About Us

Welcome to our blog, describing our voyage aboard the two BRAVO's; the first boat a Kelly Peterson 46 with homeport in Seattle, Washington. The second is a Boreal 52, launched in Treguier, France in February 2020.

We headed south from Seattle in 2010, and have been voyaging in one form or another since. Cheers, Adam and Cindi


"As for me, I am tormented by an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts." -Herman Melville, 1844



Saturday, January 29, 2011

Tight quarters in Paraiso

We left Chamela a few days ago, to continue our journey south down the Mexican Riviera.  Decided to stop in a beautiful bay, known as Paraiso in the cruising guidebooks.  Looked very wild, with little development anywhere nearby, except for a beautiful private resort/villa on the beach.

Photo of our chart plotter display.  Note radar image on the left.  We're located right im the middle of the little bay, about 300 feet to the cliffs on each side.  Depth shows here 10.5 feet, the tide was coming in!!!  Chart display on the left shows our location on a satellite image of the bay, note how closely it corresponds to the radar image...comforting!!!

Beautiful resort on the beach.  Only saw one or two people .

Wild it was, with the bay being a tiny box, with enormous swell waves crashing on the surrounding rocky cliffs and beach.  Very cool spot, though the tight quarters, coupled with the shallow depth was worrysome.  Bravo draws nearly 7 feet, and the depth at on our depthsounder showed 9.5.  Now, granted that was at what appeared to be low tide,  but the tidal range in these waters is little over 3 feet, and this didn't leave much of a cushion.  The water was clear, and we dove all around us, checking our anchor set on the bottom and checking for rocks. 
Adam checking around for underwater obstacles.  Didn't want to put a hand under the keel, with only 2 feet of water, and a big swell running!

Finding none, we decided to spend the night in this unique location.   Didn't have a very restful night, to put it mildly.  Left all instruments on, in case we needed to make a hasty retreat during the night.  But the wind remained calm, as expected, and we enjoyed exploring this unique area by kayak in the morning before leaving for Tenicatita Bay.
Waves crashing off the starboard bow


2 comments:

  1. Sounds exciting Adam. Glad you didn't put your hand under the keel....what a vivid image! The resort seems as if it is just a villa, very private--do you only get there by boat? Hope you and Cindi enjoyed some cerbazas. Kayaking looks very very fun. Fair breezes

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  2. Wow, an exciting night indeed! So glad to hear that you got to enjoy it despite being on high alert. Looking forward to your next post.

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