Picking up a mooring 3.

If remaining on a buoy for any length of time, always use two mooring lines in case one fails or chafes through.

If you are using your own rope through a ring on the top of the buoy, never leave it in a single loop through the ring and back on board. This can cut through in less than 20 minutes especially if the boat is working up and down in small waves. Instead the rope must be passed twice through the ring and either tied of with two half hitches or a bowline. This extra turn prevents the rope moving on the ring (which will be rusty and rough), thus preventing chafe.

Last year, I saw a boat in Braye harbour (Alderney) which had been left unmanned for a couple of hours. On the crew's return, they found their mooring line (that was just passed once through the buoy's ring) had chafed down to a single strand of about 3m thickness. If that had gone, the boat would quickly have been blown out to sea!

 

 

 

 

 

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