Teluk Datai

Hi everyone,

Yesterday we motor-sailed from Hole in the Wall to Teluk Datai at the W end of the N coast of Langkawi. Once again it rained for part of the short passage.  We eventually anchored at 06 25.897N 099 40.438E in 6m.

Zen Again Track

One needs to very careful anchoring here.  The rocks shown on the charts (Garmin, Navionics & CM93) between the small island off the E end of the bay and the main island shore extend further S than shown.  We motored into the centre of the bay then closed the shore until we reached a depth of 6m and an anchored catamaran.  We turned to port and proceeded along the shore staying in 6m depth.  From about 4 knots we slowed down to 2 knots (thankfully) and then the depth started to decrease suddenly.  The depth decreased to 4m and then we hit a bombie (isolated rock).  Luckily we were only doing about 1.5 knots.

Rocks visible at low tide!

We managed to move away from the bombie easily enough, and anchored at the position given above.  The uncharted rock is at approximately 06 25.94N 099 40.46E.  We saw depths of 2.5m to 3.0m immediately around the rock, but didn't hang around to thoroughly research the hydrography.

After anchoring we found we had taken some water.  The flow gradually reduced to nothing during the afternoon.  Tomorrow we'll head around to Telaga and that will show whether we take any water when underway.

Motorsailing along the north coast of Langkawi

At Anchor

 Despite the grounding we had a pleasant afternoon.  There are two resorts ashore nearby and a few folks have paddled past in kayaks and sailing a surf cat.  Mid-afternoon a rain squall came through.  The anchorage is very well protected from NE winds by the small island and the foul ground between it and the main island.  Pity the charts don't show that the foul ground extends out into the bay!