The romantic notion of a secluded anchorage vs. real life

[Jammer]

Oceangoing vessels are symbolic of freedom, and in the competition for eyeballs, youtube sailing vlogs prominently feature remote atolls, deserted islands, and picturesque little islets too small to support a cruise pier, airport, or tourist economy.


Yet there are mooring fields full of boats, and anchorages tight enough that there are disagreements over what exactly the bounds of courtesy and seamanship might be. And there are marinas with slips, where you pay for your convenience. Seems they're usually pretty full except at the bottom of the season.


Help me understand the motivation because I must be missing something.


Is there a shortage of remote little anchorages?


Is it that hard to find a protected spot that's the right depth?


Are the boats on the balls not equipped to be self-sufficient?


Do the people in the tight anchorages prefer being in a crowd?


Is it that hard to move the boat the day after you clear in and get groceries?


Is part of this a regulatory problem? Help me understand....

[Simi 60]

Only time we go anywhere remotely busy is for resupply, then up anchor and gone.
Most of the time we have the place to ourselves
Today is Saturday, we share our anchorage with two other boats, might think of moving, getting too busy. (-;

[john61ct]

Very few are capable of getting far off the beaten track.

And many do not want to.

Those that do, and can, avoid most of those problems.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Jammer

Oceangoing vessels are symbolic of freedom, and in the competition for eyeballs, youtube sailing vlogs prominently feature remote atolls, deserted islands, and picturesque little islets too small to support a cruise pier, airport, or tourist economy.


Yet there are mooring fields full of boats, and anchorages tight enough that there are disagreements over what exactly the bounds of courtesy and seamanship might be. And there are marinas with slips, where you pay for your convenience. Seems they're usually pretty full except at the bottom of the season.


Help me understand the motivation because I must be missing something.


Is there a shortage of remote little anchorages?


Is it that hard to find a protected spot that's the right depth?


Are the boats on the balls not equipped to be self-sufficient?


Do the people in the tight anchorages prefer being in a crowd?


Is it that hard to move the boat the day after you clear in and get groceries?


Is part of this a regulatory problem? Help me understand....

I think here in the PNW it is a combination of time and fear. When you leave the major centres you have to to travel a lot more miles to get to secluded, especially during the high season. It's just easier to put up with the crowds.

And I notice a lot...a LOT... of people who never, ever, ever drop a hook. So between the basic fear of anchoring and the fact that the guide books all play to the lowest common denominator, it often seems like you have to be a super old salt to even consider a small secluded anchorage.

Thank god we managed to avoid that trap somehow.

[brownr377]

I'll hazard a guess. For me, I have to live near a large population center, that's where the work is. Vacation time is limited, so I get out when I can. Sailboats are slow, so I can't get too far before I have to turn around and head back to work. Most others are in the same boat, so we're all in the same anchorages. If you can get out of that couple day range crowds drop.

That said, even in the high season the crowds where I am now, and where I was before weren't that bad. Last weekend, I was the only boat in my anchorage, won't happen in the summer.

[Lepke]

I have no interest in crowded or hot places so my remote anchorages are mostly in Alaska or Canada. I carry a fast small boat to go for supplies while the big boat is anchored. I haven't docked at a marina since 2011.

[dwedeking2]

YouTube channels appeal to the large demographic of people living through others. So they want the opposite of their real life, which is likely lived in a town or city.

I've found few people in real life that go weeks and weeks without human interaction.

Having lived in a few retirement/vacation destinations (those places you go to for 2 weeks every year then buy a home there to retire) that are rural, I find that after people have retired and lived there for a year or two they get bored and want to change it to where they came from. They start committees and drives to get things organized, get sidewalks put in, install streetlights and try to build little suburbia in paradise.

So I'd say that most like the "idea" of seclusion more than what that means in real life.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Jammer

Oceangoing vessels are symbolic of freedom, and in the competition for eyeballs, youtube sailing vlogs prominently feature remote atolls, deserted islands, and picturesque little islets too small to support a cruise pier, airport, or tourist economy.


Yet there are mooring fields full of boats, and anchorages tight enough that there are disagreements over what exactly the bounds of courtesy and seamanship might be. And there are marinas with slips, where you pay for your convenience. Seems they're usually pretty full except at the bottom of the season.


Help me understand the motivation because I must be missing something.


Is there a shortage of remote little anchorages? Yes, some places the good holding places are taken up with moorings. It depends on where you're sailing.


