Mediterranean Mooring

[weavis]

Originally Posted by atoll

when still reversing,and sending someone ashore with a sinking nylon line at the same time,if you are not very careful it is very easy to pick up a good 50 ft of line in the propeller before it stops the engine..........

you are then at the mercy of the prevailing wind,often gusty,normally from astern untill you can dive over the side and unwind the ball around the prop!

if you are really unlucky and the bay has a drop off,and deep you can end up drifting with the anchor chain hanging straight down 60-70 meters.

Oh dear lord......... we could be twins...... I have kept my story on this quiet for years, not even strong drink would force it out of me...... hahahahahahaha.....

I did my anchor issue on a windy 'pond' in Indiana where I mistook the depth finder for 28 feet when it was 280 ! feet and blowing a gale...... I got BOTH props..... (ex mining location that was flooded for fishing)

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by DoubleWhisky

Surely swimming the line would be difficult there...
Some would need a survival suit, probably

Dunno about that.... but when its snowing some softies show their colours....mind you 8*C in is warmer than 2*C out....

Drifting the thread here.... its harder to get there than it is to sail there.... the 'gurus' talk it up as the last frontier.... but its not that bad... just observe the rules...
Rule #1 patience is everything,
Rule #2 refer rule #1

[DoubleWhisky]

Originally Posted by atoll

if you are not very careful it is very easy to pick up a good 50 ft of line in the propeller before it stops the engine..........

Floating or sinking line aside, this is exactly the reason, why I'm all for carrying all the line to the shore in tender, making the line fast there and meeting with a tender deploying the line from the shore side

Thank You for sharing

[goboatingnow]

I found the ideal solution , throw the kids over the side with 300 feet of floating line. Point at distant tree. smile . By about the fourth time they jump over them selves.

Worked for us.

Dave.

[weavis]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

I found the ideal solution , throw the kids over the side with 300 feet of floating line. Point at distant tree. smile . By about the fourth time they jump over them selves.

Worked for us.

Dave.

LOL.. and then they become teenagers and start complaining...

[El Pinguino]

Oh dear.... nylon for a meddy moor?... a bit like using old jib sheets to tie up to a wharf....

[weavis]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Oh dear.... nylon for a meddy moor?... a bit like using old jib sheets to tie up to a wharf....

er... its not a good idea?
ahem..

[Toys_with_time]

Originally Posted by DoubleWhisky

After some thinking (and consulting ) I decided to start this thread, dedicated to Med mooring issues.


Tomasz

Thanks Tomasz for your good advice - Med mooring is certainly a testing method. A couple of comments:

Before I moor, and after getting everything ready, I go astern until my stern is nearly aligned with the bow of the neighbouring boat. Doing this enables me to check out the quay for ledges etc, talk to my future neighbours for any local risks / advice and ask them to help with lines, assess wind / current, determine angle of neighbours anchor chains etc and generally make sure I am comfortable with the selected position and that I will fit being 7m wide. I then motor forwards estimating off xx boat lengths as I go until I am at the distance from the quay that I want and let go the anchor. The rest of process then as you describe.

I find that many times I am yelled at as people think I am going to med moor without dropping my anchor but I find that doing this means I am more fully aware of the surroundings and am (relatively) relaxed and prepared. I see so many other boats coming pelting into a harbour, drop their anchor in the middle and then go full speed astern without having done any assessment of their surroundings which strikes me as a high risk strategy.

The other thing I do is use heavy duty s/s springs on my stern lines and rubber snubbers on my crossed stern springs to dampen the surge that exists in many med harbours. I tighten up my anchor chain against these to pre tension them and have wheels on my passarelle to cope with the movement.

Maybe one day yachts will come with automatic self parking like some new cars. Until then I enjoy watching it unfold from a café on the quay once I am secured (although I do admit to receiving an embarrassing standing ovation from a café after many attempts in a difficult harbour when I was a med mooring newbie).

TwT

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by weavis

LOL.. and then they become teenagers and start complaining...

