You may want to visit one of the Whitsundays Island Resorts and pick up a mooring Refer to Resort Information or use one of the public moorings put down by Marine Parks. Refer to Moorings protect coral

Normally, the public mooring you would pick on a bareboat yacht charter consists of a large Buoy that carries the weight of the heavy mooring chain...then floating close by will be a length of mooring rope with any 'eye' or a small pick-up buoy with a handle or ring carrying a 'tag' line.

To secure a mooring

Designate one person on your bareboat to grab the mooring buoy or its line, depending on the buoy's configuration. That may require using a boat hook, (a pole with a hook on the end) to extend the reach down over the bow.

1. Pull in your bareboat tender and secure. Make sure all of the tow rope is up out of the water so the prop won't be caught while mooring.
   
   
2. If you don't have a separate 'mooring roller'... lower your boat anchor slightly to hang just below the bow rollers. This is to allow the mooring rope or chain to set properly over the bowsprit and run in a straight line to the bollard.
   Be certain that you don't drop the boat anchor so low that the anchor swings with the motion of the boat to damage the hull.
   
   
3. Approach the buoy... steer your bareboat at an imaginary point two to three boat lengths directly downwind from the buoy. Adjust this offset distance based upon the coasting/stopping characteristics of your bareboat... Lighter and smaller charter boats can slow very quickly. On heavier boats, the extra forward momentum makes slowing down harder.
   
   
4. When your bareboat is almost directly downwind of the buoy, and if your rate of deceleration appears to be correct, turn in a smooth arc toward the wind, idle back to neutral and coast up to the mooring pointed directly into the wind... If you can't see the buoy, have a crew member point at it for you. As the bow of your bareboat reaches the buoy, your boat should (ideally) come to a dead stop.
   
   
5. Use the boat hook to snag the 'pick-up' rope or buoy.
   
   
6. Pull in the rope through the bowsprit over the bow rollers.
   
   
7. Place the chain or rope loop over the bollard or cleat...if it is a buoy you have picked up do not secure by the 'tag line' it will not take the strain...but continue to haul in the main 'heavy' mooring line, securing this line over the bollard then secure the 'pick-up' buoy so it doesn't bang against the hull or roll around the deck.

When leaving the mooring, slowly reverse or let your bareboat drift away from the mooring so you don't entangle the buoys or mooring rope with your propeller... watch out for the tender and tow rope (keep the rope short)... A boat can be disabled, stranded or even wrecked because of the mooring rope tangled in the propellers... damage to machinery can be very severe, with engines being wrenched off mountings, stern gear wrecked and gear boxes damaged.

Drifting while your bareboat is disabled or having to go overboard with a knife to wrestle with a rope wrapped tightly around your propeller shaft can have tragic consequences...so be careful.

Reading the wind
Previously we recommended approaching a mooring heading into the wind. However a slow approach downwind can be an acceptable option in certain circumstances.

This particularly applies if you are short handed, or you have to pick-up the mooring yourself.

With a stern drive or outboard motor you can come in very precisely downwind, stopping the boat close enough upwind off the mark to allow you time to go forward and pick up your mooring as the wind sets you onto it - not away from it!