Interesting Mooring Christmas Tale

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BruceK

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Christmas Day we were on a National Parks Mooring in Little Jerusalem Bay on the Broken Bay/Hawkesbury waters. Averting gaze from the white bellied sea eagle fishing the bay,we watched a Riviera elaborately fitted out as a fish catcher competition sports boat approach a free mooring ball.
Mrs Fisher was on the bow with a boat hook to pick up the pennant, Mr.Fisher passed it by a boat length or so, and dropped the anchor(make unidentified). Depth about 12M,bow aligned to the expected overnight breeze. Hmm I thought...why... then he backed towards the mooring ball, Mrs. F picked up the pennant,placing it on a stern cleat. Hmm...Mr. F following best practice fitted a snubber to the anchor chain.
At that point I figured it out. There was a large aluminum dinghy mounted on the bow with an electric crane, and 2 kelpies (an Australian breed (mostly) working dog)leaping about the cockpit with crossed legs anticipating a run ashore on the adjacent sandy beach low tide revealed.
The fore and aft restraints kept the Riv in position while the dinghy was lowered without risk of damage .And the dogs and Mr and Mrs F got to go ashore.
 
Christmas Day we were on a National Parks Mooring in Little Jerusalem Bay on the Broken Bay/Hawkesbury waters. Averting gaze from the white bellied sea eagle fishing the bay,we watched a Riviera elaborately fitted out as a fish catcher competition sports boat approach a free mooring ball.
Mrs Fisher was on the bow with a boat hook to pick up the pennant, Mr.Fisher passed it by a boat length or so, and dropped the anchor(make unidentified). Depth about 12M,bow aligned to the expected overnight breeze. Hmm I thought...why... then he backed towards the mooring ball, Mrs. F picked up the pennant,placing it on a stern cleat. Hmm...Mr. F following best practice fitted a snubber to the anchor chain.
At that point I figured it out. There was a large aluminum dinghy mounted on the bow with an electric crane, and 2 kelpies (an Australian breed (mostly) working dog)leaping about the cockpit with crossed legs anticipating a run ashore on the adjacent sandy beach low tide revealed.
The fore and aft restraints kept the Riv in position while the dinghy was lowered without risk of damage .And the dogs and Mr and Mrs F got to go ashore.

Ok, I've missed something. If Mr. is lowering the anchor, why is Mrs. on the bow to pick up the pendant that she is putting on the stern cleat? :confused:

Ted
 
Ok, I've missed something. If Mr. is lowering the anchor, why is Mrs. on the bow to pick up the pendant that she is putting on the stern cleat? :confused:

Ted

Mrs picked up the pennant as the boat passed it. She could then walk it to the stern and wait to cleat it until Mr had dropped and set the anchor.
 
Mrs picked up the pennant as the boat passed it. She could then walk it to the stern and wait to cleat it until Mr had dropped and set the anchor.

According to the OP, the anchor was dropped first. Why not pick up the pendant from the stern where the mooring was to be tied off?

Ted
 
I'm confused. One boat length of scope on the anchor? in 12M of water?
 
Ok, I've missed something. If Mr. is lowering the anchor, why is Mrs. on the bow to pick up the pendant that she is putting on the stern cleat? :confused:

Ted
You haven`t missed anything but Mrs. F may have; my guess is Mr.F didn`t tell Mrs.F his intentions. Suggesting they often moor conventionally at the bow.
Depth 12M + boat length 13-14M suggests 15M+ out. Bowball should know :), I think he does, the stern tie was likely doing most of the work with the anchor in the role of a stern tie but at the bow.
National Parks &Wildlife thoughtfully provide well maintained moorings in deeper locations, some bays are 18M deep.
 
What they did makes no sense.
 
What they did makes no sense.
I puzzled while watching, figured it out, and said so in my initial post.
But you say it makes no sense, you must disagree with my conclusion.
Why am I, and they, in error?
 
Well, if it was my wife, she was on the bow to get a good look at the pendant she was going to see again.

I have never done that but have tied between two bollards about 50 feet apart.
 
...the stern tie was likely doing most of the work with the anchor in the role of a stern tie but at the bow...


That's the way I picture it too. Maybe think of it as moored by the stern with a kedge at the bow. But I still can't picture that anchor having enough scope to make any difference in anything but a flat calm with no current.
 
That's the way I picture it too. Maybe think of it as moored by the stern with a kedge at the bow. But I still can't picture that anchor having enough scope to make any difference in anything but a flat calm with no current.
Appreciate the thinking, but the Riv maintained position facing west, facing into the overnight breeze direction. Next morning, while moored by the bow on the adjacent mooring, we pointed in other directions while the Riv kept pointing west.
Maybe it was an Aussie made Sarca anchor which holds surprising well on short scope :). On my reckoning he had about 27M of chain out, plus snubber.
 
I suppose it worked for the Riv, but what about the rest of the world swinging to their moorings? NOT a good plan in most of the mooring fields I have seen. Maybe that field was widely spaced.
 
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