Many years ago at Marina Cay I watched a charter captain in a monohull pick up a mooring by himself. He rigged the mooring line from the bow and ran it back to the helm. He then pulled up alongside the ball, grabbed the loop with the boat-hook and tied on. He popped it in reverse for a second and was soon hanging off the mooring from the bow.

I've thought about doing this with a big carabiner. Once you're hooked on you have all the time in the world to make it pretty or more permanent.