blue marble wrecked in niue!

[rebel heart]

We're sitting on a mooring right now. Dove it myself and paid $500 pesos for a commercial diver to do the same. Inspected the block, attachment point, chain, and shackle fittings. Replaced seizing wires.

[JPA Cate]

That picture was taken during a cyclone, around 21 yrs. ago. The Niueans have videos of the incident. Extremely educational to see, actually. We were there just a few months after that, and there were boulders in the swimming pool and ground floor of the hotel on the cliff just south of the anchorage. Impressive.

[Dulcesuenos]

Sad for their loss. Im going to guess no moorings offer any guaranty or assume any liability anywhere?

[dugout]

Originally Posted by atoll

posted on fb for those that have been following the voyage...

What is "fb", I see references to it all the time?

[atoll]

Originally Posted by dugout

What is "fb", I see references to it all the time?

facebook,the social net work

[sailcruiser]

Originally Posted by dugout

What is "fb", I see references to it all the time?

FB=Facebook

Hope this helps!
SC

[dugout]

Originally Posted by sailcruiser

FB=Facebook

Hope this helps!
SC

Oh, I've heard of that, thanks.
Never put the fb together with that...

[MarkJ]

Great shame for that to happen. But they have mentioned the magic word: insurance.
and in the worst case more people to share the loss.

[Cormorant]

I know mooring failures are pretty rare, but does anyone ever leave an anchor dangling just above the bottom (say, at 85' in Niue's 90' depth) -- so that if the mooring fails you'd have something to slow or stop your drift toward ruin?

Keeping the anchor just off the bottom would prevent it from becoming twisted up with the mooring after numerous wind or tide shifts.

I guess in reef areas, the reef may rise up so steeply from the bottom that such a trick wouldn't help anyway.

Just curious if it's ever done.

[SVNeko]

I think a dangling anchor would still tangle with the mooring lines. I wonder if I should leave my boards way down to stick on a reef it Neko were to break loose. Might give us a few extra minutes to do something.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by Dulcesuenos

Sad for their loss. Im going to guess no moorings offer any guaranty or assume any liability anywhere?

Not that I've ever seen. Typically the people with the moorings simply don't have the money to give you in the event of a wreck, let alone getting to whether or not you have legal recourse in their country. If you have your own insurance that might be different.

Originally Posted by Cormorant

I know mooring failures are pretty rare, but does anyone ever leave an anchor dangling just above the bottom (say, at 85' in Niue's 90' depth) -- so that if the mooring fails you'd have something to slow or stop your drift toward ruin?

Keeping the anchor just off the bottom would prevent it from becoming twisted up with the mooring after numerous wind or tide shifts.

I guess in reef areas, the reef may rise up so steeply from the bottom that such a trick wouldn't help anyway.

Just curious if it's ever done.

There's another thread on here about cyclones. We're currently in a hurricane zone, in a hurricane season, on a mooring. Anytime the weather pipes up I'm onboard. I have the anchor alarm set, and it's roughly 1/4 mile to the shore in all directions. I'm hopeful that a mooring disconnect would give me enough time to drop the (ready to release) anchor.

But like I've said, I've personally inspected the mooring chain, attachment, and hardware. I've seen a handful of people do this, nearly everyone else (all of which are "cruisers") tie off to the mooring and call it good. Many rely on what others say about the moorings being good or bad.

[JPA Cate]

Well, I wouldn't do it. Too much chance of fouling on a mooring's chain or line. At Niue, the "anchorage" in question is characterized by a bottom depth of about 80-90 ft. The geography is coral canyons with sandy patches between the canyons' under water cliffs. The place is an upraised atoll. And the water is so clear you can see all the countours of the coral all the way to the sand, but those canyons are very narrow.

Even though they are moorings there, we wouldn't use one. You simply can't count on the wind staying settled very long. We have anchored there in the past, and kept an eye on the possible wind shift the whole time.

People who are used to docking and picking up "safe" moorings tend to underestimate all the ways in which moorings do fail. Hence, Boatman's policy saves him heaps of worry.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Well, I wouldn't do it. Too much chance of fouling on a mooring's chain or line. At Niue, the "anchorage" in question is characterized by a bottom depth of about 80-90 ft. The geography is coral canyons with sandy patches between the canyons' under water cliffs. The place is an upraised atoll. And the water is so clear you can see all the countours of the coral all the way to the sand, but those canyons are very narrow.

Even though they are moorings there, we wouldn't use one. You simply can't count on the wind staying settled very long. We have anchored there in the past, and kept an eye on the possible wind shift the whole time.

People who are used to docking and picking up "safe" moorings tend to underestimate all the ways in which moorings do fail. Hence, Boatman's policy saves him heaps of worry.

though i have sailed in sight of nuie twice i never stopped,due to the geography,where it is quite common to get back winds,and judged it unsafe.

on occasions where we have stopped in otherwise unsafe anchorages,we have allways gone ashore in shifts,leaving half the crew onboard incase a shift is needed.

with 8 crew on board they could easily have done this

[robert sailor]

Shame to pass up a visit to Niue but your point on leaving someone aboard is a reasonable and prudent thing to do especially when your getting west winds. We were there for over a week and never left the boat in a westerly no matter how light.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by atoll

though i have sailed in sight of nuie twice i never stopped,due to the geography,where it is quite common to get back winds,and judged it unsafe.

on occasions where we have stopped in otherwise unsafe anchorages,we have allways gone ashore in shifts,leaving half the crew onboard incase a shift is needed.

with 8 crew on board they could easily have done this

+A1... an experience they'll learn from... and hopefully a few others here... even on your own hook this is the wise path.. even just 1 or two on board will save a lot of tears and heartache..