An early start to get the washing done at the launderette saw us pulling up the anchor around midday.

Just as we want to head east the prevailing westerlies have switched around and we had a F2 on the nose as we headed across towards the mainland coast. It took three and a half hours of motoring into the light winds for us to reach Limina Petala. This anchorage is formed by a large island about a mile off the coast which is joined to the mainland by sandbars to the north and almost joined to the south. This leaves an entrance in to a large shallow bay protected from the prevailing north-west wind by the bulk of the island and with reasonable shelter in other directions. We found depths of around 6m to the south of the bay but around 2m as you headed north.

We anchored in around 3m in the centre and were joined by 6 other boats overnight. We were still a long way apart, you could get 100 boats in here and still have space. There were goats on the island and a few seabirds but it was very quiet. There are a number of fish farms in the area and you do hear their fast boats racing about but overnight was dark and still until around 04.00am when the wind came up from the north east. It woke the skipper as the anchor alarm went off as the boat moved to the end of the chain but both he and the boat were soon settled comfortably again.

It’s not the prettiest anchorage we have visited but it’s a useful passage anchorage and would be a good place to hide in a NW blow.

Photo: The anchorage in Limani Petala looking south from Splice