Mooring balls at the Bight

Just curious if anyone knows how many mooring balls are currently in the Bight?

There are between 74 to 76 (at any given time) in The Bight itself. Of course, that could change any day of the week if ground tackle fails on any of them.

There are an additional 17 moorings in the various anchorages.

I would have answered never enough if you arrive too late.
We regularly see people circling just prior to sunset.

Thanks for the replies. We'll be there in Mid June and may not get to the Bight till around 6:30 pm....

You can always deploy that heavy chunk of metal hanging off the bow to anchor if the moorings are full. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

I very rarely see all the balls taken in the bight outside of Christmas season. If they are you can slip around to Soldier Bay or anchor.
G

I like anchoring at the Bight - but the water depth tends to be around 40-50 feet in those areas where one can anchor and few, if any, charter boats have sufficient chain. The Bight has a lot of mooring balls and I've never seen both the bight and the mooring fields close by filled to capacity.

In June there are many anchoring opportunities if it's full. I have only seen it full in December and February. I would expect at most 50% full in June.

There's shallower water with a good hold for anchoring over on the East side of Pirates, if need be.

Speaking of ground tackle holding, has anyone ever experienced a failure of a mooring ball? Am curious if most are setting an anchor alarm as a backup plan to cover the possibility of mooring ball failure, or is this considered overkill?

Horizon yacht charters used to recommend testing a mooring just like your anchor. Back down on it and see if it holds. I don't know If they still recommend this practice.

There are pictures on line where moorings in white bay jvd have failed and the boat ends up on shore.

Testing the mooring is not likely to be effective at white bay when a swell is running.

I have never experienced a failure, but I've hooked up to balls that looked like a failure was immanent. Normally they can be temporarily rigged with a dock-line to make them safe for use that night. Sometimes it's just best to move on. Always dive the mooring! You are responsible for the safety of your boat.

tough to dive a mooring at the Bight without scuba equipment

But it's a fun scavenger hunt dive

I watched a cat drift off with the mooring line attached at the bight in strong winds of about 5 knots
I managed to get aboard and start the engines before it damaged another boat. Here's what it looked like:



See https://www.sv-zanshin.com/blogpages/2010/blog2010-12-05.php

Good story.

At your blog site you can see the point at which the mooring line failed.

Looks as if the thimble inside the mooring line loop at the bouy end rusted out and in no time at all the line chaffed and finally broke.

Not to ping on the charterer but that problem was identifiable with a simple inspection after tieing up. I've never found it necessary but on inspection if it looks like the thimble is questionable and is rusting out, run a mooring line thorough the bouy ring, double it up and run both ends back to a cleat ....... Or move on to another buoy.

We have certainly seen our share of moorings which were not up to snuff and the obvious inspections are indeed a must. Otherwise it's just like throwing the anchor and assuming its good. Eventually you're going to be sorry. We have doubled up lines several times in these situations or switched balls altogether.

However, my real question to the other experienced captains out there was whether or not, after checking the reliability of the mooring, anyone is still setting anchor alarms on their GPS as a back up? Heck, does anyone else set anchor alarms if they're just anchoring for the evening for that matter or do you feel secure with a solid anchor site which has been dove and confirmed. I really like my sleep. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/thinks.gif" alt="" />

I've never set an anchor alarm. I back down on the mooring, inspect it when possible and do the same when anchoring.