Always on the look out for a new adventure (that does not involve heights) we booked them up.

Our time slot in the late afternoon meant the sun was beginning to drop, and the lack of rainfall for months meant it was hard going to see much in front!

Judge for yourselves from the clip below. It was great fun and lasted about three quarters of an hour. By the time we got back we were caked in dust.

Sad though it was our stay here was just a short one. We did have time to view a property we had hoped to buy over the winter. The owner was very hospitable, and a deal maybe possible in the future. Fate will decide...

And so onwards. Our next scheduled stop will be the large and often noisey anchorage in Portimao opposite Praia da Rocha, where we will hold up for a while and do another provisiong shop before heading a little further down the coast to our jumping off point to Madeira.