A quick note about the Santa Claus thang, worth watching on the merits of utopian thinking, and maybe this will put that handshake into perspective...
The whole problem with anchoring etiquette (or lack thereof) is that everyone seems to have a different idea of what it actually consists of. Most articles on the subject don't give any real information on the etiquette side of things and, more often than not, the information they do give is so generalized as to be useless.
As it happens, as I write this I have a boat anchored so close to us that I can clearly hear the conversation they are having in their cockpit inside our boat and they are not, talking loudly. Plus, I find the fact that they've put down fenders a bit nervous making...
Now, I may be going out on a limb here but I'd say that was too close.
So, how far should you anchor from someone? My take on the answer to that question is as far away as possible and I use the word "possible" only because due to size of anchorage and number of boats it's always going to be a sorta/kinda type of situation. The rule I use when laying down an anchor is if I can read their transom hailing port I should anchor a bit further away sort of like the bumper sticker from days gone by...
Of course, I'm not an overly social sort of guy and I'll never understand why in a large empty anchorage everyone posses up and anchors on top of each other while the whole bay beckons.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get out the Marshall half-stack because I feel a Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band all-night marathon coming on...
Listening to Captain Beefheart
So it goes...
