After considering a late start to today's passage, we were up before 6.00 a.m. getting ready to leave. A very uncomfortable swell had come up during the night so we thought time to go. We had planned to sail from our last anchorage on Palawan Island to Linapacan Island which was a fairly short run but as the wind had more easterly in it we decided to track direct to Halsey Harbour on Culion Island. The wind came up about 10.30 at 15-20 knots so quite an easy day and the wind seemed to knock the northerly swell down a bit.
We entered Halsey Harbour which has several arms leading south and east and a few islands to make it interesting. Unfortunately, no white sand beaches - the shorelines are mostly muddy and rise up quite steeply from over 45 metres depth. There are some rocky headlands with spits of shallow water, mostly rocky as well, so finding somewhere to anchor was a bit of a challenge. After realising that our chart had soundings in fathoms and that 14 was 
about 28 metres not 14 metres, we settled on 22.5 metres depth to anchor - the deepest we have ever had to anchor in - so most of the chain went out with the anchor. The spot we chose is just north of Gage Island, 11 deg. 46.926N, 119 deg. 57.947E, where there is no chance of any swell at all and the wind has died to about 3-5 knots.
about 28 metres not 14 metres, we settled on 22.5 metres depth to anchor - the deepest we have ever had to anchor in - so most of the chain went out with the anchor. The spot we chose is just north of Gage Island, 11 deg. 46.926N, 119 deg. 57.947E, where there is no chance of any swell at all and the wind has died to about 3-5 knots.Is it a boat? Is it a house? Bangka returning to Halsey Harbour
The low hills forming the harbour have been cleared in places but otherwise seem to be dry tropical vegetation and remind us of Australia except there are no eucalypts!
