OK - we've been in Portoferraio anchorage more than two weeks. We've moved a couple of times for various reasons, but last Saturday (today's Wednesday) we had our anchor firmly down in a nice bit of the anchorage, close-ish to San Giovanni but not too close. At that time there were half a dozen boats here and plenty of space.
Late yesterday afternoon, there were twenty boats in, but still loads of space. But one stupid little French motor cruiser, the Dae, sneaks in just beside us. What's the need to snuggle up, hein? But it's not too bad while the wind remains out of the south east.
Come this morning, that's where it's coming from and he's right under our stern. We call out to him and politely remind him we've been here since Saturday and that he should let out more chain, or (preferably) move. By this time several other boats have left and there's plenty of space. For the non-yachties - it is normal etiquette that the first boat gets to stay where she is: it's the later arrival that should hoik up his anchor and get somewhere safe.
But no. Our French friend argues that we should reduce our chain. We have about 35m out, in 8m of water. After a bit of toing and froing, he says that he thinks he is in only 4m of water so his 20m of chain is plenty. We retort that we are in 8m of water, and we're not taking in much. In the end, we do reduce our scope by 10m, and he lets out a very little more chain.
The rain sets in and the wind gets up. You can see from the picture that he's really close. Much less than a boat length. If our snubber had come off the chain (it can happen) and we'd bounced backwards the extra 5m or so, we'd could have hit him.
But he wasn't moving. In the end we got so twitchy we pulled up the anchor and moved elsewhere in the bay.
We don't get it. It's just such poor seamanship. We've got used to the Mediterranean habit of mooring much closer than the UK comfort zone - what with no tides and all. We are happy to use a chum at times. But what makes skippers think they can just put their boat and that of others in danger and then just refuse to move?
We should also report that our much-loved rocna has really been doing the biz. Every time we've pulled it in, it's been well in the mud. We certainly weren't going to drag anywhere.
It's only the second time such poor behaviour has happened to us - and the last time it was Italians here in Italy. But he's as much a foreigner here as us! So we are very grumpy and it's still pouring with rain. We had planned to sail to Marciana Marina today but have decided to stay given the heavy winds forecast by Italian Meteomar for tomorrow. If they don't materialise (and other sites are not forecasting them) we'll head off.
As a final word on this rant - we moved to a nice empty space, and three boats promptly came in and anchored in our vicinity. One of them was definitely too close, but after he'd finished his conversations on two separate mobile phones (he was Italian) he politely moved somewhere safer. Roaring Girl is obviously a magnet for other skippers!