Last night at 3am I was awakened by shouting from outside. The winds had picked up, and shouting in a crowded harbour is never good news.
Anchoring in harbours is an opportunity to observe humanity operating in a free-form environment: there are no rules. You find a spot and you drop your anchor. This is not rocket science: you don’t want to be too close to anyone, you know the wind can change and your boat will ‘swing’ in a different direction, you need to stay away from swimmers (i.e. not too close to the swimming area), and you don’t want to be near rocks.
Usually, people maximize the distance between themselves (no-one wants to do bumper boats) but sometimes if someone is just coming for the day or for a few hours, they will decide that a spot is so nice that they are OK being nice and cozy beside you. These people are being selfish: they are putting you at risk for their own benefit. This doesn’t happen very often.
After getting outside I saw people on deck on the boats on each side of me. One of the boats anchored in the middle of the harbour had dragged its anchor, and had come very close to the boat just beside me. (This is a perfect but snug anchorage, only about 100m wide, and almost everyone is anchored close to the shore line with lines running to shore…..this maximizes the number of boats that can anchor here.)
The main photo is the location where the boat had been located, and they were now moving around in the dark trying to find a new spot to anchor. This is not fun. You cannot see the bottom (if you drop your anchor on plants or rocks it will not hold), there is not much space to begin with and there is a swimming area blocked off with buoys close by. Also, all of the boats, our included, have anchors set far ahead of our boats….if you drop your anchor over an already set anchor or its chain you can accidentally pull it up and make that boat start to move uncontrollably which is horrible and extremely maddening. (This just happened to Victoria and I a few weeks ago thankfully during the day.)
While the unfortunate boat was moving around deciding where to try to set his anchor, the guy beside me was shining a big flashlight on the boat and yelling: What are you doing!!! There are 3 anchors there!!! Get out of the harbour!!! I want to sleep!!! He screamed this several times. Not fun for anyone. The boat finally dropped his anchor, too close to the swimming area I thought but I could see he was holding in the wind so I went back to bed.
I’m never happy about being woken up in the middle of the night, but it is not that huge a deal because I can sleep in as long as I want, and I always take time to appreciate the night sky which is gorgeous. There is not a lot of light pollution in the Greek islands, and the stars are very easy to see. The constellations are so clear you can understand why they were named.
When I got up this morning, the rogue boat was gone, but he had also destroyed the swimming area buoys which were now spread everywhere in the harbour. Some other boat came out and put them back (I’m a bit surprised someone around is responsible for this).
Today is supposed to be even windier. Victoria and I put out a second anchor to hold the nose of the boat against the expected side-wind which seems to be working and the first time we have done this. (I picked up this anchor for free 2 years ago so I’m getting excellent value for money.)
On a more positive note, a small sailboat came in yesterday under tow, they had lost their engine. Magically three other people got into their dinghies with engines and came out and helped push the disabled boat into a suitable spot and helped them secure to shore. This was very nice to see and was not coordinated….just people helping out…..without rules.
Adventures on Spruzzo 