Valle Andre blew me away. This is the first scene I saw when we drove down to the harbor. The tide ranges average 33 feet and can be as extreme as 40 feet. I was fascinated by this -- having never seen it first-hand. Our local tide range averages almost 8 feet, and I thought that was a lot.

The local boaters have worked out a system to deal with drying out twice a day. All the keel boats have stands.

There's also a dredged yacht basin, and it's completely isolated by mud flats when the tide ebbs.

This is the view from the edge of the entrance channel, looking in toward the yacht basin. Notice the marked water level post.

Same position, looking in the other direction out to sea. There is a narrow window of opportunity to enter or leave this harbor, twice a day. This view shows the sea wall in the distance and gives some perspective to the height of the wall I'm standing at. It's a pretty serious drop.

We went to dinner, and a few hours later it started to fill...

There was quite a current.

Pretty soon these boats will be floating again. Notice the line of turbulence in the background where the inrushing water reaches the dredged yacht basin.

Brittany is pretty awesome.