What to do if you are moored in a dangerous condition.

[thataway]

Today Pat Anderson posted about their terrible night at a mooring wall. The wind shifted so that the location was no longer protected, and damage was done to their boat. Fortunately it was not "Cruise ending"--but it will be a pain to repair, and I know leaves a very bad feeling about the dangers of being on a wall where there is no protection.

The fist part is situational awareness--and this includes weather forecasts for wind shifts--it also includes your "gut feeling"--some times this may be a subtle swell change, at other times it is "Too calm"...You may see barometric pressure changes (My watch tells this these days).

The second, is as you choose your moorage--it might be a sea wall, as in Pat's case, or it might be anchoring--you are looking for protection in the current conditions. We always look where to go in worst case scenario--is the wind going to clock 180 degrees, and now what is protected became a lee shore?

Where can we hide if the wind changes, or if the water suddenly rises (such as in a Tsunami or meteotsunami caused by many different phenomena such as a Derecho, or sudden onset of a very intense squall line associated with rapid change of barometric pressure. Some times waves and tides can cause phenomena called rissaga in the Med, abiki in Japan--but also can occur in the Great Lakes! In 1984, we missed one of the rissaga in Ciutadella Harbor, Menorca by only a day!)

When we come into a harbor, we not only look at where we are going to anchor or moor for the night--but also where there might be an alternate anchorage where we might have to move, just in case the wind shifts, as it did on Pat. It is much easier now that we have chart plotters (Radar and a good sounder which shows the bottom is also important). We often will travel around the harbor before we go to our final destination to moor. We are looking at the bottom on the sounder (made even better with down scans now to avoid debris), assessing where we can anchor, and if there are any hazards along the way (floating logs for example--or rocks which are not shown).

After we have tied up, we look around, and see where those sanctuaries are located--take compass bearings, and often may turn the radar on, and co-ordinate the visual picture, with the radar and chart plotter. A number of times I have had to move the boat in the middle of the night. Having already a bearing allows us to start out in the right direction even before the chart plotter fires up or the radar has warmed up.

There also has to be a plan as to when to move. One area in Yugoslavia, we were anchored in, there was poor holding and a lee shore--but it was the only place we could stop. I was aware of the "Bora" a katabatibc wind like the Santa Ana of S. Calif. It was too calm: I started the engine, gave my children and wife each a very sharp knife. I told my family--if the wind gusts over 30 mph or the bow swings off, more than 10 degrees, I am putting the engine in gear and you are to cut both bow anchor lines and the stern lines immediately. We did that, and within seconds were on a course to sea, as the wind was quickly building to over 60 knots in minutes. We could not see the land features, but followed the compass course and radar. We stayed at sea until the wind died 6 hours later.

On New Years Weekend 1964 (I believe) I sailed to Two Harbors for New Years Eve Celebrations. We were on a mooring--and around dusk, I said to my crew--it is too quiet we are gong to sail over to Cat Harbor (protected side from Santa Ana Winds). We didn't get there until midnight--and by that time, the wind was 30 knots--by morning there were 4 boats on the beach at the Isthmus and 8 boats on the beach at Avalon--a number of other boats sustained damage. The wind thru the Isthums was 90 knots in gusts--the sea planes were taking off--going backwards over the land as soon as they were air born.

Another time anchored by Punta Santa Elena, Costa Rico, we had to move 3 times between 9 PM and 6 AM because of the wind shift, in wind velocities of over 60 knots.

We arrived in Cabo San Lucas only a little over a week after an unseasonal Chubasco put about 20 seasoned cruising boats on the beach one night in December. Of those 12 were damaged beyond repair, 5 were eventually repaired. We spent almost a month there helping those who lost their boats, and listened to their, and those who got away's stories. Some listened to the weather, looked at Weather FAX and either left early in the day, or when the waves first began to build even before the wind became so strong that it was almost impossible to get off the beach. Many boats had anchored close to shore, because it was "easy to swim or dinghy to the Pallapas there. Those who were further out, had a better chance of getting free without tangling props and rudders in the maze of anchor rodes which were floating once boats began to break free.

This last March, we moved twice in one night on St John's river because of the wind shift and increased velocity--and this was in a seemly protected area.

The moral of this post is to be prepared to move your boat to a safe place if the wind or sea conditions change to put your boat in peril.

[Chester]

Thank's, Bob.