Is it that hard to find a protected spot that's the right depth? Right depth is irrelevant. We've anchored as deep as 68 ft., because that's where the bottom was. But, you must carry enough rode to do so.


Are the boats on the balls not equipped to be self-sufficient? Some are, some aren't.


Do the people in the tight anchorages prefer being in a crowd? Some may, I do think the herd instanct shows up, especially among newbies who think something on the order of "that looks like a cruising boat, let's anchor near them."


Is it that hard to move the boat the day after you clear in and get groceries? Well, again it depends on where you've come in from, and what breakages you may have had. It is fairly common, on passage, to have something break that you will need to repair or replace, so moving on very far from services and supplies may be counter-productive.


Is part of this a regulatory problem? Help me understand....

No, it cannot be fixed by regulations or restrictions.
People ignore anchoring time limits where they occur. People try to get around rules. They abuse use of free moorings all the time, till the moorings get re-purposed due to the abuse. WE ALREADY HAVE TOO MANY REGULATIONS! I feel really strongly about that. People just need to learn to share.

Sorry for the rant, but more rules just isn't where it's at. They will come, because bureaucracies want to grow and make rules for us, but those rules do not necessarily do any good. Look at the abuses of the civil asset forfeiture laws.

Ann

[Jammer]

Ann, I was approaching it from the other side. I wondered if regulations were precluding the use of otherwise-feasible small anchorages.


For example, I understand that this has been a problem in some parts of Florida, and in some areas that have installed mooring fields.

[JPA Cate]

Jammer, there are issues with picking up unknown-to-you moorings: you don't know how hefty they are, what their planned swinging room is, nor when last they were serviced. Usually some kind of permission is needed to pick up unknown moorings, and they are ALWAYS questionable.

Ann

[boatman61]

Theres a few former nice anchorage's that have become mooring field's in the Balearic's and other places like the UK S coast.. my response..?
Sail on.!!!

[Paul L]

The "romantic notion" has little to do with the reality of cruising. The notion tends to leave out all the dirty details and often is really not what the owner of the notion would be happy with. For example you can find plenty of empty, tropical atolls and islands in the South Pacific. Cruisers spend the cyclone season up close to the equator for saftey. You can be on a remote island for 6 weeks straight and get a nice fill of your romantic notion. Since the cyclone season is 6 months long and you can't leave till then, you just might be a little sick of too much romantic notion.

You can find a nice, remote and empty atoll in the Tuamotus. The entrance might be very stressful, you might have to spend two hours poking through the bommies to get behind a small sandspit of an island, just to sit there for 10 days in howling, enhanced tradewinds. Then get a few days of unbelievable diving and major shell hunting that matches the r. notion pretty well.

Even in crowded places like the Bahamas the romantic notion people start with usually gets modified pretty quickly. We spent a season a few years ago in the upper Exumas. Had a great time with lots of snorkling and really not that crowded. We never bothered to go to Georgetown, where there might be 2 or 3 hundred boats. Many of them who have adjusted their r. notion to something closer to being in one place with lots of company, warm water, no snow shoveling and where they can live on what it cost them to heat their place back in Canada.

The phrase living the dream is an oxymoron when applied to cruising.

[Jim Cate]

Ya know, we've spent a fair amount of time in isolated and unpopulated anchorages, many of them being quite picturesque. And enjoyed that immensely. And after a while, we have wanted some human companionship and gone to some more popular spot with both other cruisers and interesting locals. And enjoyed that immensely.

The ability to alter one's surroundings to suit one's mood is one of the great attractions of the cruising life, and one can usually find the degree of isolation (or not) that appeals at the time. May require some originality of thought to avoid the crowds,but it can be done where we've cruised. Easier some places than others, too!

I guess whether this seems romantic, fulfilling or boring and tedious depends on teh individual. As with most of life, it is what you make of it, given the cards you were dealt.

Jim

[wtmf]

moorings are owned. the wind and sun are free.
if you ate lonely stsy in the city and vacation on a boat? have you noticed that MOST vlog's take place NOT sailing?? i am still waiting for a vlogger to be mostly sailing.

[Island Time O25]

There are usually good reasons why secluded little harbors stay that way. They're either too far away for most sailors to visit AND stay for anything longer than a brief visit or have other major negative factors which keep an average sailor away. And similarly there just as good reasons crowded locations get and stay crowded.