I took a beating on a mooring ball

Hard to believe. We were in St. Augustine on a mooring ball in the north field for 3 nights. After a couple of days of cloudy weather Monday broke clear and slightly cooler. We got out and did some sight seeing and as we returned to the boat in the afternoon waves were breaking over the dinghy bow and I had to slow down. Didn't think much of it. That evening I grilled fish for dinner and stowed the dinghy since we planned on leaving early the next morning. After dinner we were inside and noticed the waves seemed to be getting larger and the boat was getting a bit uncomfortable to be on. I went out side and couldn't believe the wind, I estimated it to be a steady 25-30 kts with the sea looking like boiling water. It only got worse. By 21:00 we were bouncing around like a cork. I went outside to check our mooring bridle and it was flat out dangerous to be on deck.

When we pick up a mooring and because of the configuration of the boats bow pulpit and the anchors location on the bow roller, I pull the anchor and set it on deck because the mooring bridle chafes against the anchor. As I usually do I placed the delta anchor on a small piece of carpet on deck without securing it. The wide delta anchor is pretty secure under normal conditions. It had now become too rough to secure it so it remained as is. I worried about this all night. The conditons never let up and neither of us got much sleep. We were lucky in that the high wind was effecting the boat greater than the current which is usually significant here and the boat stayed pointed into the wind so the boat did not roll much, just bounced up and down. Because the boat didn't roll much and because of the way I placed the anchor on deck it didn't move. We were very lucky and a lesson learned.

I spent a good part of the night thinking about how I was going to secure the anchor when we left in the morning. To leave the mooring field and in order to navigate around the other boats in the field we would become beam to the seas putting the anchor at risk of rolling around on deck. I also gave some thought about how I was going to release the mooring bridle. It had to be brought back on board because it was long enough to fowl the props.

At day break when I had a good chance to view the situation I decided that I could throw the anchor back in the water and retreive it and the chain back into the windlass and into it's normal configuration.

The bow was rising and falling a good 5-7 ft so Debbie and I spent some time discussing how we would be disengaging from the mooring ball. I placed life jackets on both sides of the sundeck that Debbie could throw me if I fell in. I also had on my inflatable life jacket as did Debbie. We had them on all night.

My biggest concern after releasing from the ball was being blown back into the boats behind us. There were 2 boats only about 150' away. Debbie is just not comfortable operating the boat so I was hoping that I could release the mooring bridle and get back to the helm before we hit a boat. We decided when she saw me release the bridle she would put the engines in idle fwd and that would keep us fwd of the other boats.

We were both tied and a little sea sick but ready to leave. So after discussing every thing I thought could happen including using the emer button on the VHF, we were ready. The wind was blowing so hard communication was not possible.

I worked by way out to the fwd part of the deck and once I sat down it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The boat was not rolling much, just up and down. I timed the location of the boat in relation to the bridle and when there was enough space for the anchor to fall between the bridle I threw it in. Initially it hung up on the biddle but I was able to work it loose. It didn't fall but about 5 feet and then using the windlass I retieved it back into it's stowed position. I looked back at the helm and
Debbie signaled she was ready. I released the starboard side of the bridle from it's cleat and as quick as I could pulled the rope in and carried it back with me to the sundeck. The rope was till connected to the port bow cleat but I didn't want to take the time to release it. I draped the rope over the deck as I carried the bitter end back as far as it would reach. I noticed as soon as I released the bridle the boat turned beam to the wind and seas. Although the boat started to roll more I was back inside the sundeck (and safe) before the rolling got bad. The boat turning beam to the seas also slowed it's backward movement which gave me more time to avoid the boats behind me. With Debbie putting the engines in idle fwd the boat hardly moved aft of the ball by the time I got to the helm. When we got about 200 yards south of the Bridge of Lions (3 minutes after releasing the bridel) conditions were back to normal with calm water.

Several lessons learned: First I had no idea with high winds out of the NE conditions could be so bad on the north mooring field. It makes sense though, the field faces the St. Augustine inlet only about a mile away. The south mooring field we noticed as we passed was calm.
Second, I alway tie the anchor down when it sits on deck.

Winter winds are frequently from the N and NE and affect not only the municipal marina but the Conch House marina as well. South mooring area is shallower with more chance to drag. Docks dance uncomfortably in the winter at the Conch House.

