So how *do* you get a day sail when on a cruise?

shmoo

shmoo

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I now know there is a strong consensus, as well as a number of good reasons, why I shouldn't buoy my anchor and go for a day sail [Etiquette of leaving a buoyed anchor for a day sail? ]. However that leaves me with a problem and I wonder if forum has any solutions (or even recognizes the problem - it may just be me!)

Like many people we like to cruise in an area somewhat distant from where we live. We do the passage from the East Coast to e.g. western Brittany almost like a delivery trip: hard nose it round the Forelands whatever the weather (well, almost); only stop long enough to see out foul tides, do 24 or even 36 hour legs running watches across the Western Approaches dodging big ships. When we get to the cruising area we want to have a bit of a holiday and do a different sort of sailing. More like playing with the boat.

The question put simply is this: When on a cruise, how does one go for day sail, with reasonable confidence of finding the berth/mooring/anchor space clear on return so we can make a 19:30 dinner booking ashore?

Are there any solutions? "No" is an acceptable answer, but I thought it worth asking the question.
 
I can think of very few coastal anchorages which can be "full up", just you might have to anchor with less shelter, deeper water or stronger tidal stream so you might have to put up with a less comfortable night.

Of course river anchorages can be limited, and each have their own problems, where there are harbourmasters they may take a dim view of unattended buoys appearing and you may not be popular if you put a buoy in the middle of a fairway. The best spots tend to have permanent morings anyway so best to try to borrow or hire one officialy via harbourmaster or yacht club with permission to leave your dinghy on it.
 
Leave the mother ship where she is and go exploring by dinghy /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Seriously, some great days can be had pootling about in the rubber dub unrestricted on draft, a quiet row up on the flood, a stop for a walk, lunch, picnic etc and scoot back on the ebb. If it's a nice day, spend it ashore or moving to the next port for lunch and back for dinner.

Personally if you're going for a daysail, I think you can expect to loose your prime position...Sorry
 
[ QUOTE ]
When on a cruise, how does one go for day sail, with reasonable confidence of finding the berth/mooring/anchor space clear on return so we can make a 19:30 dinner booking ashore?

Are there any solutions?

[/ QUOTE ]
It is like driving down to the local High Street on a busy Saturday afternoon and expecting to have a reserved parking bay by leaving a road cone, the night before, in one of the areas which are not yellow lined. Not the done thing. Personally, I move the road cones to the pavement. The only exceptions are official highways or police road cones or draysmen cones outside a pub. Pubs must never be allowed to run dry!

Same goes at sea, no one has a divine right of anchorage. The only answer is to get there earlier than everyine else. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

"The early seagull gets the best fishes"
 
I have to recommend change of cruising area. If you come to sail in the Finnish archipelago there are thousands of island - big part of them are uninhabited.
During the day just go sailing and in the afternoon just anchor in a protected place. No tidal stream, no tide, no hassle.

/forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
Just an idea, but if you tell the moorings master what you want to do, you might get put onto a vacant resident's mooring. Then if you leave your dinghy on the buoy, put a string across the berth, leave a sign board or whatever, it will appear to the casual visitor just the same as if a permanent resident had gone off for a day sail - and no one would take issue with that.

Probably more acceptable if you've booked the berth for at least a couple of days, and important to let harbour staff know when you leave that you're intending to return to that particular berth, otherwise they'll assume you've gone (paid in advance or not) and will let the berth to some other visitor.
 
Re: Boat etiquette??

As the response has shown, this isn't about 'etiquette' at all, it's about what to do in cruising grounds which have become so congested that the Law of the Jungle applies!

I would never leave a buoyed anchor behind expecting to return and use it again - yes, I do have spares on board - but circumstances certainly will have changed and it might not even be the best place to return to.
Booking meals ashore impose concomitant restraints on your lifestyle so do wise up and adapt to them.
Using the dinghy to explore is one option (and one that actually sails is a real bonus), dining aboard is another, but a full header tank defies polite comment!
 
[ QUOTE ]
When on a cruise, how does one go for day sail, with reasonable confidence of finding the berth/mooring/anchor space clear on return so we can make a 19:30 dinner booking ashore?

[/ QUOTE ]
You don't - You simply take your chances like the rest of us!

Here is some useful advice - don't book dinner for 19:30, book it when you are back on on your favorite buoy! Sorted.

Mind you, just if case your not sure what meal you might fancy later, just book a table in lots of restaurants before you leave, all for 19:30, you can then decide which when you get back. Sod the others. You get my drift.....

I'm sure your a thoroughly nice chap really or you would not be asking the Q!

However, if your still determined to capture a buoy after reading all replies, I am sure you can pick-up a couple of WW2 sea mines on Ebay that you could lay just before leaving - warning notices deployed of course, your not a murderer! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Never had a problem you just squeeze in somewhere.

Thats living aboard from the Ionian to the Carib and back, we did many day sails returning to the same harbours. I've also been anchored whilst at some big racing regatta's where space is pretty limited and you awlays find somewhere to squeeze in.

We never booked ahead so its' the same problem everywhere you stop it may be full, but in practice I've only seen one harbour completely full, but that had lock gates and it really was completely wall to wall rafted 8 deep...that was Ile De Re, St Martin in August. There was still a pontoon outside the entrance for those that didn't make it.

Somehwere I have a photo I took from the top of the mast showing how little room there was left.
 
I guess a lot of matelots know the rule - get in by 1600 hrs or by 2000 hrs. Not in between.

On the basis that spots are usually available in good weather until 1600 hrs, followed by the melee of the angst-ridden seeking after the "perfect spot". Note with curled lip the owners (mostly Brits) who leave their rubber ducks on the outside, casually of course, to deter alongside moorers... Ha!

If it's great sailing, relax, forget the 1600 hrs gateway and make landfall by 2000hrs in time to sigh at the sight of so many boats already landed. Raft comfortably on the outside, elbowing their rubber duck aside, and slip ashore for a meal.

Above all, leave the angst to others (mainly sporting blue dusters, of course)...you're on holiday after all.

PWG
 
I have sailed many times to France and stayed in marinas each time, and had no idea that you could not book in for several nights and go for day sails with your pontoon berth not reserved for your return, are you sure this is the case??
RGH
(excuse my ignorance)
 
[ QUOTE ]
It is like driving down to the local High Street on a busy Saturday afternoon and expecting to have a reserved parking bay by leaving a road cone, the night before, in one of the areas which are not yellow lined.

[/ QUOTE ]

Absurd idea, indeed! All one need do is send a liveried footman to reserve one's space.
 
here's some ideas

on mooring bouys
1. Buy a marker pen and write "PRIVATE" on the mooring buoy. That clears at least 80% of people.
2. Buy a kids dinghy, atach that to the empty mooring with a bucket of ewater in to stop it flipping. Write PRIVATE on the mooring.
3. Start believing it's really your mooring. When someone else takes it, shout a lot from your bows, especially if you've written PRIVATE on it.


Al the same applies to a marina berth moorin, with the addition of leaving piles of mooring ropes, which normally means the berth is "taken". Otherwise a call to the maina office that you plan a "petit promenade en mer".

otherwise, there's that big metal thing at the front with a big chain, perhaps go mental and use that?
 
Sadly, in these days of crowded moorings/anchorages, I think the answer is - "You suffer like every one else". People will probably argue that, if you day-sail from anchorage to anchorage, and start early each day, this problem does not arise. I would love to be able to offer a solution because, if I could, it would mean being able to return to the UK and sail UK waters in the same way I do the Eastern Med - sadly it is not to be.
 
easy!

blow up your dinghy.

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