Inhaca Island

From CruisersWiki

Inhaca island has about 5000 people living on the island. There is one formal village on the island and that is on the north western side of the island. The lighthouse marking “Baixa da naia” a large shallow reef (8nm from Inhaca) that has claimed a few ships in the past century is located on the north eastern part of the island at its highest point. Below the lighthouse lies a shipwreck in shallow waters and there are rocks in this region.

In strong southerlies protection can be saught in this area in front of the lighthouse area. The other protected area for Southerlies is through “Hells gate” at the southern tip of Inhaca between the island and the mainland. This narrow passage can be very hazardous to cross in rough seas and should only be passaged in calm conditions during slack tides when the water is at its calmest.

The general anchorage is off the village on the north Western side of the island. There is a 3,4 m tidal shift with lots of sand bars well marked in the charts in the area of Inhaca and Portuguese Islands.

There is a safe passage in all weather to the inside of hell’s gate at the southern tip of Inhaca but with sailboats follow the high tide in to prevent groundings as it’s a narrow channel and at low tides a 1 m draft Catamaran cannot pass. This starts at the Inhaca village and you follow the contour of the island going south and around the bottom in a narrow channel.