I am currently anchored in windly bay islamorada in the keys. we have been experiencing similar winds as you have. This morning the winds are sustained in the high 20's. I am surprised how flat it is here, there are even some boats anchored offshore. I guess the reef here really does break up the waves. Amazing how much difference there can be given the same conditions

Before the city of St Augustine installed the moorings it was not an un-common sight to see boats that had dragged anchor and where up against the Bridge of Lions. The North moorings should be used as you found out only if weather conditions are favorable such as no Noreasters forecasted, that location best used when West winds prevail.

My sister and her husband are on on their Mainship (Harmony) in St. Augustine, having come down from Wilmington, NC. She sent me a note this morning, which I will share part of, just in case anyone is interested. She said the wind was about 30 knots.

Wow, what a night! During the night, this sailboat was torn away from it's mooring ball (outside the marina) and was swept into the Bridge of Lions right behind where we are docked. David was awakened by the hit and went over onto the bridge. The mast was broken off but the couple on board was not injured. Sea Tow came and towed it over to the marina. I can get a photo later of that. You can Google the story on the local Channel 4 News website.

Sounds as if you and your wife did a really professional job in a dicey situation, Tim. I'm not sure that I could have done anywhere near that well!

What a night you guys had!

Here's what the Jacksonville paper said about the sailboat.

The Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine was reopened after a sailboat went adrift and hit the bridge Wednesday morning, authorities told Times-Union news partner First Coast News.

The two sailors aboard were not injured, according to the St. Augustine Police Department. About 4:15 a.m., the sailboat broke loose from its anchor before getting stuck underneath the north side of the bridge, police said.

The bridge was closed down to road and water traffic just before 5:30 a.m., police said, but was back open less than 30 minutes later.
According to police, a sea tow pulled the sailboat back underneath the bridge to be anchored on the other side. The Florida Department of Transportation retrieved the mass that broke off the boat.

Greetings,
A bit of a distinction in the reports...Mooring ball or anchor or is the PD referring to a mooring ball AS an anchor? IF one has to pay for a mooring ball I'm guessing the blow boat was anchored "for free".

Nothing is free in St Augustine !

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
A bit of a distinction in the reports...Mooring ball or anchor or is the PD referring to a mooring ball AS an anchor? IF one has to pay for a mooring ball I'm guessing the blow boat was anchored "for free".

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My sister says it was a mooring ball.

If the winds were still howling when you undid the boat, then thinking the preservers could be thrown to someone was a mistake.

Next time you both should wear it (and the inflatable as a backup if you want) and tie a 100' of rope to you and the boat. Even in 5 mph winds a boat can quickly outpace you if you arent tethered to it.

Why not stay safe and ride it out rather then risk dangerous deck work?

The sailboat which broke loose. (Sorry about the rotation. I do not understand everything that I know about getting it correct).

What a story. Thankfully everyone made it through and the boat was not damaged.


It's easy for us to second guess what you did but I'm sure you did what you felt was best at the time, given the conditions you were under.

what_barnacles said:

If the winds were still howling when you undid the boat, then thinking the preservers could be thrown to someone was a mistake.

Next time you both should wear it (and the inflatable as a backup if you want) and tie a 100' of rope to you and the boat. Even in 5 mph winds a boat can quickly outpace you if you arent tethered to it.

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Do trawler people not fit jack lines? I noticed a total lack of padeyes for harness clipping points when I bought ours. I have a bunch in the parts bin, they're just way down the to-do list.

Good job Tim! Great team work between you the Admiral................

Great story. Thanks for sharing. Glad to hear nothing broke or malfunctioned. It goes to show, that typically, our boats can handle more than the crew.

Seems like you thought it through and communicated your plan well with Debbie. Clear and effective real time communication is always challenging under conditions like those. Sounds to me like you did well.

Would it be too risky to hang the anchor into the water by 10-15 ft while on the mooring to get it out of the way, but not have it setting on the deck? My pulpit overhangs far enough that I seriously doubt the chain or anchor could slap the hull...but I could be wrong.

questionmark said:

Do trawler people not fit jack lines? I noticed a total lack of padeyes for harness clipping points when I bought ours. I have a bunch in the parts bin, they're just way down the to-do list.

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There may be 1 out there that has them on purpose, but probably not. It's odd how power boaters in general dont seem to recognize the need and obvious advantage to be secured to the boat gives. Blow boaters have definitely got that one right.

I see a few apologetic posts after I made my first one. Dont misread my post as a criticism. It was blunt because it needs to be. No harm or insult was intended.

Echo the rest, good job.

