Med Mooring

While we area still refining the system, I thought I would cover the basics of the med mooring system we used. As mentioned, this was not essential at Stuart Island but was an absolute must in Fiordland. The use of med mooring was dictated by two factors.

The first was very deep anchorages – some as much as 40 meters right up to the shoreline which precluded getting a good set on the anchor. We have 100 meters of chain aboard and the big Rocna weighs in at 100 plus kilograms, but that translates to a 2.5 to one scope which simply isn’t enough even with a big anchor.

The second issue is katabatic and shifty winds which can come out of nowhere and rise to gale strength in a matter of minutes. The safest anchorages are often very small and do not offer enough swinging room so the boat needs to be secured in one position to provent it from being swung on to the rocks.

The solution is to deploy the anchor along with as much chain as possible and secure the stern of the boat to a suitable fixed object on shore (rock or tree). The stern line is then tightened so that the boat is held tightly in a straight line between the anchor and the stern line.

It takes some practice and logistics to get this procedure down. Once in the anchorage, it begins with dropping the anchor to hold the boat temporarily in position. We then launched the dink and used it to deploy the stern line.

While we are still sorting out the best way to keep the stern line handy, on this trip, we secured the spool to the staples on the swim platform by putting a broom handle thru the spool of line (150 meters of 5/8″ braid) and clamping the broom handle to the staples with hose clamps placed over a protective layer of sail cloth to protect the stainless staples.

For the shore end, we used a shot of chain to wrap around the rocks to prevent abrasion of the line. We carry two shots aboard for use with the stabilizing fish (should they ever be required) and the our emergency and storm ground tackle.

In this instance, Joe was in the dink and moves to the spot where we want the boat to end up. I then maneuvered the boat to that spot while deploying more anchor chain. Joe then picks up the free end of the stern line and motors to shore with the line.

Then (being careful not to go for a swim), Joe wraps the chain around the rock and secures the line.

A clever trick that Joe taught me was to use a bowline with a quick release in the event we needed to make an emergency departure.

Basically it is a standard bowline but the line is doubled where it passes thru the loop for the final time. It is just as secure as a standard bowline but a quick pull on the tag end and it will release – very slick.

Finally, the stern line is pulled up tight and secured to one of the cleats on the aft deck. If needed, the windlass on the back deck can be used to take up the slack. In flat conditions, it is just as easy to pull up the slack by hand.

Finally, we tied off the dink to the stern of the boat with a loop of line from the stern of the dink tied off to the stern line – there it rests quite comfortably away from the boat.

More as we refine things, but as a system, this worked pretty well.