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09/01/2018
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N Kean G Hennigan
The starboard hand beacon tower on Bajo Picamillo, between Isla Ons and the coast, was destroyed in January 2017. It has been replaced by a starboard hand buoy, stationed 1·25 cables ENE of the rock. However the AIS signal doesn’t come from the buoy but from the former position of the tower (i.e. the rock itself is now marked by a virtual AIS beacon). The rather confusing marks here (including the nearby Bajo Fagilda port hand buoy, and the port-hand beacon on Los Camoucos, close to Ons) mark the two deep-water ship channels into the Ría de Pontevedra and the port of Marín, the buoyage direction being southward; the Paso de Fagilda to the east of the 5m Bajo Lomba de Besta shoal in mid-channel, and the Canal de los Comoucos to the west of it. Yachts can of course disregard the Bajo Lomba de Besta and go straight down the middle, but if leaving the starboard hand buoy to port going south, give it a berth of at least two cables to avoid Bajo Picamillo, on which there is now no physical navigational aid.