Too close for comfort?
If you’re uncomfortable with your neighbour’s anchoring antics, try this little trick...
Ihave commented before about my conviction that when it comes to anchoring there seems to be some form of magnetism that draws boats together. Perhaps it’s a primal instinct like that which causes cattle to graze as a herd; but whatever the cause and particularly in anchorages, an uncomfortable degree of togetherness can bring more risk than security.
The photo that heads this page was taken in Porto Colom; once a sleepy fishing port on Majorca’s north-eastern coast, but now a popular destination for both holidaymakers and sailors alike. At least at the time of this incident there was a well sheltered anchorage, but no doubt marketable considerations have since given way to profitable mooring buoys.
So, this harkens back to the 1970s. We’d arrived the previous evening and found a sheltered spot to drop the hook, where we planned to lie for few days. As you can see, the anchorage was not exactly crowded so it came as something of a surprise when the fiftyish-foot ketch arrived the following afternoon to anchor hardly more than spitting distance away.
Our new neighbour hardly gave us a glance. The portly gent we guessed to be the owner left the helm and disappeared below to emerge a few minutes later clutching a glass. There were two other men aboard but the absence of any offer that they might join him in a sundowner suggested that they were hired crew. For a while they grouped on the foredeck looking somewhat anxiously in Shindig’s direction.
I was tempted to hail the larger boat in a friendly sort of way; partially to welcome him to this idyllic spot but also to suggest that maybe our boats were a mite too close for comfort. But I sensed from the owner’s rather aloof manner that he might be unreceptive. Then something occurred to me – drawn from a recent conversation with another skipper on exactly this situation.
“I’ve found there’s never much point in starting a shouting match,” he had said. “People who know they’re in the wrong can get very defensive which can make matters worse. What I do is dig out my camera and take photos of their boat from several angles. You don’t have to say anything. Let discomfiture be the key.”
Which is exactly what I did that sunny afternoon in Porto Colom. I could see on Its transom that the new arrival hailed from a city in Germany – a city famous for its University and about as far from the sea as you can get in that country. Surely, I reasoned, wouldn’t anyone from such an imposing place, applaud an intriguing experiment, if only on a cerebral level?
So out came the camera and I snapped away, choosing various vantage points down the port side. The photo on this page was one. And the effects on our neighbours were unexpectedly evident. Up sprang the owner and you could sense his unease. Humanity demands that I don’t go into details. Needless to say, not a word was exchanged but within the half hour they had weighed anchor and sought another spot several boat lengths removed.
Now, I wouldn’t want this tale to reflect negatively upon German sailors in general. Just a few weeks earlier we had been anchored in Porto Petro – a tight little inlet a few miles south down the coast. The weather had been unseasonably fractious with local thunderstorms and heavy rain. We hadn’t planned to stop there because the holding can at times be dodgy, but we were tired and craved a rest.
Perhaps predictably the anchorage was fairly crowded, but we found a corner that would serve until the front blew through. With evening approaching we had just settled in when a trio of small yachts rounded the headland and made towards us. Our spirits fell.
But we had no cause for worry. Within a few boat lengths of us they rafted up. Once all was secure an inflatable dinghy was launched; a young man at the oars. “We’re from Germany,” he explained in excellent English. “And I know we are a little close. There are eight of us on board and we will keep night watches. It would be a pleasure if we could keep an eye on your boat as well.”
Which says it all, don’t you think? When it comes to sailing, a little consideration goes a long way.
‘People who know they’re in the wrong can get very defensive’