Wankering – enough to make you a hermit

According to Malcolm Gladwell it’s 10,000 hours to mastery. We figure we’re well over 10,000 miles on Tara and probably more than 15,000 and we have dropped anchor a few hundred times so if we don’t have 10,000 hours we must be getting close. I would describe us as “Conservative” anchorers. We don’t get too close to people, we let out lots of chain, we are respectful when we arrive making sure that we don’t put our anchor on anyone else's, these kind of things. It drives us a bit batty when others ruin our party doing the things that we choose deliberately not do. 

Tara close to Tomskii...but they are friends and we're all
on board, just in case. 

Here’s my list of anchoring faux-pas:

• Like standing too close to someone at a party – everyone needs a reasonable amount of personal space. Don’t come into anchor and drop too close, you cause at minimum anxiety and possibly damage.
• Make sure you put an appropriate amount of chain out. Recently in a 10 meter deep bay we put out 40 meters, but we had two neighbours, one that put out 70 meters and another than put out 17 meters. Unless you expect a hurricane, more than 4:1 or 5:1 just takes up too much space and. 2:1 is at best a lunch hook.
• In case you hadn’t noticed before, 95% of the time boats that are anchored face into the wind. Basically you are head-to-wind unless you have a lot of current effect or no wind at all. Trying to back up into the wind (believe it or not you see it all the time) to put the boat into a spot you like will simply end in you bashing into other boats when the wind takes you where it is going to. Pull into the anchorage, position your bow, come back to the spot you want to occupy.
• When anchoring and tying into the shore try to understand where the other anchors are so that you don’t put yours on top – if you do it can be a bit of a gong-show recovering. Patience is a virtue in this case and the reality is that everyone has had their anchor lifted before and everyone has crossed someone else’s anchor … either that or you haven’t done much anchoring stern-to in tight bays.
• When you come into anchor survey where the other boats are lined up, look for their anchors, ask how much chain they have out and try to visualize  where their anchors are – eventually that’s where you end up. We were recently in a bay that had a current running through and a new person arrived just as the current was switching to the other direction and everyone’s chain was stretched out one way, he came in and dropped and within an hour was within a few feet of another boat.
• Be mindful of the types of boats you are anchoring near to. My friend Marcel and I anchor close to each other quite often, but our boats are nearly identical in size, weight, rigging windage, so we move together the majority of the time. We can be close together because the boats act the same way when the wind hits us. I am amazed sometimes when completely different boat types anchor close because they swing differently. Our heavy cruising boat beside a smaller race-boat will always have challenges, we tend to be slow and steady at anchor while the race boat sails all over its anchor.

A picture of a boat too close...we took it in case we
needed to contact the charter company for insurance coverage. 

Here are a few tips for those who are experts but don’t like to share …

• Tight anchorages are tight for a reason – usually they're excellent places to hide out or they’re just terrific places to stay. You don’t own the bay … Don’t take up too much room or yell at others. I can remember one time in a calanque in Spain where a boat took the entire bay up because he refused to tie to shore and had 50 meters of chain out … We tried anchoring 4x and each time his boat was magnetically attracted to us. We eventually moved – which was probably his objective but he was a bit of a hoarder in that situation

Tara and Tomskii going "stern to" in Lakka ... a very
effective way to avoid others' wankering...unless they
drop on top of your anchor which happens rather often. 

• If you're anchoring in a tight bay where you know lots of others will be, do not put a float on top of your anchor – it will eventually foul someone’s propellor (hopefully yours) and it’s a bit like parking sideways across three parking spots on a Christmas shopping day at a busy mall
• Don’t wig out too much. We have had guys yell at us for putting our anchor too close to their stern – “you realize that we will drop back 40 meters when we let the anchor out” or I have had some guys yell that I cannot run my Honda 1KW generator in the afternoon – which is quieter than our diesel or our low-key music, or a fly buzzing around the room. Last, I actually heard a guy at Sivota on the island of Lefkada tell Marina to “shut up” when she told him he was about to drop directly on top of our anchor … I hailed back “Hey Buddy, if you want to tell your wife to shut up … That’s your lookout … But do not tell my wife to shut up”.” He went away grumbling, fouled 2 other boat's anchors, collided with one and then pulled another boat’s anchor up so that it dragged and collided with the boat beside him …. Karma can be cruel.

Tara and others beautifully spaced out at Pargas. We
dropped twice because we felt the first spot was too
close to other boats.