++ As a novice sailor with one successful charter in the BVI's and only a couple of experience rungs above a credit card captain - I agree with this statement!

I would rather trust a ball than my own anchoring skill at this stage in my sailing life. That's not to say that I carelessly trust the mooring balls, lines and tackle. First night of our charter last year at coopers, snagged the last mooring ball available at the time. looking at the line, there was no steel eye and the line was evidently frayed and looked like a strong breeze from breaking. Told the crew that I didn't like the mooring line and if we could't find another ball we would need to head to Great Harbour Peter island. Luckily another mooring ball opened up and we quickly snagged that. My caution wasn't replicated by the big power cat that took the compromised mooring ball that I left, however. Luckily for him (and the rest of the mooring field!) he was still attached in the morning.