Stealing Water!

I think most cruisers have heard stories about some of the things that have been attributed to some of our French boating friends.  I've posted a few blog entries on anchoring etiquette (not) and we have had a few personal encounters with some of them coming into marinas late at night to top of the myriad of 1 - 2 liter plastic water bottles that they carry.  My intent here is not to malign the French but relate a real experience that we had today.

Late this afternoon, after returning from a visit to a local hardware store, we noticed a new boat out on the end of the dock near us.  The boater was scrambling with a hose on a pedestal opposite him and from our view, as we were walking back to our boat, it looked like he was tapped into our water spigot.  As we got closer we noticed that it was actually one pedestal down from us.  As we came up to the boater I asked him if he needed water and he said yes, he was going to wash his boat and fill his water tank.  I asked him if he intended to let the boater across the way from him know how much water he used and he said no.  I asked if he had asked the dockmaster to read his water meter and remove the lock and he said he did not know.  I then asked if he would like me to call the dockmaster and request that the water meter on his pedestal be read and the water turned on.  He said yes, please.

The dockmaster came down a little while later and contacted me and we went down to the slip in question.  An interesting discussion then unwound but the end result was that the boater did not have his water tap unlocked (read not willing to pay for it) and the dock master capped and locked the water spigot across the walkway.

The boater did not wash his boat or fill his tank yet, but I'm going out to read our meter and will check it in the morning to see if the water fairies struck in the night.