Anchoring shenanigans

I woke early, having had a disturbed night. The water was flat when we went to bed, but as soon as the tide turned we started to roll and Robinetta did not want to settle to her anchor. I had set an anchor watch alarm on the chartplotter, which did not go off, but I woke several times and looked to check we were fine.

When I heard a strange noise at about half six I got up again. There was a boat only 10 yards away, much closer than any yesterday evening, that must have come in and anchored after we went ashore. I had not spotted it in the dark when we came back aboard last night. I went down to pull on some clothes, and heard the odd noise again.

As I went back on deck I had to fend its bowsprit off Robinetta's cabin top.

I hailed the other boat, and a rather bleary eyed person appeared (not the skipper). We had anchored first, and definitely not dragged, but Julian decided that the simplest thing to do would be to haul up our anchor and get out of the way. He went forward, while I got the engine on and kept us clear.

Julian could not be bothered to pull the chain all the way up, so we motored into as clear a spot as we could find and dropped it again without looking at it. In less than an hour we were dragging. On went the engine, and up came the anchor again. All the way up this time.

The chain had wrapped itself round the stock, so the anchor had been acting only as a mud weight. Not the best way to set an anchor in a crowded spot, with notoriously bad holding.... We should have made the other boat move.