🇪🇸 Buoyage of Santander: put the harbour's buoys back (Spain)
© OpenStreetMap · ODbL · Simplified map, not for navigation.
This chart shows the real buoyage of Santander (Spain), taken from OpenStreetMap on 2026-10-03. 4 marks are missing. IALA region A: coming in from the sea, red to port and green to starboard.
What the chart shows
The Santander chart shows eight marks of the main channel, numbered 3 to 16: four port-hand marks (10, 12, 14 and 16), two starboard-hand (3 and 7) and two preferred channel marks, 4 towards the Cubas estuary and 5 towards Puertochico. The four empty spots are buoys 3, 7, 10 and 14, called La Osa, Bruma, La Pasada and La Comba. No cardinals or rocks here.
The port authority’s Derrotero says the whole channel is buoyed under IALA lateral system, region A. Numbers rise from the sea, odd green to starboard, even red to port. At a fork, R1001 provides a modified lateral mark banded in the opposite colour, with a composite group-flashing (2+1) light: the Derrotero gives that character to buoys 4 (red) and 5 (green).
According to this Derrotero (2022 edition), the main channel runs along the north shore of the bay, past the city, then turns south towards Astillero. Its reference charts are nos. 4011 and 4012 of the Spanish Navy’s Hydrographic Institute.
Revision questions in the spirit of the exam
- Why does buoy 4 not look like buoy 10, and what does its banded colour signal?
- Which side do you leave buoy 3 on when entering the bay?
- What does a composite group-flashing (2+1) light on a lateral mark mean?
Sources
- IALA, Recommendation R1001 (ed. 2.0, June 2023) (facts restated in our own words, text not reproduced)
- OpenStreetMap and OpenSeaMap, survey of 03/10/2026 (ODbL 1.0 licence)
- Derrotero del Puerto de Santander, port pilot of the Santander Port Authority (2022) (facts restated in our own words, text not reproduced)
For practice only: do not use for navigation. Refer to up-to-date official charts and documents.
Other harbours
The daily harbour and more in the app
We Boat offers a new harbour every day, the harbour of your country, and every harbour with Pro, alongside more than 2,000 questions and the mock exam.
Data: © OpenStreetMap contributors, under the ODbL 1.0, including seamarks from the OpenSeaMap project. The derived database behind these charts is published under the ODbL: real-zones.json (ODbL), ODbL 1.0. Simplified map, not for navigation.