RichardS
N/A
It seems that every time we pick up a mooring buoy in Croatia we learn another lesson.
As I run throught this afternoon's fiasco perhaps try to see at what point you might have twigged what was going on! It might also help you if you find yourself living through the same experience.
OK, so we have dropped the sails and are motoring gently into a small inlet about a mile north of Milna on Brac.
There are a line of orange mooring buoys about 40m off the shore. OK, this is like Hvar Town where we learned a salutory lesson a couple of years ago the last time we used a mooring. First you pick up the buoy and then you take across the shore line from the back of the boat using the tender.
As we approach the first orange buoy SWMBO shouts from the bow that there is a second smaller orange buoy underwater about 5m from the floating buoy.
OK I say, hold the large buoy clear of the water and get one of the kids to take a line around the bottom loop and cleat it so I can come up and have a look.
SWMBO shouts back that she has raised the large buoy and there is an 8mm line tied to its base as well as the 30mm riser. The 8mm line and the riser lead back towards the underwater buoy.
She gets the line on and I go forward and pull on the 8mm line. This pulls on the underwater buoy.
What the hell - let's just get the land line on (actually several lines tied together as we are a long way off the shore by now. We load the lines into the tender and I ask SWMBO to look for the mooring rings which, like Hvar Town, will be set into the stone shore.
Just as she points out that there are no mooring rings a German chap appears on the shore and shouts something about the "kleine" something.
I don't speak German and he doesn't speak English but from my knowledge of Mozart's music I know that "kleine" means little.
By now SWMBO has had enough of this farce and just wants to drop the buoy and head for an anchorage but I am thinking that we can learn something here so we persist.
"Kleine" must refer to either the small buoy or the small line or both so my son motors forward whilst SWMBO and I pull in the large buoy and just about manage to get the small buoy lifted but it appears to be on a very short riser.
I lean down and look under the small buoy to see a knot of line including another 8mm line going off in another direction and another 30mm riser.
Finally the penny drops. We have two buoys, two risers and two 8mm lines. The two risers are entangled which has dragged the small buoy under the water and the two 8mm lines are entangled but must be some kind of lazy line connected to a series of thick lines fixed to concrete blocks in the middle of the bay in the opposite direction from the shore!
There is no way to untangle this mess from the foredeck so I go over the side to dive down to the small buoy which is a few feet under the surface.
Finally, the small buoy is free and bobs up to the surface to be used by another, presumably smaller, boat.
I climb back on board and haul in on the lazy line which goes on and on and on but is all 8mm. Finally it is pulled tight and secured to an aft cleat but it is still 8mm line disappearing into the depths. An hour has passed and the German gentleman gives us a round of applause from the now far distant shore and we take a bow.
SWMBO asks whether in a blow a 8mm line is going to hold a 40ft, 10 tonne cat. She has a good point but I suggest that most of the force will be taken by the mooring lines at the bow and the 8mm line is only a sort of "stabilier". This seems to keep her happy but I'm thinking the buoys are so close together that f a storm blows up and some boats snap their lines, but not others, then carnage will surely occur! However, as there is no strong wind forecast, I'm not too concerned.
But the story is not over! About 60 minutes ago a chap comes alongside in a small rib and explains in excellent English that the 8mm line is not the mooring line as it is not strong enough!
I wholeheartedy agree but ask "where is the mooring line?" He explains that the lines are much too short as this is the first season the moorings have been laid and there has been a "slight miscalculation" in the lengths but they will be replaced before next season.
I wonder whether the moorings have been laid by that famous English builder "Bodgitt and Scarper" but ask how are we supposed to get our line though the laid mooring line when the end of it is not even visible in the clear water.
He helpfully asks if we have a very long line and, of course, I still have the multiple line from the aborted shore line attempt. He takes one end of the line and when he motors over the mooring block I release the 8mm line from the cleat and he pulls the loop of the 30mm mooring line to the surface and quickly threads our line through and brings me back the end.
Finally, about 3 hours after our arrival, we are secure. I can't begin to contemplate how SWMBO and I would have secured through the mooring line, even if we had known of its existence, but I'm too mentally exhausted to worry about that now.
