This is a really cute and protected anchorage and when Will and I were here last year we absolutely loved it. But apparently our little secret is out and there are a bunch more of other yachts who feel the same way. Consequently anchoring here is a logistical test of the kind we have not experienced for, well, a year!

When we arrived we laid out the anchor rode at 3:1 (3' of chain for every foot of depth, for you lubbers!). That is the bare minimum (in my opinion) and something I save for the really crowded anchorages. So when the wind picked up from the south I took up a special interest in our anchor's ability to hold. We had a French-flagged boat right behind us that wouldn't allow for too much error.

Fortunately the anchor held fine. That allowed me/us the opportunity to make some deposits in the bank of karma! It started with a Bavaria 36 motoring by our boat at about 4k. He was coming in pretty fast and as he passed I signaled to him and also spoke in English to him that it gets shallow in there. Sure enough, a few moments later I see him stick it into the mud! "But I told you it go shallow, knucklehead!!"

So Will and I jumped in the dinghy and came to his aid. Shortly thereafter another 2-3 dinghies also arrived. (As a general rule, sailors at anchor are bored and amuse themselves any way they can by watching others make a mess of things! I know....I've been there!) Eventually we got the Bavaria off with 2 ribs on the bow pushing his bow towards deeper water and with us pushing him from astern as he gunned his engine. And like most skippers who have just made a spectacle of themselves to the entire anchorage, he promptly took off for another part of the harbor to anchor in!

We had been getting 20k from the south all day. But the forecast was for it to switch around to 25-30k from the north overnight. The Med is like that!! So in the early evening, after dusk when the light has all vanished from the sky, all the boats at anchor swung in unison to a new breeze from the north starting to freshen. I immediately ran to the foredeck to let out another 5 fathoms of rode since I didn't have to worry about a boat behind me anymore and the extra rode might come in handy when the wind piped up good.

But another boat - the largest one at our anchorage - wasn't so lucky. I slept through it, but apparently he drug in the middle of the night into at least one other boat. There was a bunch of yelling and fending off and I don't think any major boat damage occurred, though Shirish did hear a little bumping and grinding.

I awoke in the morning to find we were still where we were last night! Yeah!! I love our Manson Supreme anchor in mud and sand. But a Leapord 45 catamaran wasn't so lucky. He must have drug or something because when I looked over at him he was out in the channel next to the anchorage with the mooring ball delimiting the two areas. He had fouled his anchor on the buoy. It was just him and his wife and his wife wasn't all that much help. So Will and I jumped in the dinghy again to see if we could help out.

It was lucky we did. He needed all of it! He tried diving on it, but that didn't do any good - the water was both too deep and too murky to see anything. By the time we showed up he had the anchor to the buoy up under his trampoline along with his own anchor. They had poured concrete in two tires and tied those together for the buoy. This guy's anchor managed to snag the line connecting them. It took us about an hour to unfoul the whole mess, but we did it!

So we feel pretty good about helping out a couple of yachties and making a couple of deposits in the "Bank of Karma". I just hope the next time we need help - and there most assuredly will be a 'next time' - someone will be around to help us out!! But it speaks to the comraderie sailors have in within the sailing community. There are enough dangers out there/here that we all need to help each other out. On land, in the cities, it is a lot easier to blow people off and live in your own little world. But out on the sea, we are all still very much dependent upon each other. I hope we - as a community of sailors - never lose that.

Tonight we got invited over to Azure III, a Leapord 47 cat, for a party. Rodney and Jane are a great couple from Alameda, CA with a 10 and 12 year old. That matches the 10 and 12 year olds on Shirish's boat, Juno. So together with Will, the five of them had a raucous time while the parents all caught up on various things. It is little wonder Will went to bed early tonight! They are a great couple and I wish them the very best during their 2-3 years of Med sailing they have planned.

Ruth and I continue to relish just being in one place! So I don't know when we will leave this beautiful harbor! Certainly not tomorrow - more breeze expected. But maybe on Monday. As tired as I am of being on the move, I was still jealous this evening watching boats sailing into the harbor!!