I'd have my mooring line ready in the cockpit and pull up so you can reach the buoy from there. Slip your line through the eye on the mooring line and walk the end to the fore deck (both lines outside everything) where the other end is tied. Shorten it up to the appropriate length as the boat's bow comes around to the buoy. Easy peasy.

 

Moorings have pennants on them in the harbor and under the bridge
Stop the boat bow upwind so it floats back into the mooring as you move forward.
use a boat hook to capture the pennant and slip it around the forward cleat.
now you can take time to tidy up, place it through a chock to the cleat.
You can run a dock line attached to cleat on both sides of the bow through the pennant , however be aware
Of chafe issue and it’s length as the moorings are spaced close together. I usually only do this if it is very windy
And rough to allow some of the up and down bouncing of the short scope on the mooring to be compensated

Have fun there. There is a water taxi For a fee which will pick you and your son up to go ashore and get some ice cream. Wednesday night is the best nights as the Wednesday night racers sail right through the mooring field to the finish line at the Spa cCreek bridge.

Weekends are difficult or impossible to get moorings in season . You may need to go early and cruise around for a hour or remember there are moorings under the bridge.

some who are there fore the weekend and want to go out and sail will leave their dinghy attached to the mooring to prevent someone from taking it. Harbor master will stop by to collect fee which includes showers on shore below their office,.

 

Moorings have pennants on them in the harbor and under the bridge
Stop the boat bow upwind so it floats back into the mooring as you move forward.
use a boat hook to capture the pennant and slip it around the forward cleat.
now you can take time to tidy up, place it through a chock to the cleat.
You can run a dock line attached to cleat on both sides of the bow through the pennant , however be aware
Of chafe issue and it's length as the moorings are spaced close together. I usually only do this if it is very windy
And rough to allow some of the up and down bouncing of the short scope on the mooring to be compensated

Have fun there. There is a water taxi For a fee which will pick you and your son up to go ashore and get some ice cream. Wednesday night is the best nights as the Wednesday night racers sail right through the mooring field to the finish line at the Spa cCreek bridge.

Weekends are difficult or impossible to get moorings in season . You may need to go early and cruise around for a hour or remember there are moorings under the bridge.

some who are there fore the weekend and want to go out and sail will leave their dinghy attached to the mooring to prevent someone from taking it. Harbor master will stop by to collect fee which includes showers on shore below their office,.

Ok, thanks! So there's a pennant floating next to the ball? Should be relatively simple picking that up myself. capta's method sounds good. If I don't have to leave the cockpit I'll have control up until I grab the mooring, so minimal chance of bumping into stuff.. If it's very calm the way you describe would probably be fine too, if I can be reasanbly sure I'll drift close enough to the mooring to grab it.

I'd probably go for the ones up spa creek, since we don't really need to be right in front. Water taxi in for ice cream and a bite sounds great!

Good tip on wednesdays, that would be cool. I suspected weekends would be hard to get a spot, especially since we'd get there later. I was thinking taking off a day and coming in friday afternoon, but that might be rough too if it's a nice in-season weekend. Maybe should consider some more days off and go during week to be safe. Not sure what I'd do if came in at 4pm and couldn't get a spot. Definitely need a plan B and C..

 

Z

 

I saw the floats but no reason to put a line through the pennant. We picked one up and put the line around the cleat.
That’s a dumb way to do things if that’s what they are encouraging. Some nimrod will probably make too long a loop and allow the boat to drift back into another one. The moorings are pretty close. Not all boats fall back at anchor the same as we know. If everyone uses just the pennants and cleats there is no way they can hit each other.

all the moorings in the LI Sound we took have floats or long whip antannes on the with a loop in the end of the pennant to put over your cleat. You stash the antenna on your deck. Makes it I understands taking your son as the harbor is pretty neT to grab one as you don’t need to fish with you boat hook.

leave it to Annapolis to devise a counter productive system.

I understand taking your son to the Annapolis Harbor as it’s a neat place and would hold his attention
We purposely stay away except the shoulder seasons.
My friends there report that very few people with masks or socially distancing
I was downtown Annapolis a week ago and can report only about 50% had masks on.


