Med-Moor Docking

Approaching Las Hadas Marina and Resort

Las Hadas Marina and Resort

Boats Med-Moor Tied

Vivacious Captain Victor

We arrived at Las Hadas in Bahia de Manzanillo around 3:30pm on January 24^th. Marina Las Hadas is the only marina for pleasure boats in the greater area of Manzanillo including the surrounding bays of Carrizal, Cenicero, and Santiago. This small marina is “med-moor” only, meaning you must first set your bow anchor and then motor backwards between neighboring boats and tie off the stern to the dock (sounds simple, but it’s not). This method saves space and is quite common in the Mediterranean, hence the term “med-moor.” When we arrived at Las Hadas, we discovered that the marina had installed buoys so boaters can simply tie the bow onto a buoy line instead of anchoring. As Leonard motored up close to the buoy, I picked up the looped end of the buoy line with the boat hook; we then attached our dock line through the loop and secured the other end to our bow cleat. As we began to back towards the dock, however, we ran out of line! The captain on a neighboring charter fishing boat quickly figured out this was our first med-moor and yelled over to tell us we needed a longer bow line. Yes we had become the center of attention and the show of the day. We motored forward and attached a second dock line to the first for a total length of approx. 80 feet, ready to try it again. Victor, Captain of the fishing boat, offered to help us and jumped aboard our boat as we backed up close to his vessel. Victor handled the bow line as Leonard proceeded to motor backwards between two other boats; I tossed our two stern lines to the guys waiting on the dock. Thankfully the crew from the fishing boat had been waiting to receive our stern lines and tie them down to the dock cleats. Once in position, slack in the lines are taken up to hold the boat in place. It became clear that a med-moor takes a minimum of three people if not four so we were very grateful for the good natured, friendly help we received from the locals – drinks were passed all around, mucho gracias! Happy to report we now have med-moor experience to add to our boating resume.