Too Close! WAY TOO CLOSE! Anchoring Near Jerks

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Fishspearit

I think I saw that same guy over on this side of the world last month. .... Every evening right about cocktail time we would watch the new boats come into the anchorage and, of course, invariably ... this guy's reaction. 5....4...3...2...1...."you're too close!!"

Well, thats the thing. No one invites Mr & Mrs Too Close to Sundowners. Its unfortunate because if they lightened up they would have a much better crusing experience.

And, yes, we all make mistakes some time or another where the pick pops out or where we did drop it too close... but us relaxed people can forgive... and when we do it ourselves we can appologise and move a bit and then go have a drink with the offending or offended boat


Mark

[Hud3]

Very true, Mark. Good advice!

One thing one learns after cruising a while, notably in the Tropics, is to just relax. Things tend to work themselves out, without a lot of drama, if you are patient and relaxed about it. You make more friends that way.

[donradcliffe]

To keep the thread on track, I now remember that when I dropped in the hard pan in Admiralty Bay, there WAS a guy yelling that I was DROPPING TOO CLOSE! I just smiled and waved and kept on anchoring, and ended up 3 boat lengths from him like I had planned.

Back on the drifting part of the thread--yes, there is grass over some of the hard pan, with big furrows cut in it by dragging anchors. There is nice holding over near the shore on the north side in front of the local green tri. My favorite spot is on the north side nearer the channel when it FIRST gets down under 15 ft, but NOT on the part closer to town and NOT within 150 yards behind the big steel mooring balls. Needless to say, the good spots tend to be taken first, and you should back down pretty hard to make sure that you don't go sliding back in the squalls like the big windjammer did one night this year.

[roger.waite]

Originally Posted by bstreep

ActuallyBut, I have to tell you, I'm the guy who yells at the jet skis ...

Given that this has become a confessional, I am afraid I am the guy that points repeatedly to the other side of narrow channels when boats try to cut between me and the beacon five metres off my starboard side. If that was you in the motor boat, buy me a drink some time ...

I try not to yell, but do scream, whimper and tremble.

[shadow]

That was a funny but unfortunate situation!! I do agree that cruising is a lifestyle and should be embraced as a slow and enjoyable one. At least that's the mindset I'm planning on having once we start cruising. I do know that I will encounter these tools, but I do hope that it will be few and far between!!

Still funny to read nonetheless!!! Thanks for the fun image!!

[nonam]

Remember that story.........I wonder if it was true.
A charterer enters a crowded anchorage in the Virgin Islands.He attempts to anchor,makes a mess of it,and decides to try his luck elsewhere.He starts motoring out before properly retrieving his anchor.He notices another boat following him and the people on it seem to be angry.He goes below and gets his handgun.He is ready to shoot someone until he realises that he has hooked the other boats anchor and is towing them .

[ksalt]

A few years back we were in the Tobago Cays and dropped the hook about 350' in front of a charter boat in about 7' of water. As we were anchoring I could see a guy on the bow of the charter boat clearly pissed off about something. I thought, surely he doesn't think we're too close? Our stern was about 250' to windward of their bow. His wife joined him, they were both yelling something, but were too far away for us to hear what they were saying. I thought, are we on fire or something? After we finished anchoring, I picked up the VHF mic and pointed to it indicating for them to hail us. So they hailed us and informed us in a panic that we were right on top of their anchor and 'way too close'. I asked if they were sure and suggested that it was pretty unlikely that their charter boat even had 250' of rode. They were sure. So I said I would dive on their anchor and if they still thought we were too close we would happily move. So I don my mask and fins and dived in the water. I started swimming toward their boat as they watched. and swam and swam and swam. I finally found their anchor about 50' off their bow, and about 200' behind us. When I showed them where their anchor was, the expression of embarrassment on their faces was priceless. I chatted with them a bit from the water to show there were no hard feelings. A few hours later they dinghied over with some some extra provisions as a gift and to apologize for the drama.