That’s too bad about the free Navy moorings
I wonder if that’s just crowded Weems or Clements too
We picked up a mooring ball twice this year and never saw a LEO

 

A few weeks ago I was out single-handing and happened to be in Annapolis Harbor as a thunderstorm was coming my way. I grabbed a mooring to wait for the storm to pass. Basically, I did what everyone else said in terms of stopping the boat head to wind with the mooring ball next to the bow. I used my boat hook to grab the pennant on the mooring, which was a total mess (covered in slime and barnacles.) and then grabbed the steel eye on the buoy with my boat hook. I held the boat and buoy together while I passed the end of a dockline through the eye on the buoy. (Before shooting up to the buoy, I had placed the eyesplice on the dockline fast to the cleat on port side of the bow and pased the line around to starboard.) After passing the dockline through the eye on the mooring I tied off the other end of my dockline on the starboard side. I was only planning to stay for maybe a half hour so was not all that concerned with chafe. If I was staying longer I would have used a different dockline which has chafe gear already on it that is roughly 12 feet from the eye splice and would have pulled that dockline through so the chafe gear rode on the eye on the buoy.

Once the storm had passed and I had a quick snack, I raised the mainsail. pulled my dockline free of the mooring, unfurled and backed the jib, and had a lively sail home.

Jeff

 

A few weeks ago I was out single-handing and happened to be in Annapolis Harbor as a thunderstorm was coming my way. I grabbed a mooring to wait for the storm to pass. Basically, I did what everyone else said in terms of stopping the boat head to wind with the mooring ball next to the bow. I used my boat hook to grab the pennant on the mooring, which was a total mess (covered in slime and barnacles.) and then grabbed the steel eye on the buoy with my boat hook. I held the boat and buoy together while I passed the end of a dockline through the eye on the buoy. (Before shooting up to the buoy, I had placed the eyesplice on the dockline fast to the cleat on port side of the bow and pased the line around to starboard.) After passing the dockline through the eye on the mooring I tied off the other end of my dockline on the starboard side. I was only planning to stay for maybe a half hour so was not all that concerned with chafe. If I was staying longer I would have used a different dockline which has chafe gear already on it that is roughly 12 feet from the eye splice and would have pulled that dockline through so the chafe gear rode on the eye on the buoy.

Once the storm had passed and I had a quick snack, I raised the mainsail. pulled my dockline free of the mooring, unfurled and backed the jib, and had a lively sail home.

Jeff

Oops I forgot to mention whoever is grabbing the mooring gets a pair of latex gloves....the pennants can be downright disgusting

 

IIRC the pennant was about 1” dia three-strand, too big to make a cleat hitch (or even a wrap) on our cleats. (No way a 23 footer will have big enough cleats either.) That, plus the pennant was filthy and I didn’t want it on my boat. The first time we approached the mooring after they changed to the thimbles (without a mooring line ready), we had to circle around again to get the line out and nearly lost the ball because others were hovering.

I strongly suggest that Scandium get a line out ahead of time and be prepared to use it.

 

IIRC the pennant was about 1" dia three-strand, too big to make a cleat hitch (or even a wrap) on our cleats. (No way a 23 footer will have big enough cleats either.) That, plus the pennant was filthy and I didn't want it on my boat. The first time we approached the mooring after they changed to the thimbles (without a mooring line ready), we had to circle around again to get the line out and nearly lost the ball because others were hovering.

I strongly suggest that Scandium get a line out ahead of time and be prepared to use it.

What TakeFive said. Can't just drop the pendant on the cleat any more, and we found out in exactly the same way he did with almost the same result of loosing the ball. It gets cut throat as they become scarce in the afternoon. It is a good idea to try to arrive close to check out time or earlier and hope to catch a boat departing.

To pick up a ball these days the best routine now is to fix a line to a bow cleat on one side then lead it fair outside around to the other side so it is ready to form a bridle. Pull up into the wind (I go with the bow a bit past the ball) walk to the bow, hook the pennant with a boat hook and pass the running end of the line through the eye, drop it and adjust your line to length and you have a bridle. This largely avoids the mess since if you are quick only the boat hook and your dock line touch the pennant. If I had a larger boat, or was expecting serious weather ,I'd double the line back to the same cleat and run a second line the same way on the other side for 2 independent attachments.

