After less than 24 hrs on the mooring we noticed some chafing of our line where it was sliding back and forth on the bow roller.
Clearly something needed to be done as we will be hanging on this mooring for at least 4 days with winds of 20-25kts or more. We decided to add a plastic sleeve as chafe protection and also put a secondary line through the mooring eye in case the main line breaks.
The problem was how to attach the second line? The mooring ball eye is impossible to reach from the deck and it’s blowing too hard to inflate and launch the dinghy. So Alex donned his wetsuit, we ran a safety line along the side of the boat for him to hold on to, and he swam to the bouy.
It only took a minute to thread the line (actually two lines tied together for extra length) and get it back on board and tied off. We then released the first line, undid yesterday’s knot tangle and secured a plastic sleeve over the line at the bow. Feeling a bit safer!
The next day (Monday) we added a bit more complexity to the system – there was some chafe showing on the spliced loop end of the line and we couldn’t get a sleeve over the splice, so we used our spare snubber (with sleeve already attached to take the chafe at the bow roller. Not elegant, but hopefully secure.
Monday and Tuesday are the strongest winds – maybe up to 30kts, then easing a little and going westerly on Wed. With any luck we can make a dash for Victoria on Thursday, but the weather gods dictate our movements. For now we sit on board and watch the action as the freight ship, King Islander unloads goods for KI and loads up cattle bound for the mainland.
