Anchoring & Mooring, General

Why We Don’t Trust Moorings And Do Trust Anchors

by John April 1, 2007

People are often surprised and even a little hurt when we turn down their kind offers to use their moorings in harbours we visit. They are even more perplexed as they watch us go to the trouble of anchoring outside the mooring field, often in a more exposed location.

Anchor Angst

by John July 1, 2007
A British Vertue 28 weighs anchor after a rolly night riding out a near gale at Bjørnøya (Bear Island), which is no place for anchor angst

The other day I was idly paging through the posts on a cruising forum about anchoring and marveling at the level of energy and emotion, not to mention the sheer volume of posts, that this subject seems to elicit.

What Do You Think Of Mooring Stern-to?

by John February 1, 2008

Question: The Jordan Series Drogue website is fascinating and leads to an interesting question. Faced with anchoring/mooring Morgan’s Cloud for a hurricane, would you be inclined to go stern-to? Jordan makes a fairly compelling argument…although I imagine Morgan’s Cloud is relatively stable as compared to the latest cruiser/racer hull forms.

Mooring Failure, The Loss Of Kantele

by John February 1, 2010
Kantele, a Saga 40 sailboat, lost after a mooring failure at Sint Eustatius.

On 28th December last year a beautiful Saga 40—an English design not to be confused with this boat—was lost when she went ashore at Sint Eustatius in the eastern Caribbean when a mooring provided for yachts by the local marine park, STENAPA, failed in what looks from the photograph to be benign conditions.

Anchoring Decisions

by John August 3, 2011
Chart showing tracks made by Morgan's Cloud in a West Greenland anchorage

[Written on July 30th] Last night, for the second time in less than a week, we got hit with much stronger winds than forecast, generated, we think, by the proximity of the Greenland icecap.

Halloween Storm, Choosing an Anchorage—Part 1

by John November 4, 2011
JHH5II13048_thumb.jpg

As I write, the still gale force remnants of the Halloween Storm of 2011 are howling in the rigging as Morgan’s Cloud tugs at her anchor and bucks to the chop here in Great Salt Pond at Block Island. I sometimes call cruising, particularly when tired and crotchety, “death by a thousand decisions”. And deciding [...]