Formigas & Dollabarat Reef (Ilheus das Formigas)

A fully exposed offshore islet-and-seamount complex in the open eastern Atlantic with no nearby coast, so it takes the dominant W-NW long-period Atlantic groundswell head-on across the W-NW-N sectors that dictate when boats can even reach it. The only shelter comes from Santa Maria some 24 nm to the SW, which knocks swell down most from the SW and SSW and tapers off through the S and SE windows; every other sector faces open ocean. Strong, variable currents wrap the pinnacles regardless of swell direction.