Yeah funny that , the process did falter when they got to about 14. But by then dad got to jump in and swim because by then ( according to them ) they were better at handling the boat then me !!

Dave

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Toys_with_time

(although I do admit to receiving an embarrassing standing ovation from a café after many attempts in a difficult harbour when I was a med mooring newbie).

TwT

hahahahaha... confession is good for the soul. I had a 10 year old girl in a dinghy watching me struggle in Menorca... after I finally got done.. she said "your not very good mr are you?" and motored off...

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by weavis

hahahahaha... confession is good for the soul. I had a 10 year old girl in a dinghy watching me struggle in Menorca... after I finally got done.. she said "your not very good mr are you?" and motored off...

The same happened to me skiing in the Adirondacks , my head was in a snow drift being commented by a six year old.

Dave

[DoubleWhisky]

Originally Posted by Toys_with_time

Before I moor, and after getting everything ready, I go astern until my stern is nearly aligned with the bow of the neighbouring boat. Doing this enables me to check out the quay for ledges etc, talk to my future neighbours for any local risks / advice and ask them to help with lines, assess wind / current, determine angle of neighbours anchor chains etc and generally make sure I am comfortable with the selected position and that I will fit being 7m wide. I then motor forwards estimating off xx boat lengths as I go until I am at the distance from the quay that I want and let go the anchor.
TwT

It is also my common practice, but in stronger crosswind I prefer to go bow forward for roconaissance run. This way I'm not taking risk of touching other chains by rudder/propeller while changing the direction of move.

Originally Posted by Toys_with_time

I find that many times I am yelled at as people think I am going to med moor without dropping my anchor
TwT

Yes, yes, yes ! ! !

Originally Posted by Toys_with_time

I see so many other boats coming pelting into a harbour, drop their anchor in the middle and then go full speed astern without having done any assessment of their surroundings which strikes me as a high risk strategy.

TwT

Good for looking at from shoreside cafe

Originally Posted by Toys_with_time

The other thing I do is use heavy duty s/s springs on my stern lines and rubber snubbers on my crossed stern springs to dampen the surge that exists in many med harbours. I tighten up my anchor chain against these to pre tension them and have wheels on my passarelle to cope with the movement.

TwT

Good practice all
My passarelle is hydraulic one, so I lower it only for the moment of embarking and disembarking the boat.

Originally Posted by Toys_with_time

Until then I enjoy watching it unfold from a café on the quay once I am secured (although I do admit to receiving an embarrassing standing ovation from a café after many attempts in a difficult harbour when I was a med mooring newbie).

TwT

This cafe sitting and sometime commenting, is really nice for afternoon, isn't it?

[atoll]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Oh dear.... nylon for a meddy moor?... a bit like using old jib sheets to tie up to a wharf....

sorry i meant polyester,that sinks very quickly,

we generally use some good quality polypropolene line that floats to avoid those little mishaps

[Palarran]

Originally Posted by Toys_with_time

Before I moor, and after getting everything ready, I go astern until my stern is nearly aligned with the bow of the neighbouring boat. Doing this enables me to check out the quay for ledges etc, talk to my future neighbours for any local risks / advice and ask them to help with lines, assess wind / current, determine angle of neighbours anchor chains etc and generally make sure I am comfortable with the selected position and that I will fit being 7m wide. I then motor forwards estimating off xx boat lengths as I go until I am at the distance from the quay that I want and let go the anchor. The rest of process then as you describe.

TwT

That is a great suggestion.

Usually our neighbor is on deck adding fenders when we come in and he/she can either be smiling or going S$%t, he's not going to fit here.

[DoubleWhisky]

Originally Posted by Palarran

Usually our neighbor is on deck adding fenders when we come in and he/she can either be smiling or going S$%t, he's not going to fit here.

When to incoming boat is to moor to winward of us, we are usually ready with spare fenders.
If she is going to the leeward, we are rather ready to passs her windward mooring line to the shore
Smile helps in any case