The moral of the story is that the other boat's crew might seem like a**holes, but could just be inexperienced and nervous. Also, if you're nice to charterers you might get their leftover rum at the end of their charter!

[speedoo]

Originally Posted by ksalt

A few years back we were in the Tobago Cays and dropped the hook about 350' in front of a charter boat in about 7' of water. As we were anchoring I could see a guy on the bow of the charter boat clearly pissed off about something. I thought, surely he doesn't think we're too close? Our stern was about 250' to windward of their bow. His wife joined him, they were both yelling something, but were too far away for us to hear what they were saying. I thought, are we on fire or something? After we finished anchoring, I picked up the VHF mic and pointed to it indicating for them to hail us. So they hailed us and informed us in a panic that we were right on top of their anchor and 'way too close'. I asked if they were sure and suggested that it was pretty unlikely that their charter boat even had 250' of rode. They were sure. So I said I would dive on their anchor and if they still thought we were too close we would happily move. So I don my mask and fins and dived in the water. I started swimming toward their boat as they watched. and swam and swam and swam. I finally found their anchor about 50' off their bow, and about 200' behind us. When I showed them where their anchor was, the expression of embarrassment on their faces was priceless. I chatted with them a bit from the water to show there were no hard feelings. A few hours later they dinghied over with some some extra provisions as a gift and to apologize for the drama.

The moral of the story is that the other boat's crew might seem like a**holes, but could just be inexperienced and nervous. Also, if you're nice to charterers you might get their leftover rum at the end of their charter!

There ya go. Well done.... I just hope those charterboat cruisers learned as much as they could from the episode. Sounds like they were ready to learn once they saw their error.

[S/V Willow]

LOL what a crack up. When we owned our last little boat she was a 32' steely and built to withstand anything you could throw at her. Anchored in Goldsmith Island, Whitsundays one evening everyone else all snugged in and all happy and we heard someone arriving next to us. Didn't think much of it until a bit later when we popped up on deck for our cup of tea and lo and behold a brand spanking new, shiny, very expensive looking Buizen had anchored with us. Not next to us really - actually with us. He was without a word of a lie no more than 20 feet away. If he swung his boat was longer than the distance between us.

He had dropped his anchor and gone below so we sat and looked at the situation closely - little steel boat built like brick s$*t house .v. Very large fibreglass newbie. We win! We decided that he had made the decision to drop there and who were we to argue I mean lets face it the absolute worst that he could do was knock a little paint off us but we could do one hell of a lot more damage to him! So after saying "Bless you" when he sneezed (yes we truly could hear him down below sneezing) we went to bed. Thankfully it was an incredibly still night and no damage was done to him. He got up at the crack of dawn, ran the motor for an hour or so and finally lifted anchor and left. Now Mark - should we have said too close? Possibly but on reflection it was't us who was going to pay it was him. I agree that being polite and friendly is the best way to be and we both adhere to that at all times. After all that is what being a yachtie is all about isn't it?

[maxingout]

In Bequia, we had a 115 foot power yacht anchor way too close to us, and I came up on deck with my video camera to let them know they were too close. I pointed the camera in their direction making it perfectly obvious that I was recording their bad seamanship. They chose to ignore me, and I never said anything to them.

The next morning, the skipper of the power yacht pulled up the anchor in a twenty five knot squall without using his bow thrusters, and he lost control of his yacht and the massive bows came down and hit Exit Only on the port bow. We felt a massive crunch when he hit us, and we popped on deck to inspect the damage.

Fortunately, we have parachute sea anchor chainplates in our decks with a heavy duty welded bail out in front of the bow that acted like a bumper protecting our bows from any damage. The bow pulpit was bent, but once the megayacht's bow engaged our parachute sea anchor chainplate bail, the carnage stopped, and there was no damage to the fiberglass of our bows. The stainless steel bail welded to the chainplate did put a nice scratch on the bow and side of the megayacht.

