Med Mooring … to a cliff
Making our way to Marmaris, with a practice stop in Serce Koyu - mooring to a cliff here we come!
Datca to Serce Koyu
April 14, 2025
Having never anchored stern to rocks I can say I was not looking forward to the first time. We chose a windless day (for the Med) in a very empty bay and embraced the challenge with calm determination. Summary - it took three attempts and 1.5 hours, but we did it and held nicely all night.
Step 1 The Trick….
Drop the anchor in shallow enough water to adequately secure the boat. Today we dropped in 75’ requiring 225’ of chain (3 x not 5x due to sharp incline of seabed under the water which reduces chance of anchor slipping) to secure the anchor by reversing the boat at 2000rpm and not moving backward … with cliffs just a few hundred feet behind you.
Step 2 Securing the Stern lines.
Selecting a rock and attaching the chain to it has its challenges. These rocks are razor sharp!
April 24, 2025
Next Chance To Practice - Gocek, Turkiye
Gocek, a small town with six major marinas ($250+ per night for a 54’ slip) is an ideal location to practice our new stern to cliff anchoring skill, with miles of empty shoreline cliffs available before high season kicks in.
Again, we dropped and set our anchor, backed up as straight as possible. Wind was 10 kts on our beam.
We tied the port line to a rock which worked nicely until the next evening just about sunset (of course) a squall blew in. The waves and rocking of the line dislodged the chain off the rock. Ken went out in the dingy as the lightening show began to locate a new rock to attach the line. Except for the weather it was non-eventful.
We secured the upwind starboard line first.
While it doesn’t look close, we are one boat length from going aground. Not much time to correct a slipping anchor. We understand why the Turks and Greeks made sacrifices to Poseidon!
Standing at the stern of the boat, using a lazer rangefinder that golfers use, we measured 82’ to the rocks.
One happy Captain.
Write here