Elba yes, Elba no: two ports, two opposite ways of treating boaters

Carlo Rimini (photo left), aboard his Oceanis 411 October Blue, has been cruising the Tyrrhenian Sea for three years and tells us about his sailings in the pages of our GdV. This summer he has been wandering along the Tuscan coast and its Archipelago, from Capraia to Giglio via Elba Island (you will find the full article in the October issue of the Sailing Newspaper). Just in Elba he was faced with two completely opposite situations in the management of two of the island’s main marinas, Marciana Marina and Porto Azzurro.
Below is his report. What about you, sailing this summer, how did you find yourselves in Mediterranean ports? Tell us about your experiences by writing below in the comments or by sending an email to
special @panamaeditor.co.uk
!

THE POSITIVE EXPERIENCE: MARCIANA MARINA
After three days in Capraia, we set course for Marciana Marina. It is 21 miles for 133°. (…) In Marciana Marina we do not find room in the harbor. Here, too, as in Capraia, however, there is a buoy camp equipped with bow and stern trappe for 40 Euro per night. There is even an opportunity to refill water. The managers are very friendly and also do a shore excursion service with an inflatable boat.

THE NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE: PORTO AZZURRO
We decide to stop in Porto Azzurro for another night and ask the moorers on the wharf where the offices are. We are sent to the municipal building. Indeed, a sign here indicates an office dedicated to moorings in the harbor. I tell the clerk that we have decided to stay one more night. He has me fill out a form, make a note (or so it seems to me) on a register, and prepare a receipt for two nights: 230 Euro! But we will see that it is not only the price that is the problem.
I inform the moorers that I have booked another day and ask if we will get the same place back. Then we set sail to spend the whole day at sea. A sirocco up to 20 knots is forecast for the night: we are glad to have a place at the dock. We return in the evening at 6 o’clock and ask for mooring assistance. They tell us to wait but then they don’t call us back. We insist: after a while they tell us that we are not on their mooring plan and that there is no room for us. We protest: we booked and also paid 115 Euro for the second night. We are tired and want to moor. They reply that they do not know how to solve our problem because we have not booked at all. This is not possible; we even paid for it. After a while we understand where the misunderstanding came from. Reservations are handled by a shipping brokerage company. Instead, the municipality handles the registration of moored boats and payments. When I called to make a reservation the day before, I unknowingly spoke to the agency and found the number on the portolan; when I asked the moorers where the offices were, they sent me to the Town Hall thinking I just wanted to pay and not book another day; when I told the Town Hall employee that I wanted to stay another day, he thought I had already booked at the agency and charged me without bothering to check if I had actually booked.
Meanwhile, we are always outside the harbor waiting. The moorers tell us that they did not make the mess and that they are only in charge of mooring the boats that are on the mooring plan provided by the agency, and the fact that we paid for the place in the municipality is not relevant to them. Perhaps, however, when they have docked everyone will find a place there. It is 8 p.m. and we are growing tired and impatient. Eventually, we are moored to the English on the breakwater pier, alongside the big speedboats. The bow exits the pier by at least 3 meters. The sirocco arrives on time and the undertow inevitably forms around the pier and our bow. We dance all night long. The next morning I go to the city hall to protest. The clerk tells me that I should have booked through the agency. I ask him how I could tell that there was an agency where I could make reservations; he replies that the moorers should have told me. I ask for a refund of the price paid or at least part of it for waiting at sea for two hours and dancing all night. After consulting with the agency, he decided to give me half back. At the last moment, however, a person who appears to be the manager of the agency intervenes and, in a brusque manner, says that since I have used a berth anyway, nothing should be returned to me. The city clerk immediately carries out his orders.

SOME QUESTIONS THAT ARISE

• What is the point of entrusting an agency to handle reservations while the service is paid to the municipality, which issues the relevant receipts?
• Who is accountable for the service (or disservice): the agency or the municipality?
• Perhaps it is this complicated and unnecessary organization that is the cause of the fact that in Capraia a berth costs 80 euros and in Porto Azzurro 115 euros?
• Why is it possible in Capraia to moor outside the harbor in a modern buoy field (spending 40 Euro) and in Porto Azzurro not?
• How long will it take and how many more jobs will be lost before we realize that one of the causes of the crisis in our recreational boating industry is the excessive cost, disorganization and scarcity of moorings in the most beautiful places on our sea?