There's friendly and then there's Anchoring ...

[RichardS]

There was a thread from Vic recently about why people sometimes seem to anchor on top of you even in an empty bay but I can't find it now. On that occasion Vic had spoken to the "luvved-up" anchorers and I think I mentioned that although anchoring very close is common in Croatia, it usually because the bays can be so crowded in high season so everyone just lives with the occasional hull banging, and in 10 years of sailing here I'd never actually spoken to another boat on that subject.

Anyway, this lunchtime I took this photo of us and just three other boats in this huge bay which we've never visited before. It really is lovely and we've been here two days so far and still haven't had the urge to move on.

Anyway, fast forward a few hours and there are a couple more boats in here but none of them are even within shouting distance and there is still room for dozens more.

I'm sitting on the back of the boat with a glass of cold Pinot Grigio reading my "Dead in the Water" (see other thread) and have noticed another cat which has circled around the bay a couple of times but I'm not really paying attention.

Anyway, Sally comes to the back of the boat and says "A charter cat is anchoring right in front of us and it looks like they are going to hit us". I reply "Don't worry about it, I'm sure it's just Croatian anchoring" but she says it's more that that and would I get up off my arse and take a look.

So I stand up and look through the front windows. Jeez.

I walk up to the front of our boat and there is the cat, the stern about 20 feet away in a virtually empty anchorage. The two couples on board seem to be settling down to have their own glass of wine (I can virtually read the vintage on the label) so I ask, in a normal speaking voice whether anyone speaks English.
One of the Guys replies in an Australian accent that they do.

I say, "Look, this is a huge empty bay (and make a large sweeping gesture through about 180 degrees) so I really can't understand why you want to be right on top of us." The Guy says "You're right. I'm sorry. We'll move". I say "Thank you" and one of the ladies gives me a thumbs up so I reply with a thumbs up and they start pulling up the anchor.

They have now re-anchored about 200m away and Sally is happy .... which means peace, and Nick Drake, has returned.

Richard

 

[Old Thady]

Richard, you're clearly still living in the pre-post-truth era. You really need to work on your hyperbole.

The anchorage was deserted except for your yacht.
You were not having a glass of wine and reading. You were awaiting the arrival of local drug addicts as part of a sail-therapy programme.
The other boat was a large luxury yacht (all yachts are "luxury" even if they're worth no more than a secondhand Ford Focus).
The other boat roared into the bay, narrowly missing bathing children. Had they veered even one kilometre the consequences would have been too awful to imagine.
A baby dolphin may well have been lacerated by their propeller. Just such a wounded animal was found (in the Maldives) the next day.
The crew of the cat must be established as members of an unpopular element: Russian oligarchs, hedge fund people anything Arab/Moslem ...
You were close enough to read the racist/sexist/homophobic tatoos on the skipper's arm.
The other crew did not just have a glass of wine. They were completely drunk. From time to time they would go below and return wiping white powder from their moustaches.
You request for them to shift was met with torrents of abuse. Empty bottles were hurled at your boat.
They only moved when the protected coral outcrop on which they had anchored gave way, causing damage that will take centuries to recover. You, of course, were on an authorised mooring.
Sally is not happy. She is traumatised. "It was a nightmare," she sobbed.
The damage to your boat (had there been any) can be repaired but will the psychological scars ever heal?


What a beautiful anchorage! I'm very envious, hence the catty post.

 

[BobnLesley]

...and there is the cat, the stern about 20 feet away in a virtually empty anchorage... Richard

Our 'favourite' was in the bay at the bottom end of Paxos (Lakki/Lakka?) many years ago: It was late March and the only occupant besides ourselves was a moored yacht 3-400m away towards the east side until just on dusk when a Polish flagged yacht arrived, dropped anchor finishing within 30' of our bow, the crew immediattely jumping into the dinghy and heading ashore; I was fairly sure that their chain hadn't even finished laying out, so we upped our own anchor, gently nudged them aside and moved 400m away.

 

[RichardS]

Richard, you're clearly still living in the pre-post-truth era. You really need to work on your hyperbole.

