The small bay in Porto Vells is crowded for a reason. In addition its pristine waters, it has sandstone walls on one side that looks from a distance as if it has been combed. But on the other are caves that date from Phoenician times, and gave the bay its name, “Old Gates”.

We came into this bay under very tight conditions with many boats jockeying for a position to bed an anchor. It was so snuggly that we almost left, but after a few defections were able to drop a hook and go explore the land.

The caves cut deep into the hillside and contained ancient carved altars, what looked like a prison, and what looked like the markings of any random teenager from any era at all.

A confluence of three things made us abandon this beautiful spot and make a long overnight passage to Porto Petro: 1) We were positioned right in the mouth of the bay. 2) Swells rolled directly into the bay sending its seas right to us. 3) The wind blew in at 90 degrees to the rollers, which positioned Amari sideways to the incoming seas. By bedtime, we were locked into a miserable metronoming pattern sloshing us so hard back and forth that zero people were going to be able to sleep.

We figured that, if we’re not going to sleep anyway, we might as well stumble out of bed, fire up the engine, and head to our next location 6 hours up the coast. We were so glad when we arrived at dawn to a calm bay, a warm day, and a pleasant stay in this quaint little town.