Mooring

• Paddling Safety
• Big Ships, Little Boats
• In-Water Survival
• Island Hazards
• Mooring
• Safety on the Trail
• Tying It All Together - Three Great Knots For Use Out On The Trail
• Weather

A number of excellent cruising guides and cruiser textbooks review anchoring techniques and precautions specific to the Maine coast. Be reminded, though, that the tidal range runs from 9 feet in Casco Bay to 20 feet in Passamaquoddy Bay. Some Trail islands are small and offer little shelter for a cruising yacht while others make for a good day stop or overnight anchorage. The Guidebook notes which Trail islands have a reputation as good anchorages (but use your judgment in considering options).

If you enter a cove with private moorings, do not use them (even temporarily) unless you have the owner’s permission. Picking up a private mooring is both inconsiderate and ill-advised (since you never know what is on the other end of that line: it could be nothing more than just an old tire!).

Mooring techniques are as varied as the boats that use the Trail, but the following suggestions may help to provide peace of mind while you’re ashore. If you have a skiff or small boat, the easiest thing to do is to beach it at or near high tide and wait for a later high tide to float you off (Fig 1). If the top of the tide is in the evening it will be in approximately the same place a half hour later the next morning. When the tide is at some other stage, you can take camping gear ashore and then put out a stern anchor 30 or 40 feet from the boat and attach the line near the transom. Use a second, longer line from the bow to a secure point above tide line and give it a little slack to compensate for the rising water.

The tide will then lift your boat and lower it back, leave the boat beached, and then return at the same approximate time the next morning. This system, of course, assumes quiet seas and a bottom that won’t damage your boat. Another simple quick-stop method (Fig. 2) is to drop a stern anchor as you go in to shore on an approximately 50-foot line (40-50 feet offshore). When you reach shore, fasten the line to the boat transom. Tie another long line (approximately 75 feet) to the bow and walk it down the beach, pulling the boat behind you. The boat will move offshore as you go. Tie the end of the bow line above the high-water line. You may have to adjust the length of the stern line to make sure you can reach your boat as the tide rises.

A good system if you are in a deep, narrow cove and have enough line (Fig. 3) is to tie off on one point of land (A) and then let out the line while you row or motor the boat to the opposite point where another line is fastened (B). Then estimate the distance to the middle of the cove and uncoil the second line (b) to that point and tie it at the opposite end of the boat. Walk around the cove, pull on the first line (a), and haul the boat to the center of the cove. Your craft is moored neatly out of harm’s way and ready to go whenever you want it.

If you’re on a small pocket beach with rocky ledges close by on either side (Fig. 4), you may want to put out side lines (a) as well as bow (b) and sternlines to hold your boat in place as the tide comes and goes. (Note: a wood stake can be driven into a crack in a ledge if there’s no other convenient tie-off point. A rock wedged into a crack may serve the same purpose. Please remember to pull out the stake when you leave.) If you have a good-sized buoy aboard, you can rig it to a line and anchor and devise an ordinary haul-off (Fig. 5). At times, this may be the only way to safely moor your boat off a steep-sided island. In any event, be certain that your lines are strong and your knots secure.