[South of Heaven]

Bob, thanks for posting this. What were the winds, sea state and type of anchorage that Pat was in? C Dory 25s are relatively light. Even when loaded for a trip I would imagine them less than 9k lbs. Would an all chain rode have helped? A bigger anchor? Bahamian mooring?

[jennykatz]

Jason they were tied up to a wall with fenders hanging down from the 2 pilings to fend them off . Go to daydreams Loop .

Yes chain will help with the right anchor depending on the bottom (sand,mud ,rock ,weeds etc etc)

[South of Heaven]

[thataway]

As JennyKatz noted there were two pilings which Day Dream was resting against. There are several ways to protect the boat from hitting the pilings. Pat had used the most common method, which is tying the fender horizontally across the face of the piling. One problem there is that the boat can get under the fender as the boat rolls or pitches with the wind and waves. In calm conditions this works well.



Pat had a fender board. This is often used to let the wood of the fender board lay against the wood of pilings (of either concrete or wood). The fender boards are longer than the single fender, and can be used with fenders behind them. I believe he felt it was too late or too dangerous to deploy them at the time.

Diagram of fender board from Lake Expo: "The fine art of fender boards"



Another trick we have used is to take "Pool noodles" and attach them to the face of the pilings vertically with large zip ties. You may sacrifice the zip tie, or even the pool noodle, but better than boat damage. The pool noodles are long, so the boat rolling will still be buffered.

One might ask, how to get off a wall like this, with a beam, or aft the beam wind as Pat had. In our boats you cannot power forward off, because doing this will push the stern into the sea wall. It is best to back off: outboard hard over to the side you are backing, and do it quickly. The risk there is damage to the bow pulpit. We often carry a large round fender to hang near the bow, and having the mate standing in the forward hatch (safer than on deck), and using the boat hook to push off.

Another trick I have rarely seen used, is to put a "sping anchor", amidships off to the side. This can be used to hold the boat off the wall. It can also be used to pull the boat away from the wall. Easy to do with a sailboat with powerful winches (and we often did this with our large sailboats--and many large yachts have electric or hydraulic capstans to pull the vessel sideways bow and stern)--but with the c Dory one would have to "Sweat" the line to get the leverage to pull the boat off. One takes a half turn around a cleat with the anchor line--and then pulls up--as you suddenly let go with the hand which pulled the line uo (or pushed down), you take up the slack with the other hand form the line which is has a half turn around a cleat. We put an extra cleat inside the cockpit combing on C Dory 22, just aft of the cabin bulkhead--which would be ideal for this. How do you get the anchor out there? In our larger boats we dropped a light weight (even the 62 footer a 12# Danforth HT is enough holding power to pull the boat off the wall in 40 knots) A small fortress is ideal for this, with only a small length of chain, if any. The other way to get an anchor out is to use the dinghy---unfortunately Pat's inflatable Kayak would not be easy if at all possible in the wind of up to 30 knot gusts he had. This is one reason I like a powered dinghy. It may also be possible to pull a boat off a wall with the dinghy--depending on the HP of the dinghy. Our 3.5 hp or the Torqeedo would do the job in moderate winds for the C Dory 22. Getting the boat off the wall takes a well thought out plan, work and some strength. One may have to leave lines and even fenders behind to pick up later.

When tying to a wall like this, it is often important to use spring lines. If the cleats are not spaced properly for us, at times we will tie around the pilings. I prefer to just loop dock lines and spring lines around pilings and cleats, so if you have to leave suddenly under duress, all is controlled from the boat, and one does not have to step onto the dock and risk falling or loosing control of the boat. We may have older dock lines or use chafing gear such as 5/8" garden hose over line around pilings.

[ssobol]

You also need to compare the scale of your boat to the features of the wall you are tying to. If the wall is such that you cannot adequately deploy fenders or affix lines or there is the possibility that part of the boat can get caught under, hung up on, or between something, then you need to moor in a more suitable place.

In the case of the St. Joe seawalls (which are corrugated steel), they are designed to support the channel, mooring to them is an after thought especially for recreational boats. Due to the scale of the walls you actually need a pretty big boat to moor to them comfortably.

There are plenty of places just around the bend that would have protected Pat and Co, from the west wind. The channel is not that difficult to navigate in the dark if you have a chartplotter. A west wind can blow straight down the channel from the lake.

As can often be the case, sometimes what you get for fee ends up costing you a lot.