The anchorage was deserted except for your yacht.
You were not having a glass of wine and reading. You were awaiting the arrival of local drug addicts as part of a sail-therapy programme.
The other boat was a large luxury yacht (all yachts are "luxury" even if they're worth no more than a secondhand Ford Focus).
The other boat roared into the bay, narrowly missing bathing children. Had they veered even one kilometre the consequences would have been too awful to imagine.
A baby dolphin may well have been lacerated by their propeller. Just such a wounded animal was found (in the Maldives) the next day.
The crew of the cat must be established as members of an unpopular element: Russian oligarchs, hedge fund people anything Arab/Moslem ...
You were close enough to read the racist/sexist/homophobic tatoos on the skipper's arm.
The other crew did not just have a glass of wine. They were completely drunk. From time to time they would go below and return wiping white powder from their moustaches.
You request for them to shift was met with torrents of abuse. Empty bottles were hurled at your boat.
They only moved when the protected coral outcrop on which they had anchored gave way, causing damage that will take centuries to recover. You, of course, were on an authorised mooring.
Sally is not happy. She is traumatised. "It was a nightmare," she sobbed.
The damage to your boat (had there been any) can be repaired but will the psychological scars ever heal?


What a beautiful anchorage! I'm very envious, hence the catty post.

Welcome to the Forum Donald. Where have you been when we needed you most.

Richard

 

[Old Bumbulum]

This isn't uncommon.

I once dropped the hook in a large Croatian bay with perhaps 3Km of usable shore for anchoring.
By 2 hrs before dusk there were 3 other boats all anchored with 100m of us. No-one else in sight.

An hour before dusk I decided on my night's anchorage, rather grumpily upped the hook and moved. (Somewhere else about half a click away.) I told my crew wahat was about to happen - she didn't believe me.
Sure enough after a few minutes of watching us settle down one of the other boats stowed his drinks and snacks, got the sunbathers off the foredeck, upped his hook and motored right on over - to within 30m of us. And within 10 more minutes another had joined him. (Both Austrian iirc.)
Ten minutes before dusk I apologised to the g/f and upped anchor again heading across the bay for the place I'd spotted 2 hours earlier making sheep-bleating noises at the bemused and now lonely Austrians who were all standing in their cockpits staring in disbelief. I sincerely hope they understood. There was some nervous looking activity on both their foredecks but I reckon I'd judged the daylight right and even they didn't have the bottle to go herding again at dusk.
Turkey was similar. Empty miles of bay and an hour before dusk some boat (German usually) or else a bloody noisy gulet comes and anchors so close you need fenders out.
Some people seem to have no concept of personal space.
Why don't they holiday with the massed hordes on cruise liners where they belong?

 

[sailaboutvic]

I would given you the link if you only asked
Well we been hanging around Poros for a few days now , doing repairs and waiting on friends to arrive next week .
Its been pretty quiet from other years ,
Anyway we wanted some free internet so we anchored in a cornor of a bay by a restaurant with just .4 under our keel while everyone else group up in the middle of the anchorages and there we been for two days on our own , until late yesturday after noon , clouds building and thunder could be heard getting nearer , Two of the boats which. Seen to know each other re anchored in front of us .
Why on earth would you want to anchor in shollow water close to the beach with a possible of a thunderstorm on the way when your in a good spot right in the middle with plenty of room ?
Now we block in , if any one of these seven boat drag it be us they will hit first .
So we moved as we was hauling up our anchor one brit boat shouted something which i didnt hear and wasnt interested in what he had to say anyway , we re anchored oit in the middle of the bay now almost empty , I asked the co skipper what the guy said , she said he asked if we knew there a thunderstorm on the way and maybe best to stay put .
I sure he did , so we could stop him beaching has he dragged .
Luckily all we got was lots of rain and wind ,
So all ended well .

 

[sailaboutvic]

Our 'favourite' was in the bay at the bottom end of Paxos (Lakki/Lakka?) many years ago: It was late March and the only occupant besides ourselves was a moored yacht 3-400m away towards the east side until just on dusk when a Polish flagged yacht arrived, dropped anchor finishing within 30' of our bow, the crew immediattely jumping into the dinghy and heading ashore; I was fairly sure that their chain hadn't even finished laying out, so we upped our own anchor, gently nudged them aside and moved 400m away.

We also loved Lakki upto some 15 years ago , now it just one big mass of boats , we only visit it now from oct or before April . The shops take the piss , its te only place in Greece where they charge 1.5 for a loaf pf bread .
After getting caught out two years ago and being charge 25 € for mooring in Gaios we now avoid Paxos .

 

[RichardS]

This isn't uncommon.