 

Z

 

No lots of people get there Friday for the weekend.
If full there and under the bridge you can usually find a mooring down Back Creek by Jabins

 

Man that's frustrating. Dont' these people have jobs or something! Geez, some of use have limited vacation time.. Looks like I'll have to take couple days off to get an annapolis mooring. Will some day, but for now I'm instead planning a trip to local anchorage, with fewer crowds and more space.

 

Plenty of nice anchorages around.
Some people enjoy the crowds and spectacle of Annapolis
Some people enjoy peace and quiet

 

Jeff is correct. There was nothing personal in my intent.

Last time I took a mooring was on Wednesday at the end of May when the quarantine was lifted. We wanted to eat and watch the Wednesday night races as it cones through the mooring field.

Last time on a weekend I took a mooring was right before a had my knee replaced last November.

I use the fuel dock in the harbor to do pump outs and fuel as it’s the closest one to our marina on Whitehall Creek.
I probably am present in that anchorage at different times more times in one year, than you have been there in totality.

in addition I have lots of friends, some who I used to race with in the marinas surrounding the harbor so while I’m not an expert I feel that my opinion about what is essentially my home port does carry some validity . Annapolis is the home port on the stern of Haleakula. My wife and I got engaged on the City Dock on March 6 , 2005. We frequent stores there as well as restaurants there as they are close to our marina ( most not in dock area , because they are not good food, but good drinking places)

I was giving what I though was honest advice. I suggested alternatives to Scandium as he’s on a small 22 ft boat with just his son, and I didn’t want him not to have a plan B in case he got there and there were no spots available. It was me who suggested the moorings under the Spa Creek bridge and on Back Creek. I also warned where not to anchor like the sea wall, because as Jeff pointed out we are close and any “accident” or incidents that happen there are local and get around our marina. I suggested some of the other Creeks on the Severn. I’m kind of flabbergasted about your angry post as Annapolis to me is like Rock Hall is to you. I’m not afraid to be critical about it. So who is the subject matter expert about Annapolis, someone who goes 3 times a year or someone who basically keeps his boat there.
I’ll bet JeffH who more PC than I am doesn’t share all or maybe not even any of my opinions about Annapolis. He even works there. But that’s what they are.....OPINIONS.

it seems it is you who is taken it personally as it’s one of the few places you have tried besides Eagles Nest and Cacaway since you’ve moved your boat to Rock Hall. I didn’t intend on hitting a nerve or making it personal. I was trying to give an honest opinion of Annapolis Harbor as I saw it.

my last FYI . The word around our marina is that there is not a lot of social distancing there especially after 6 PM and it still remains crowded on weekends in spite of Covid with lots of 20-40 on top of each other. To be honest...not a safe place for my age group to visit right now.

 

I agree with much of what you said about Annapolis in your post, but...

...as it's one of the few places you have tried besides Eagles Nest and Cacaway since you've moved your boat to Rock Hall...

...your intent to demean me is on full display with this statement, which is totally false BS. Stop it. Please.

 

I have offered to move on , both here and by sending YOU a post in a PM ( as I thought we were friends) and so others here who came to this sailing forum don’t have to be bothered with this irrelevant squabble. And Yes, I also copied JeffH a moderator and friend of both of ours. I guess I assumed that moving to PM , it would resolve. 🕊🕊But I assumed wrong.

You could have answered me back by responding to my PM and taken it out of the public forum as I attempted to do so as not to involve bystanders and lower the rhetoric, but instead you continue to chose to chirp ( demean or is it embarrass ) me in the public forum route. Not sure the point your making by doing that or even why. 🤯🙁.

We are not going to agree that’s evident. Let it go, please.

 

what did I start... Please keep your own discussion to PM.. thanks.

I appreaciate all the info about Annapolis, whatever it may be. I certainly intent to find a time to go there regardless, but also have a plan B and C in case the place is full. I'm also aware from other places (e.g. Reddit r/maryland) that the "social life" there is a bit more crowded, and maskless than I like. So we'd take precautions and not linger in town too long. Or wait till things hopefully improve, soon..