Camilla Ransom
This morning we got up early (but not early enough) for a run. By 0830 the sun was already beating down and that combined with the very hilly route made the modest 5km feel like we were running a marathon in the Sahara.
By early afternoon the anchorage was quite busy and because it’s also pretty deep it meant that everyone had a lot of chain out. The rule of thumb is to pay out roughly 4x the depth. So if you’re in 5m you let out 20m of chain. If you’re in 11m (which we all were) then you need 45m of chain. If the wind blows from a pretty consistent direction then any newcomer to the anchorage can roughly guess where the other boats anchors and chain might be, in order to try to avoid them. If the wind is a bit flakey, as it was for us, then that makes it trickier to tell. Conscientious boaties often ask those around them where roughly their anchor is so they can pick a good spot. Others do what I’m about to describe.
Tom was down in the cabin making lunch and I was sitting in the cockpit with a book. A boat came past us and as they were about level they dropped what looked like 10/15m of chain and continued motoring through the anchorage. Unamused I went below and said to Tom, “That’s a great way to pick up someone’s anchor chain”. A few minutes later the same boat appeared but this time even closer and going backwards. Tom stuck his head out of the hatch and said, “Oh hello, you’re pretty close!” and it was then we saw our anchor chain hanging off their anchor. There were about 8 people on board but only one who seemed to (roughly) know what he was doing and he was now at the bow, leaving no-one at the helm. I was busy getting the engine started when I saw them bearing down on us so I leapt to the back and shoved them off with all the strength I could find.
Our chain was still attached to their anchor, but getting it off is easier said than done as the thing carries an awful lot of weight. The best method is to get a line looped around the chain then lower the offending anchor and hope it’ll slip off underneath the looped chain. The skipper was trying to do that but because he was also the driver, and also because now the wind had picked up he kept rushing back to the wheel to drive himself away from Bini. Naively we were expecting him to eventually drop the chain and that the only thing we’d need to do was re-anchor. We weren’t too worried. What actually happened was our anchor itself had broken out, and we started to drift. We were still attached to the other guys boat so we had limited manoeuvrability but now somehow we still had to keep ourselves from colliding with our Swedish neighbours. Tom was getting the snubbers off the chain and I was trying to drive us forward so we were both pretty pre-occupied and meanwhile the offender managed to release our chain but didn’t say a single word! 10 seconds later we were blown sideways and backwards across the bow of our Swedish neighbour meaning our chain was now laying over theirs, and we were pinned to their port side. 10 minutes later, after much messing around we freed ourselves and motored into some space. In the meantime, unbeknown to us, the “anchor harvester” had managed to pick up another 2 anchors but luckily by now the wind had calmed and he’d worked out a method to quickly free the chains! We were about to re-anchor in our original spot but found him, happily sitting in it and getting settled in, getting the inflatables off the back and the sunshades up. Bloody cheek!!
The day before we’d made friends with an English couple on a neighbouring boat and they indicated a good spot near them so we dropped anchor there. Once settled we dinghied over to the Swedes and made sure all was well, then went for a chat with Ian and Marianne.
Now I know these things happen and it wasn’t intentional however I think it’s common decency that after wreaking havoc you nip over to just acknowledge what happened and if you’re feeling generous, maybe apologise. These guys were there all day and all night and not once did they bother to come and see us. Even if we speak different languages hand gestures go a long way. Honestly I think it’s plain bloody rude.
We learnt a lot from this, mainly that you have to assume your anchor will come free and you’ll drag. We didn’t act with quite the urgency that we should have done but this time, thankfully there was no harm done. We were all grateful too that we were on our boats and dread to think what might have happened if we were all ashore!
In the evening we went for dinner and drinks with the British couple who were lovely, and it was a much needed distraction from the days events.
???