A sad cautionary tale about putting your trust in a mooring, or leaving your boat unattended while lying to one in an open roadstead...

I haven't been to Niue, but my understanding is that it is a deep, challenging open roadstead anchorage similar to Easter Island, Pitcairn, or perhaps Saba in the Caribbean... Like Saba, the Niue Yacht Club has laid some moorings to be used by visiting cruisers...

When singlehanding, one of my greatest fears is leaving the boat unattended in such a situation, or in any situation where dragging could be this catastrophic... Always easy to second-guess, but with a crew of 7 or 8 aboard, one would think they might have drawn straws to see who gets to stay with the boat in that sort of spot...

Pretty dramatic video, a couple of things jump out at me... One, as they're pulling the boat off the reef, some of the folks aboard BLUE MARBLE do appear to seem a bit 'casual' about placing themselves in line with the towing hawser/bridle... And, the haulout onto the quay is pretty spooky, I was amazed they had the capability to haul a cat of that size there, not sure I would have wanted to go along for the 'ride' as at least one person did... Definitely not an operation out of the OSHA textbook, that's for sure...

http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2013-09-13#.UjRMMLxKA7A

best regards,

Jon