I once dropped the hook in a large Croatian bay with perhaps 3Km of usable shore for anchoring.
By 2 hrs before dusk there were 3 other boats all anchored with 100m of us. No-one else in sight.

So we moved as we was hauling up our anchor one brit boat shouted something which i didnt hear and wasnt interested in what he had to say anyway , we re anchored oit in the middle of the bay now almost empty , I asked the co skipper what the guy said , she said he asked if we knew there a thunderstorm on the way and maybe best to stay put .
I sure he did , so we could stop him beaching has he dragged .
Luckily all we got was lots of rain and wind ,
So all ended well .

These are great stories. Both made me and Sally laugh. We ought to write a book called "Anchoring .... How To Make Friends and Influence People" or something like that.

Talking about thunderstorms Vic, this is a screenshot of this mornings marine forecast;

It says "No warnings are in force" which is the first time that I have seen that this summer. Every other day that we've been here there have been potential thunderstorm warnings somewhere along the Croatian coast. Most summers seem to have "No warnings" at least 50% of the time.

Richard

 

[davidej]

Isn't the answer pretty simple.

If you are a newbie and looking for somewhere safe to anchor and see another boat, then it's a no brainer Anchor close to him.


And then if he moves for no reason apparent to you, then je must know something ypu don't. So safety in numbers, follow him.

 

[Tomahawk]

I's the same at caravan sites. Go to the far end of the field and settle down. The next van will pitch up right next to you.

How to get away from sheeple is a problem?

 

[sailaboutvic]

Isn't the answer pretty simple.

If you are a newbie and looking for somewhere safe to anchor and see another boat, then it's a no brainer Anchor close to him.


And then if he moves for no reason apparent to you, then je must know something ypu don't. So safety in numbers, follow him.

Over the years we tried every thing from anchoring in very shallow water out keel nearly touching to anchoring in 20 mts plus , nothing seems to work .
We now have a guy who anchored so close that our dinghy is 2 mts from his chain when we swing in the right direction, no joking , the rest of the bay is almost empty .

 

[photodog]

It’s not just anchoring... park in a empty car park and when you come back you’ll be hemmed in.

Order something in a restaurant, odds are your wife will want the same thing....

Sit down in a cinema, every one will glom around you.

Sit down in your living room, The wife will complain about you taking the best chair.


And that’s the rub... when we arrive at a destination to anchor, we will pick the best spot.

It selfish of us to not want to share that with others.

 

[Cheesey69]

Heard instinct. No matter what you may feel, we are a social animal. copying others is a way for us to fit in. E.g. one person complains the rest join in. Out on their own they feel exposed, packed up and there's a semblance of safety. Fitting in is what we do. Always gonna be like that, a bit like a murderer obeys traffic lights.....

 

[Glenlivet]

A few years ago we anchored in Lamlash Bay, not too far from Holy Island as we could get the dog ashore easily for ‘ablutions’. The rest of the bay COMPLETELY empty with no weather warnings. Just before dark another boat came in and anchored VERY close so, at 2am when the tide was turning, I stuck my head out of the hatch and sure enough he was within spitting distance. Having set very generous scope I got up and hand balled a few metres of rode in, got undressed again and went back to bed, having given the old ‘tackle’ a bit of a scratch and readjustment. 5 minutes later the burning started, turned out I’d had some jelly fish sting on the rode as I hauled in, thus transferring to said ‘tackle’. A VERY uncomfortable couple of hours followed. Did I curse our neighbour?? Oh yes :disgust:

 

[solent clown]

raise this rag, and loll about the deck holding your bum and mouth alternately, or just go full zombie

220px-ICS_Lima.svg by mark punksteel, on Flickr

 

[michael_w]

Many a time I've wished my boat was equipped a lever which would produce bodicea type spikes out of the topsides. Worst nation for 'snuggling up' are the Quebecois.

 

[duncan99210]

We’re in Navarino Bay just now. It’s enourmous. Like 2 miles long and 2 miles wide. And the bottom shelves gently as you approach the shore with excellent holding just about all the way round the shoreline. We’re in the northwest corner, which is where the winds coming from today (and forecast to come for the next few days). We arrived a couple of days back to find 4 boats in the corner, each with a couple of hundred metres between them, so we slipped into a 400m gap and anchored.