Isn't sailing grand!
Richard
As I run throught this afternoon's fiasco perhaps try to see at what point you might have twigged what was going on! It might also help you if you find yourself living through the same experience.
OK, so we have dropped the sails and are motoring gently into a small inlet about a mile north of Milna on Brac.
There are a line of orange mooring buoys about 40m off the shore. OK, this is like Hvar Town where we learned a salutory lesson a couple of years ago the last time we used a mooring. First you pick up the buoy and then you take across the shore line from the back of the boat using the tender.
As we approach the first orange buoy SWMBO shouts from the bow that there is a second smaller orange buoy underwater about 5m from the floating buoy.
OK I say, hold the large buoy clear of the water and get one of the kids to take a line around the bottom loop and cleat it so I can come up and have a look.
SWMBO shouts back that she has raised the large buoy and there is an 8mm line tied to its base as well as the 30mm riser. The 8mm line and the riser lead back towards the underwater buoy.
She gets the line on and I go forward and pull on the 8mm line. This pulls on the underwater buoy.
What the hell - let's just get the land line on (actually several lines tied together as we are a long way off the shore by now. We load the lines into the tender and I ask SWMBO to look for the mooring rings which, like Hvar Town, will be set into the stone shore.
Just as she points out that there are no mooring rings a German chap appears on the shore and shouts something about the "kleine" something.
I don't speak German and he doesn't speak English but from my knowledge of Mozart's music I know that "kleine" means little.
By now SWMBO has had enough of this farce and just wants to drop the buoy and head for an anchorage but I am thinking that we can learn something here so we persist.
"Kleine" must refer to either the small buoy or the small line or both so my son motors forward whilst SWMBO and I pull in the large buoy and just about manage to get the small buoy lifted but it appears to be on a very short riser.
I lean down and look under the small buoy to see a knot of line including another 8mm line going off in another direction and another 30mm riser.
Finally the penny drops. We have two buoys, two risers and two 8mm lines. The two risers are entangled which has dragged the small buoy under the water and the two 8mm lines are entangled but must be some kind of lazy line connected to a series of thick lines fixed to concrete blocks in the middle of the bay in the opposite direction from the shore!
There is no way to untangle this mess from the foredeck so I go over the side to dive down to the small buoy which is a few feet under the surface.
Finally, the small buoy is free and bobs up to the surface to be used by another, presumably smaller, boat.
I climb back on board and haul in on the lazy line which goes on and on and on but is all 8mm. Finally it is pulled tight and secured to an aft cleat but it is still 8mm line disappearing into the depths. An hour has passed and the German gentleman gives us a round of applause from the now far distant shore and we take a bow.
SWMBO asks whether in a blow a 8mm line is going to hold a 40ft, 10 tonne cat. She has a good point but I suggest that most of the force will be taken by the mooring lines at the bow and the 8mm line is only a sort of "stabilier". This seems to keep her happy but I'm thinking the buoys are so close together that f a storm blows up and some boats snap their lines, but not others, then carnage will surely occur! However, as there is no strong wind forecast, I'm not too concerned.
But the story is not over! About 60 minutes ago a chap comes alongside in a small rib and explains in excellent English that the 8mm line is not the mooring line as it is not strong enough!
I wholeheartedy agree but ask "where is the mooring line?" He explains that the lines are much too short as this is the first season the moorings have been laid and there has been a "slight miscalculation" in the lengths but they will be replaced before next season.
I wonder whether the moorings have been laid by that famous English builder "Bodgitt and Scarper" but ask how are we supposed to get our line though the laid mooring line when the end of it is not even visible in the clear water.
He helpfully asks if we have a very long line and, of course, I still have the multiple line from the aborted shore line attempt. He takes one end of the line and when he motors over the mooring block I release the 8mm line from the cleat and he pulls the loop of the 30mm mooring line to the surface and quickly threads our line through and brings me back the end.
Finally, about 3 hours after our arrival, we are secure. I can't begin to contemplate how SWMBO and I would have secured through the mooring line, even if we had known of its existence, but I'm too mentally exhausted to worry about that now.
Isn't sailing grand!
Richard
