Anchoring in a mooring field, who was rights?

[sailorboy1]

As I said, there’s only a few of those in Florida

[john61ct]

Originally Posted by Bill O

By the vague description, I'm going to say they are in BVI off Virgin Gorda

Yes OP stated, Prickly Pear Island

[fish53]

Where I live only an idiot with a death wish would anchor in moorings and I don't want to have to tell what I've done when I've found someone on my mooring.

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Mooring buoys MUST be white with blue stripe to prevent confusion with ATNs. Red an white could be confused with other marks.


http://wow.uscgaux.info/Uploads_wowI...let23dec03.pdf

Indeed a Budweiser logo keg might look like a red and white vertical stripped buoy which can mean unobstructed water on all sides, or it could mean do not pass between the buoy and the shoreline, depends on location.

But different places have different color codings. Some places utilize different color coded buoys to indicate the maximum length / size of boat that can be moored to the mooring.

And in the BVI:

Most overnight moorings are white. A few colors are reserved for other types of moorings:
National Park moorings are red, are for day time use and have a 90 minute limit. You’ll find them at some snorkeling spots and at frequently visited places like the Baths.
Yellow are for commercial dive vessels.
Dinghy moorings are blue. There’s usually two of them with a line between them. You tie your dinghy to the line not to a pennant.

In Canada:

A mooring buoy is coloured white and orange, the orange colour covering the top one third of the buoy above the waterline. It may display identification letter(s).

One has to know the local meanings.

[Hoosierdoc]

Originally Posted by Tingum

OP, were you a charter boat? I enjoy watching the antics of charter boats!

Yep!

Have a rather experienced sailor with us though.

I did manage to fall down the four steps from helm to deck. Truly a slow motion thinking event where I was wondering when the sharp fracture pain would come. Fortunately just bruised.

Our boaty ball mooring in anegada was taken by someone else. I have a receipt. Of course they weren’t on the boat when I went by. Left a note. I’m not sure they saw it despite blue masking tape on their transom.

We came back by around 4pm and they were ok the boat. Eventually they left and we moved over to it.

Waaaay more boats in anegada than I had expected.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Very true, but my impression is that the poster was talking about the US. I didn't want someone getting the wrong idea.

No, unless "Gorda Sound" is in the USA. As a former west coaster, I'm sadly vague about east coast and nearby waters geography.

Jim

[picklesandjesse]

I was anchored in a mooring field for 9 days recently in Pittwater near Sydney. I was working on a nearby boat during the day. I found a very convenient spot with plenty of room. Made friends with a liveaboard on the next boat. This country now has so many rules and regulations that it was a way of rebelling a bit I guess. The Maritime patrol boat never saw me as it went past. The guy on the other boat was also breaking the law by living on his boat and we laughed about it. I will be going back to that spot again in a couple off weeks. I hope I just get a warning when I get busted. I admit that I am guilty.

[contrail]

Addressing the particular moorings in question, rather than making huge generalizations, Moor Seacure is a very good company that almost certainly is maintaining, in some way, the moorings in the field the OP mentioned. The fee collectors are designated and the moorings are placed in positions for which a seabed license has been obtained. They are designed to handle boats up to 60 feet in 30 knots of wind, and have a margin of safety. They are positioned to make maximum use of the available space, whilst saving the seabed. during "Off season", many of the moorings have their pennants removed, so they don't get covered in barnacles and growth that doesn't accumulate during the seasons when they are getting normal use. Bitter End, Saba Rock and the Sand Box are all in various states of rebuild and that end of North Sound gets only a fraction of the normal amount of use, these days, which is why I am sure that most of the moorings have no pennants, not because they have been abandoned or left to deteriorate.



I am not sure if there is a law here forbidding people from anchoring in a mooring field, but it is a very poor and inconsiderate practice. Interestingly, about 80 % of the times I see someone anchored in a mooring field, the boat is from a very limited group of countries....they will know who they are! Tradition I supposed, perhaps inspired by parsimony!

[canyonbat]

I can’t understand how anchoring with a mooring ball within my swing radius ever makes any sense. A friend drug anchor at Bishop Hot Springs in B.C. Last summer and wrapped his rode around a mooring ball line. It was several hours of trial and error getting untangled. Up there it is more often a case of avoiding crab pots. Fortunately, the worst that happens with a crab pot is you pull it up with the anchor but still a pain.

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by canyonbat

I can’t understand how anchoring with a mooring ball within my swing radius ever makes any sense. A friend drug anchor at Bishop Hot Springs in B.C. Last summer and wrapped his rode around a mooring ball line. It was several hours of trial and error getting untangled. Up there it is more often a case of avoiding crab pots. Fortunately, the worst that happens with a crab pot is you pull it up with the anchor but still a pain.

And you'll have a fine crab dinner following your efforts since one has to untangle the claws and legs of the largest crabs from your rode.

You might be onto something there. Just as one uses a series of small parachutes to make a Jordan Series Drogue, one could use a series of weighted crab pots as your anchor, thereby performing dual benefits, gathering delicacies and restraining your boat. And one utilizes a float and line to each individual series anchor / pot so as to ease raising your anchor into manageable vertical loads.

Ha, subject material worthy for the start of a new Anchor thread. Either, , or perhaps,

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

No, unless "Gorda Sound" is in the USA. As a former west coaster, I'm sadly vague about east coast and nearby waters geography.

Jim

NOT the OP, the guy who suggested the Bud can.

[canyonbat]

Originally Posted by Montanan

And you'll have a fine crab dinner following your efforts since one has to untangle the claws and legs of the largest crabs from your rode.

Ha, subject material worthy for the start of a new Anchor thread. Either, , or perhaps,

I think etiquette says you should deposit a six pack of beer in the pot before resinking it.....