They came over and made it right by giving us $2000 for the damage to our bow pulpit. If we didn't have our parachute sea anchor chainplate with protruding stainless steel bail out in front of the bow, we could have had some serious fiberglass damage to our bow.





By the way, our 70 pound Beugel anchor did not budge an inch during the incident. I love the Beugel.

[Celestialsailor]

MarkJ...It would have been really funny if during the middle of the night you drifted up on him and rafted up to him. Then waited until morning with a camera!

[imagine2frolic]

Let's see...if I remember correctly 60+ squall winds are above storm strength. I think it prudent to have out 10-1. We do leave the boat often for many hours, and we do sleep. Sometimes the hook stays in one place for a week, or 2. Squalls are an everyday occurence in S. Florida, and the Bahamas.

The clorox bottle on a very light line. I think it is a kindly gesture that that much chain is out. You run over it, and it will not lift my hook, but it will foul your prop as it breaks away. Shame on you for not seeing it.......i2f

[MidLandOne]

Originally Posted by imagine2frolic

The clorox bottle on a very light line. I think it is a kindly gesture that that much chain is out. You run over it, and it will not lift my hook, but it will foul your prop as it breaks away. Shame on you for not seeing it.......i2f

All you are doing is staking claim to more territory for yourself and telling other boats "Don't you anchor anywhere near me else you'll get tangled up in my anchor buoy line when you swing over it".

For example - you're anchored in 10 meters of water with your 10:1 scope. Assuming the next boat needs the same scope so you both swing around approx a 100 meter radius, then you are saying "You better drop your anchor more than 100 meters away from mine else you will get tangled in my anchor buoy line when you swing. And by the way that makes sure all you unwelcome newcomers are usually at least 100 meters and often much further away from MY boat."

[imagine2frolic]

We don't see 10 meters. We rarely see 15 feet, and usually anchor in well under 10 ft. So do you suggest I constantly stay with the boat, and become a slave to it? So those numbers get thrown out. Do you anchor in areas with daily, and nightly squalls? Anybody in this area does. It is not uncommon to see 60+ winds. Normally there is 80ft. of chain out. One of the advantages of a multi. You are thinking mono, and in that reference I see your point. Most likely most monos can't even consider anchoring where I am at.

Selfish I think not! Did you read my post where even though I was first, and some one achored close. That it was me that left, because the person in the mono doesn't understand that cats may sometimes wander over the hook.

We are all staking claim when we drop the hook. I am being polite enough to send a message where my hook is. I have had many boats drop the hook, and come along side me maybe 20ft. away. Possibly if they had known where my hook was this could be avoided. There is both a negative, and positive side to setting a float. I see the positive, and I guess what you see is the negative. Remember my boat doesn't always sit as others do, because of windage, and the lack wetted area.......i2f

[MidLandOne]

I think you miss my point.

I am not criticising the scope you use but am criticising the use of an anchor buoys in anchorages as they unnecessarily steal extra room in an anchorage from others. Personally, I have no trouble working out where another boat's anchor is likely to be if there is no anchor buoy.

I also do not like people anchoring close enough to create a danger to me either but I have no problem with people anchoring so that they swing over the top of my anchor especially if the anchorage is crowded. Seems you want to deny people that room which is your perogative - I am only pointing out that it deprives others, uneccessarily of room in the anchorage. Furthermore, I suspect that the use of a anchor buoy often has undertones of signalling "Don't anyone anchor anywhere near me, that buoy stakes out MY territory".

Fortunately the use of anchor buoys is very unusual in the parts of the world I have been in (and, in fact, I have never seen anyone use one in my home waters). But if I came into an anchorage in the dark and ran down your Chlorox bottle or anchored in the dark and swung over it and was fouled by its line I can tell you that you would find yourself either adrift from your anchor or else have a very unhappy visitor.

From the point of view of presenting a danger to other vessels use of an anchor buoy in an anchorage is about as silly as setting a lobster pot, net or set line in it.