How many were anchored in the basin vs mooring balls?

I love to hear about a plan coming together. Way to go; anything else will be a piece of cake!

And yet another sailboat today. The Bridge of Lions seems to me aptly named!

Thanks for relating your experience, glad it worked out, largely due the thought and planning you invested before letting go.
We have been on a mooring ball in high winds, ball pulled from/lying parallel to the water. Scary,wondering how good the mooring apparatus is, but it only lasted until the front passed.
When we pick up a mooring, we follow a similar procedure. Our moorings typically have a single pennant, to get a fair run I remove the anchor and bring the pennant in over the anchor bow roller(often adding a strop to extend it),while standing the anchor vertically nearby on a mat.

Glad it worked out for you. Could have turned out much worse. My recommendation would be to get your wife some helm time so that she does not feel uncomfortable driving the boat. If you had gone overboard, who would have come to pick you up? My wife and I have been boating since we were going together in high school. She never wanted to drive the boat. When we joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary and got into the boat crew program, she was forced to start driving the boat. We were boating at Lake Powell and I fell down a cliff and broke my foot. Sandy was able to handle the boat back down the lake about 100 miles and get me back to the marina. She still would rather that I drive, I think she just likes to enjoy the ride, but she is able to drive in an emergency. She fell this last summer and had to have a shoulder replacement and is still quite limited in range of motion with the right arm. We are bringing our boat home to Michigan from Virginia this spring. I may have to do the line handling and she may have to be at the helm. It just makes sense that everyone can run the boat if necessary.

Thanks everyone for your comments. Everyone’s comment is appreciated and I take no offense to anyone questioning my judgment. If I or someone else learns something from this discussion then we all benefit.

I do want to answer all questions posed as I thought of everyone except one during the long night before with little sleep. The one point mentioned that I did not consider is why I didn’t wear a normal life jacket over the inflatable one I had on. I just didn’t think of it. The only reason I can give is I probably thought the inflatable was enough (it probably isn’t in this situation). We always have 2 off shore life jackets readily available at the helm so it would have been easy to don before leaving the safety of the sundeck. But in looking back, off shore life jackets are bulky and it may have hindered my movement on deck. I am going to give this more thought. Also it would probably be prudent to remove the inflatable life jacket. Having it inflate inside the off shore jacket may have made it difficult to breath.

Tie a life jacket on the end of a 100 ft line in case I fell overboard. Debbie actually mentioned this though we don’t have 100 ft of readily available rope. What she was considering was to tie one of our 25’ dock lines to a life jacket. 25’ would not be enough but we could have made up 75’ tying several dock lines together. But I would not have been able to get aboard even if I was able to pull myself to the boat. Our dinghy stored on the swim platform on Weaver davits makes it impossible to board from the water without deploying it. I would not want to risk Debbie falling in the water attempting to deploy the dinghy. She does not know how to swim. But perhaps the prudent thing to do would have been to deploy the dinghy before starting this maneuver. I’m going to think more about this.

If I fell in the water my thinking went like this. I probably would not have gotten a life jacket thrown from the boat so I would be relying totally on the inflatable I had on. The water temp is in the low 60’s, cold but survivable for 20 minutes, I think. The wind was blowing toward the Bridge of Lions and in our position would blow me toward the marina floating docks right past the bridge. I would have been in the water maybe 15 minutes. But now that I think about this, that thinking may have been flawed. The current would probably have a greater effect on a floating body than the wind and I don’t know which direction the current was flowing at the time we decided to attempt this. It may have well taken be out toward the inlet.

Al mentioned why not lower the anchor a few feet with the mooring bridle outside and forward of the anchor chain. We did just that a few days earlier on the mooring ball in Fernandina Beach and with the current reversing the boat 4 times a day around the mooring ball, the bridle got hopelessly twisted on the anchor chain. With light winds it was not easy to untangle but possible. It would have been impossible with the winds at St. Augustine.

Also as I’ve learned I did not properly tie the mooring pendant to the boat. The proper way is to use 2 lines each tied to the mooring pendant eye, then one line to the port bow cleat, the other to the starboard cleat. I used one 7/8” line, one end tied to the port cleat the other end tied to the starboard cleat with the line running through the pendant eye. This allows the pendant eye to chafe the bridle line which I had considered but I did check the line twice through the evening. There was no indication of chafing on the bridle line.