Today, there are now 6 boats anchored here. Two are well away to the west, like 500m or so with a large gap between them. To the east of us there are three boats, all within about 80m or so: all arrived within an hour or so of each other and then flocked to this point? I mean why? I just don’t understand it in the slightest.

Ah well, at least the flotillas and charter fleets are still well to the north, so time to get my blood pressure back under control before we encounter them again.

 

[sailaboutvic]

One yacht in the back are friends the other they just arrived only met after anchoring.
You may thing this close is unusual , its not .

 

[RichardS]

I started this thread by saying that I don't usually advise fellow sailors that they are too close but for some reason this holiday, which is not at peak season so bays are not quite so crowded, seems to have been the exception.

A couple of days after the opening post, in a different bay, a charterer moored so that his boat was right over our anchor and we were only in 3 metres of water so our anchor was not that far away. I trotted up to the front and asked politely why he had decided to place his boat right over our anchor (clearly visible in the crystal clear water) when the bay was almost empty. He replied that his anchor and chain were well in front of my anchor. I said that I understood that but his boat was right over our anchor and if he was still there tomorrow and the wind was in the same direction he would have to move. He said that he was going in a couple of hours so I said OK.

Next thing he takes out this flashy black drone which make a roaring noise like a hairdryer and starts flying it all over the bay. I don't have a problem with that and was half thinking about asking him for a copy of the file when it came back. After a few minutes the controller in his hands started bleeping loudly and Sally asked what that was. I replied that it was possibly telling him that the battery was running out but I don't have a drone so I'm just guessing.

Anyway, he carries on flying for a few minutes with the thing bleeping away and just seems to ignore it. He then flies the thing back towards his swim platform and I watch as the drone starts to come down but suddenly the engines seem to falter and it drops like a stone into the sea and just sits there on the sandy bottom. I decided not to ask for the file after that.

This morning a charterer comes in to the same half-empty bay and drops her anchor straight in front of us. She then starts to let out the chain and the boat starts to fall back towards us. I wait a minute and then walk to the bow and point out to the lady that she is about 2 metres off our bow and that by the time her chain unravels she will hit us. She agrees and pulls up her anchor and moves to the empty side of the bay.

An hour after that this charterer arrives and, more or less repeats the same manoeuvre but with a bit more spacing. Sally says "You must take a photo for Vic" so here it is:

We're in a different bay now and are virtually on our own. Peace at last.

Richard

 

[sailaboutvic]

I started this thread by saying that I don't usually advise fellow sailors that they are too close but for some reason this holiday, which is not at peak season so bays are not quite so crowded, seems to have been the exception.

A couple of days after the opening post, in a different bay, a charterer moored so that his boat was right over our anchor and we were only in 3 metres of water so our anchor was not that far away. I trotted up to the front and asked politely why he had decided to place his boat right over our anchor (clearly visible in the crystal clear water) when the bay was almost empty. He replied that his anchor and chain were well in front of my anchor. I said that I understood that but his boat was right over our anchor and if he was still there tomorrow and the wind was in the same direction he would have to move. He said that he was going in a couple of hours so I said OK.

Next thing he takes out this flashy black drone which make a roaring noise like a hairdryer and starts flying it all over the bay. I don't have a problem with that and was half thinking about asking him for a copy of the file when it came back. After a few minutes the controller in his hands started bleeping loudly and Sally asked what that was. I replied that it was possibly telling him that the battery was running out but I don't have a drone so I'm just guessing.

Anyway, he carries on flying for a few minutes with the thing bleeping away and just seems to ignore it. He then flies the thing back towards his swim platform and I watch as the drone starts to come down but suddenly the engines seem to falter and it drops like a stone into the sea and just sits there on the sandy bottom. I decided not to ask for the file after that.

This morning a charterer comes in to the same half-empty bay and drops her anchor straight in front of us. She then starts to let out the chain and the boat starts to fall back towards us. I wait a minute and then walk to the bow and point out to the lady that she is about 2 metres off our bow and that by the time her chain unravels she will hit us. She agrees and pulls up her anchor and moves to the empty side of the bay.

An hour after that this charterer arrives and, more or less repeats the same manoeuvre but with a bit more spacing. Sally says "You must take a photo for Vic" so here it is:

We're in a different bay now and are virtually on our own. Peace at last.

Richard

Ah yea Richard you wasn't close enough to shake hand with them like our friend Jenny did . Although another mts or so and would had been there .