knee-sock-wearing palm trees

Ray & Steve came over for 1 last 'Morning Coffee in the Cockpit' and to watch us (& help) get Raven all ready to leave. We managed to weigh anchor around 1230 hours and successfully maneuvered our way out of Barra's laguna without getting stuck on any of the sand bars! Thanks to Ray's great helpful hints.

Once out into the bay we had a very bumpy ride with 3-foot seas (& wind) hitting us right on the nose. We motored sailed NW (back tracking a bit) where the seas increased until we could tuck in along the coast for a little protection. Just before rounding the headland we cut the engine and put up more sails for a kick-butt ride around the headland avoiding the rocks that stick out 2 miles. With all 3 sails up we were a bit over powered and had to point high into the wind to avoid the rocks so we were heeled way over, at times with my shiny caprail in the water! It's a bit unnerving for someone who hasn't experienced it before-but I got used to it (read: I just concentrated on hanging on, watched the ocean deluge the low side our cockpit and let Scott deal with it).
We had a much nicer sail once inside the protection of Tenacatita's Bay, sailing almost right up to our anchorage. 1630 hours we dropped anchor just off the beach. The anchorage isn't that crowded though there are a few large American motor yachts and some familiar boats. The bay is huge with a few clusters of house and hotels. There was a nice long beach with colorful tents in a grove of palm trees on one end - campers enjoying the beach and small resort on the other. In between were a row of palm trees with their lower trunks painted white (I don't know why this is done), where 2 palm trees were close together they looked like some kind of strange tall bird wearing white knee-socks to me. Some loud music and the bright full moon didn't stop us from some much-needed sleep!