Ep 149 Docking, Undocking, and Sailing in Grenada and Carriacou

Tips and Tricks for Med Mooring:

In this 149th episode of Sailing (Yacht) Talisman, we demonstrate (kind of) a specific docking process called Med mooring. In this case, the bow is going to be secured to laid moorings connected by a heavy chain to a helical screw or concrete block on the bottom (ground tackle, generally). Marina dockhands will handle stern lines, and this is always an area of concern as they don’t always know what they’re doing. And in this particular case, which is not really the norm, we had a marina dinghy and driver to handle what would normally be a “Med moor with laid moorings”. As always, it remains the responsibility of the skipper to command the cleating and uncleating of mooring/dock lines.

There are actually three separate types of Med mooring: Med moor with anchor, Med moor with “slime line”, and Med moor with mooring ball.

As the first name implies, you will be required to deploy your anchor (in your “lane”, as it were), and then reverse back into the desired berth. This process can be quite challenging, especially if there are winds and currents/tides involved. Backing in between two other boats, or at least against a downwind boat (using fenders) will help control things once stern lines start getting tied up. Lacking this, the upwind stern line will always be the priority. The proper anchor chain scope is typically about two boat lengths, but as with normal anchoring, water depth must be factored in. Skippers and bow personnel must be willing and able to recognize a bad hand and bail out as needed. Pro skippering skills show themselves most when things go sideways, and the experienced skipper always has a “Plan B” in mind for escape. Note that laying your anchor on the other side of an adjacent anchor and chain is the biggest risk with Med mooring w/ anchor. It might not be your fault in the end, but tangled anchors and chains are the norm rather than the exception in Med mooring harbors, so be ready (especially in the morning when boats are leaving) to run topsides to get your engine idling and in gear against your stern lines if your neighbor suddenly has your chain and anchor lifted. You can often hear this happening from below.

The known issues above (combined with modern synthetic rope materials) led to the use of what are called “laid moorings”, which are set mooring lines that sit on the bottom when not in use. Generally, the docking process is a simple matter of backing into a berth and holding position (for which a bow thruster is very beneficial) while a dockhand lifts and passes a “slime line” to the boat crew. The slime line is commonly a lighter diameter, 8mm or so, that leads to a heavier duty large mooring line laid along the bottom. A crew member walks the slime line forward until the larger line is in hand and can be secured to one of the bow cleats. There are often two slime lines, one for port and one for starboard. Getting a boat fully tied up will entail much loosening and tightening of stern lines in order to get forward enough to tension the bow lines, followed by reversing back to the dock. It is imperative that the skipper be ready to throw the engine into neutral should any risk of wrapping a slime line occur as the small diameter leader is usually secured to the dock and can be pulled up at an angle that puts it near the prop height. Slime line Med mooring is by far the most common way boats are moored in Europe, and the only downsides are that props can get fouled and that ground tackle must be maintained.

Use of a mooring ball in lieu of a slime line is obviously a variant on the above. The only real issue here is that the marina must employ knowledgeable and skilled dinghy drivers, as boat crews won’t be able to hook the mooring ball on their own. Note that longer mooring lines are often required, especially for smaller boats, as the ball will be positioned for the largest boat that will fit in the berth, often 60’. Two dock lines can be tied end-to-end in order to make up the required length.

To be clear, the marina in the episode, Port Louis Marina in Grenada, uses both slime lines and mooring balls, and the mooring ball zone is visible to the port side in front of Talisman when we were waiting for permission to head in. In our case, the dinghy driver simply untied the slime lines from the dock and handled the entire process from the water side.

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