So you think you are safe on a mooring ball?

Do you remember the USS Stark (FFG-31)? On 17 May 1987 it was hit by two Exocet missiles fired by an Iraqi Mirage F-1. Unfortunately the Captain, Glenn R. Brindel was reportedly in the head at the time. Today I was in the head and the crew started yelling at me "another boat is really close." I yelled back, "we are one a mooring ball, its their problem." Of course I pulled up my pants and headed to the deck. There was another boat really close. In fact it was about 5 feet away. And we were sill on the mooring ball. The mooring ball, however, was not longer attached to the bottom. The winds were light and we were able to motor away to another mooring ball (carrying the first mooring ball with us.)

We tied up to the second mooring ball. There was also a loop of heavy line that seemed anchored on the bottom. We rigged a second line to it. Around sunset we were dancing on the foredeck and I noticed that the lines to the mooring ball were quite slack. You guessed it. The second mooring ball was not longer attached to anything but Reboot, The loop that we had attached the second line to had come free, one end was still attached to the bottom, but the other end and come free. There was a loop in the free end. With a bit of dinghy manipulation we were able to run two new mooring lines through the loop of what is about 4 inch rope. It remains to be seen if this loop is going to stay attached to the bottom. I intend to dive on it tomorrow morning as the weather forecast is not kind.

Fair winds and following seas