Stern in docking

Stern in docking or Mediterranean docking.

On our last trip up river on the Caloosahatchee River we stopped at Labelle Florida overnight. The Caloosahatchee river has been dredged and widened and large boats can use it to cut cross the State of Florida and go from the Gulf to the Atlantic. Labelle is a small little town on the river and it has a dock you may tie to and stay overnight for FREE.

Because it is small they require that you to tie up stern or bow to the dock so that more people can use it. This is referred to as Mediterranean docking. What you do is drop your anchor out in the river, set it and then pull into the dock with the stern or bow to the dock. The anchor holds one end of the boat out and the dock holds the other. That way more boats can tie up.

When we got to the dock there was a nice, looked new, 50' boat with the port side of the boat next to the dock. The boat took up over ¾ of the dock. We pulled in, in our little 21’ day sailor. When we saw the sign that said bow or stern docking, we used our little trolling motor to move our little boat back out, drop and set the anchor and pull back in and tied up.

The couple on the big boat watched but did not say anything. We got off the boat and used the restrooms at the park next to the free dock. When we got back there was a person in a uniform telling the couple on the big boat he could not dock that way and he would need to move the boat. The man in the uniform left and the man from the big boat was complaining to his wife about it. There were not anymore boats wanting to tie up, he was there first, and he was not bothering anyone else docked the way he was. 

My wife and I were thinking that it was probably a new boat for them and he did not know how to anchor out like that. He did not move the boat. About an hour and a half went by and the man in the uniform came back. He again politely told the couple they needed to dock bow or stern in if they wanted to stay at the dock. The uniformed man said he would check back in an hour.

We could see the man on the boat was upset. I heard “how does he expect us to get on and off the boat like that” and other remarks. About 10 or 15 minutes later we heard the big boat's engines start up and the big boat backed out on to the river and moved away. It was about a ½ hour before sun set. 

We had no idea where they could tie up or anchor. My thought was with that boat there would be no reason to get off the boat except to tie up, and we would have helped with that. My wife’s thought was:  too much boat, too little experience.