The picture is looking down into the forepeak. The white rope (polyester) is wound onto a stainless steel reel that was built for this space. There is 70m of anchor chain in the chain locker, and not really room for any more chain.

The purpose of the rope is to attach it to the anchor chain, so when anchoring in deep water, 70 metres of chain and up to about 100 metres of rope can be used. This should make it reasonable to anchor in up to about 50 metres of water. As the anchor winch is not designed for rope, anchoring in water that deep is expected to result in good exercise bringing the anchor up :).