Chaos in a crowed anchor bay on Lipari islands

The weather in the western Mediterranean is going crazy. Thunderstorms move across the sea, turning coastal towns into raging rivers, throwing over 60 yachts ashore on Corsica. Twelve people are said to have died. And we are in the middle of it. Only afterwards do we realise how lucky we were. On the Lipari Islands we want to recover from the sleepless nights of the crossing. But August is the holiday month in Italy. Anchorage berths proliferate from the overcrowded bays like cancerous growths. And then it hits us too. When we were the twelfth boat to get hold of an anchorage on Vulcano - and we thought it was the last safe place - another 50 boats came, dropped anchor, hardly left any chain, left the ship to go ashore. Then the wind shifts. We too are rammed by another boat, others drift off leaderless. Screams, the rattling of chains and the cones of headlights waft through the night, along with a devilish smell of sulphur from a volcano that is showing unusual activity. Sailing can be so beautiful :)