The Maldives, even though we had paid for a cruising permit, is not blessed with many acceptable anchorages and our next stop had to be well placed in order to make a long passage crossing the 30+ mile stretch of water to North Male Atoll.    We decided on an early start to the day in case the anchorage was not suitable and we had to make the crossing to the next stop of Gaarafaru Atoll.    

The pilot book reported an anchorage at the southern end of Varihura but the authors had not used it so we set off with Scorpio.    Just a short distance from Kurehdoo, approximately 18 miles, we worked our way around the western side of the atoll to the east of the islands.     Varihura looked simply beautiful from a distance and had a huge extremely shallow lagoon on the eastern side with clear turquoise water. 

We made our way down to the southern tip and managed to find a small piece of sand amongst the coral to drop the anchor.    Not an ideal anchorage but in the calm conditions we had it was fine.   

This was an excellent anchorage for an early start with very deep water just meters away.    We were told there was good snorkelling but we did not try.

Again our dinghy remained on board but I did get into the water with the intention of checking the anchor but the currents were too fierce for me.