Sailing at Anchor
20 July 2016
We like anchoring just inside the reef that surrounds most islands here in FP.W We love the evening sea breeze and fresh air, and while there’s not many bugs here anyway, you’re almost guaranteed you won’t get that one pesky mosquito in your cabin if you’re on the reef. But there’s no shelter here from the wind. So the last few days have been really breezy for us with 20+ knots of wind, day and night. So, we all do the anchor dance – tacking back and forth in 35’ of water with a 150’ of anchor chain out. That means the anchor chain is usually scraping over coral & rocks all night, and the captian wakes up every hour or so to check things out. When you watch the fleet from the right vantage point, it’s fascinating to watch the boats react as the gusts roll through. Okay, this is probably a sailor geek thing. Sorry, for the rest of you!