Anchoring Atrocities

ON THE SECOND night at Great Barrier Island’s Wairahi Bay, the skipper found himself in the dinghy at 4am trying to wake the occupants of a rather large launch which had drifted and was in danger of hitting the rocks. We’d watched him anchor (put a bit of chain out, turned off the key and presumably went into the cabin for a drink). When he was woken up he had no idea where he was or where he came from. He hadn’t taken any sightings when he’d anchored.

Day 3 – at the Fitzroy Wharf. After a fantastic burger from The Hub and back on the boat we noticed a lovely old ketch way too close to a moored local yacht. No one on board, so over we went. It had already made contact and was drifting. We managed to get a line on both boats and bring the ketch behind it. Thankfully the owner’s son came along and all was well.

Day 4 – anchored in Wairahi Bay and a launch came in and anchored too close. We couldn’t catch it in time before it hit us. We’d just re-launched (prior to Xmas) after fixing a ding from a drifting boat here last year!

I found the boat’s skipper on another boat. He continued to swig his beer while I told him he’d hit our boat and needed to move. No apology was given, and he never gave us his details. We have his boat name, a photo, names of boats nearby and a diary account of what happened. He will be hearing from us.

And that, you might say, would be enough. But no, it had just started. No sooner had he left when another boat anchored in pretty much the same place. We told them the previous boat there hit us. They said they’d keep an eye out. Yeah right. New Year’s Day (the next morning) found us fending off with boat hooks. A couple of hours later they finally moved.

The next idiot arrived. He anchored in a different place but in a worse position as he was not only too close to us but also to another yacht and launch. We explained that the winds were swirling and all the boats were hanging at different directions and that he was too close.

We even showed him a good place to go to. Owners of the other boats also spoke to him, and still he didn’t move. At one stage we were stern to stern, close enough to hold hands. Finally at 7.30pm, after hours of negotiations, he moved.

Unbelievably, he re-anchored by dropping the pick at our bow. We told him (yelling by this stage) he would hit us by dropping it there. We spent nearly three hours watching and at 10.45pm, after fending off with boat hooks, he left.

In my 20 years of coming to the Barrier I’ve seen some anchoring antics but never have I experienced such ignorance and plain stupidity. Idiots!