A prosperous voyage and a happy return.” This was a common farewell among mariners in the Age of Sail, when the young United States was a globe-girdling maritime power. Part of your own happy return will be settling your boat safely at a mooring, dock, or slip. In the last issue, we began a two-part series called “Making Fast”; this installment addresses the security of your docking lines to shore, and we’ll reiterate the Royal Navy dictum: “A round turn saved her majesty’s ship.”
Why our obsession with her majesty’s round turn? Because making fast is only half the task; the other half is slacking away gradually and safely. The bowline is an excellent loop but a poor way to tie up, because untying a bowline under active tension is impractical and often dangerous. Many sailors have lost fingers to snarls of line jerked by a boat dancing in a fluky wind.