Northbound

Private castle on the cliffs near Careyes

January 22, 2013

We departed La Manzanilla, heading northbound for Bahia Careyes.  We see amazing structures along the way on the cliffs. Careyes is a private enclave of bizarre little cluster condos and brightly colored mega-mansions overlooking a steep bay. The setting was awesome, but the narrow anchorage with swells and rocks left no room  to anchor and we felt it would not be a comfortable stay.

...follow the yellow brick road...down to the beach!

Unique homes on the cliffs

Brightly colored condos in Careyes

Bizarre teacup structure...a home or alien spaceship?

Playa Paraiso and private resort

We move on towards another recommended anchorage, Paraiso....

Morning calm in Paraiso

There are two other boats here first. We must negotiate a spot between these first boats. There is a west well coming into the bay, which makes this a challenging anchorage for the night. This place is remote  with white sands beach lined in coconut palms, green/blue water and breaking surf and “blow holes” rocks on both sides of a narrow bay.

There is a boutique hotel on the beach and I see a few people wandering the picturesque grounds. I wonder how people find these out-of-the-way-places?
We set out the anchor two times and it drags over rocks before it catches in sand. This process takes time in this narrow bay with two other boats to navigate in between.
The swell comes into this bay and bounces off each rocky side, which then deflects the swell sideways into our boat.  This created the rolly motion.
Next, we need to set the stern anchor. Get the dingy into the water. We use a halyard line on the mast and winch up the dingy from our foredeck and plop it over the boat’s railing into the water. Next, we use the same line to winch up the outboard motor up, over and down into dinghy. Secure, Gas jerry jug . Attach.

Setting the stern anchor with dingy

Ok, now lift the stern anchor with chain into the dingy and motor out to a spot to drop. Next winch in excess rode which pulls the stern (rear end) of boat into swells. This positioning of the boat into the swells helps with the side-to-side “roll” motion.

The "flopper-stoppers"

This shows the flopper-stoppers in action underwater

Ok, now we set out the “flopper stoppers”. What are those, you say? These are plastic Mexican hat shaped "thingies" evenly spaced on a line, then dropped over each side of the boat and used to displace the boat’s roll as the surge passes through these…buffers the side to side roll. We think it helps.   All in the name of a good night’s sleep!

Is it “anchor down” time? NO…not yet…one more chore…check the anchors…

Dive the anchor...beautiful!

I volunteer because Capt. Juan has pretty much “muscled” everything else in this anchoring process…so, into the beautiful green-blue waters I go with snorkel. But, it’s not clear1 the visibility is milky because of the surge. I have to follow the rope down by hand into the depths…13ft(I know, it’s a shallow anchorage) to confirm that the anchor has grabbed in the sandy bottom….Yes, all good. Nothing but clear white sand bottom with a passing “porcupine” fish swimming by.
Ok…Anchor down time? Our neighboring boats both paddle over to welcome us.
OK, NOW.  Anchor down time. Crack a cold beer! As we sit and “feel” the boat’s motion in the swells…
YES, this is going to be a long and rolly night!

Jan 23- Paraiso

Calm morning... still...both our boat neighbors are leaving...this allows us to move right in the center of the anchorage all by ourselves! We re anchor. Easy, because it is calm. We decide to go explore...

Mermaids in Paraiso?

Big whale sighting!