Picking Up An Unknown Mooring Buoy ?

[d4raffy]

Not sure if this has been discussed previously - interested in other views.

So you come to a new bay and pick up an unknown visitor buoy. My current cruising ground is in the Adriatic. Sure you can swim down and check the buoy out .... but sometimes the line is deep ... or no vis. Do you just trust hooking up to it and go ashore ? As the wind builds ... Is picking up a buoy really safer than anchoring. I often feel it is ... and sleep better ... but ?? On some occasions when diving down .. i have seen some buoy mooring held together by (what looks like) coat hanger wire !

Should you drop some anchor also as a back up incase the mooring fails ... but you could wrap it up. I have seen this done. What' d reckon ?

[skipmac]

Unless I knew the condition of the mooring from a reliable source OR I dove and personally inspected it I would not trust my boat on it in anything but very, very calm conditions.

If there was any chance at all of windy conditions I would not use it.

[boatman61]

Yup... anchor then find out about the moorings and responsibility/price etc... but in general unless its compulsory... I have more faith in my own ground tackle..
Dropping/hauling anchors no big deal... yet

[Kettlewell]

I learned this lesson on the first cruising boat I owned. We had anchored for the night in our engineless sloop and the wind began to build and build. Since we were new to anchoring we didn't really trust our equipment or technique so we decided to pick up a nearby mooring buoy, which proved to be a real trick under sail, at night, in a black harbor, and with little room to maneuver. I vividly remember finally grabbing the buoy by its ring and pulling it up out of the water, and at that instant whatever was holding it let go completely and I ended up with nothing but the buoy in my hand as we drifted off downwind. Ended up riding out the blow on our anchor, and after that I never fully trust an unknown mooring.

[donradcliffe]

The last time we did that, we ended up on a reef--before we picked up the mooring, we asked the local boats around it and they said it was fine.

[Kettlewell]

Another thing I should have added is that I have personally witnessed many times boats doing things to transient moorings that I would consider overstressing them. Things like four or five boats rafted to a mooring designed for a single boat, or a very large boat on a small mooring, or winding up the mooring painter, below the surface, in the prop and then having to free it with a diver. You never know what stress an unknown mooring has been through. You can tell just how safe moorings are when you have to fill out and sign a two- to four-page disclaimer down in Florida in order to spend one night on a mooring, and it says basically that the mooring owner is liable for nothing and if anything happens you are completely at fault, and you also are agreeing that your insurance company can't go after the town either. Your insurance company wouldn't like it if they found out you were signing such an agreement.

[RabidRabbit]

Your question answers itself. If you have proper ground tackle you should feel safer on your own gear. Unless your at a marina or such, any moorng belongs to someone else, not you. Having to circle around and get you off my mooring after a day or 7 of sailing is going to put me in a foul mood. Two years I built a mooring and spent $1500 doing it, I pull and drop it every season, even know I usually have a slip. The mooring is empty alot, but when I want to use it, it needs to be free.

[Vasco]

I know my ground tackle. I know nothing regarding strange mooring buoys. So I don't pick them up.

Met a lady on a 50 foot power boat in the Bahamas. She told me how they has nervously piloted the boat through some reefs and the odd rock and safely got her into an anchorage which shall remain nameless to protect the guilty. (Bahamas is a small place sometimes). They picked up a mooring and paid their $30. Next morning they woke up to find themselves drifting, outside of the anchorage.

She was amazed that they had drifted through the reefs and rocks that they had sweat buckets over trying to get into the harbour and they drifted out in the night without even a scratch.

Many of the privately owned moorings in the Bahamas are unsafe. A few harbours are notorious for it. I have met more than one cruiser who woke up to find themselves on the beach after taking a mooring.

Once the mooring line parts the boat takes off!! It's not like dragging an anchor where you do have a bit of time to correct it. Do not pick up strange moorings and always check any mooring you might consider.

[Dragon Lady]

Maybe it depends where you are and what you pick up.
The local visitor moorings around Sydney are maintained by government contractors and seem to be well maintained.
I am very reluctant to trust an unknown mooring that is not a government one.
That said we have had an incident where 20 mooring were damaged by irresponsible boat owners who overloaded other peoples moorings by rafting up with large boats which then were hit by a storm.
So maybe you can't even trust your own mooring if you have been off it for a while.

[Jim Cate]

Here is another cruiser who will not use an unknown mooring... or very many known ones!

There are a few places where we have done so... Port Vila, Vanuatu is such, water over 100 feet deep, corally bottom etc. But if we were expecting harsh weather, we would leave the mooring and find a spot on our own.

Something to consider: if the pennant fails somewhere down low, and you are awake enough to try to get under way, you are very likely to foul your prop on the dangling portion. This happened to a friend in the middle of the night at Lady Baron harbour in the Furneaux group in Tassie. As they were drifting rapidly towards the rocks a trawler happened by and towed them to safety... talk about good timing!

Cheers,

Jim

[onestepcsy37]

there are mooring balls in our anchorage that i personally know are held in place by a couple of cheap walmart danforth style anchors. but to look at the size of the ball you'd think they were meant for cruise ships. when visiting cruisers come through i feel it's my duty to call them up and advise them not to pick them up...

[surfingminniwinni]

I would never use a mooring again, our previous boat Crazylady was moored in Batemans Bay on a commercial mooring!!!! A gale blew up, unfortunately we were not on board at the time. Came back to see her heading out to sea, she managed to navigate all other craft without damage. Luck was on our side, as the opposition mooring contractor was able to pick her up and tow her back.
So never again, for me it's the anchor always, I know my ground tackle and I know my anchoring skill and trust that over mooring any day!

[sailorboy1]

I keep reading on everyone diving on their mooring to check it (I even read the same about anchors). Doesn't seem to be very practical in water than is 50 degrees and slity.

Must be nice to be in nice warm clear water to do this all the time.

In my area there are lots of areas that don't have very good bottoms for anchoring. It may hold but you may not get it back afterward.

So I have picked-up a few unknown moorings. Nothing says I can not back down on the mooring to check it's basic condition. And nothing says you can not set your anchor alarm while on a mooring.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, d4raffy.

[d4raffy]

Originally Posted by d4raffy

Not sure if this has been discussed previously - interested in other views.

So you come to a new bay and pick up an unknown visitor buoy. My current cruising ground is in the Adriatic. Sure you can swim down and check the buoy out .... but sometimes the line is deep ... or no vis. Do you just trust hooking up to it and go ashore ? As the wind builds ... Is picking up a buoy really safer than anchoring. I often feel it is ... and sleep better ... but ?? On some occasions when diving down .. i have seen some buoy mooring held together by (what looks like) coat hanger wire !

Should you drop some anchor also as a back up incase the mooring fails ... but you could wrap it up. I have seen this done. What' d reckon ?

....Just to clarify & add post some comments so far ......

in Croatia for example, there are numerous bays with buoys - often restaurant or land owner laid. Small towns are also increasingly filling bays with revenue generating buoys that restrict anchoring altogether. ('visitor' RabidRabbit - I am not talking about taking private buoys or not paying dues)

Would you drop a hook as well .... just in case .... ?