But I think the 2 biggest questions are this:
1. If we were safe why did we attempt such a maneuver? Debbie actually mentioned this. In my mind we were going no matter what. We did not get much sleep and most importantly the forecast was for conditions to remain the same for the next 24 hrs. I also knew that my decision making skills and judgement would only get worse under these conditions. Though we weren’t throwing up sick we were both quezzie and tied and this would only get worse. Not good when clear thinking and as much agility and strength as I could muster were needed to go out on a pitching deck.
Also as mentioned in my initial post I was worried about the anchor coming loose and damaging the boat. It’s possible it could have been thrown overboard by the rough seas and holed the hull, but I don’t think the chain was long enough for it to reach below the water line. I was also worried about the bridle, but as mentioned no chafing was noted.



2. Why did I put Debbie and I in this position in the first place. Well in my defense when we picked up the mooring ball 2 days earlier I had no idea the sea condition could get so bad this close to land on an inland water way. Also the forecast wind was for 17 kts, way below the 25-30 we actually experienced. Now that I’ve had this experience it almost seems obvious. High winds coming from a clear opening to the sea only a mile away!

One thing I did do that the couple whose boat crashed into the Bridge of Lions may not have done was to set an anchor alarm. I used Drag Queen and had it right next to me while sleeping on the salon floor. I figured it would give us about 3 minutes warning before we hit the bridge. Don’t know if that would have been enough, probably not. I did have the keys in the ignition and the helm light on all night.

I am curious why the couple whose boat crashed into the bridge stayed on the mooring ball. I think they were there before us. I would think they would have moved to the south field, but perhaps they considered it too dangerous to release from the mooring ball.

Comodave said:

My recommendation would be to get your wife some helm time so that she does not feel uncomfortable driving the boat.

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It's not going to happen. She doesn't want to and no matter of negotiation is going to change that.

I'm just happy she has spent the last 3 months on the boat with me and 5 months last year. Our boating experiences are coming to a close and we've had a hell of a ride. She's enjoyed this too, but this is my thing not her's, she's done this to please me.

How many wife's would spend that much time on a boat?

timjet said:

How many wife's would spend that much time on a boat?

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I am a lucky one I guess. This April we will be livaboard for 2 years and she is loving it!!! So far

timjet said:

How many wife's would spend that much time on a boat?

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Wifey B: Me, me, me.

But if she doesn't enjoy it then that is a lot to spend on the boat. It's hard for me to understand anyone who doesn't love boats, but the reality is lot's of people don't and there are things others love that i don't enjoy. It's whatever works for you.

Actually you were better off with just the inflatable life vest. Inflatables have more flotation (35 lb for a good one) than the off shore life vests (22.5 lbs) and the flotation in an inflatable is better oriented to float you face up. Given your situation you were better off with a single line going from cleat to cleat rather than two lines tied to the ring on the buoy. With two lines tied to the buoy you would certainly have had to abandon them.

It could have been worse. Imagine picking the mooring up in those conditions. Practice will improve your technique. The only change I would suggest is that you arrange hand signals with your wife so she could put the boat in gear at idle to move closer to the mooring then at your signal go back to neutral so you could disengage and retrieve the line.

My comments are based on keeping my boat on a mooring for 24 years.

Pilots of necessity have to be good at analyzing dangerous situations. This was an example of that training. In St. Augustine, I think the harbor master should warn the boaters of what would be likely to happen with a northeasterly wind. It's not like it hasn't happened before. They constructed a break water to protect the marina from just such a situation. I have seen waves breaking over the floating docks there.Before the mooring field many a boat dragged anchor to wind up on the bridge.

Thanks to Tim for recounting the events. A good job dealing with the situation.

The biggest learning from Tim's story for me is to always check forecasts and modify plans if required. I do not enjoy bouncing around at night when I want to sleep and if it was surprisingly rough on returning to the boat I would check the forecast and move, yes even at night, if it was predicted to worsen.

When on the hook, and a mooring ball is really a permanent anchor, one of the first things I do in the morning is check forecasts for the next 24 and 48 hours. Then there is plenty of time to move somewhere else if the forecast is iffy. I also recheck in the evening. Fronts & changes can arrive earlier than forecast.

I am assuming reliable forecasts are available, but if not then try something like PredictWind Wind Forecast | Marine Wind Forecast | PredictWind They had a special recently so I took a 12 month pro subscription, and so far I am quite impressed. Twice in the last few weeks I have returned to my marina a day earlier than originally planned due to 25 kn SW fronts arriving faster than initially predicted.