How to pick up this tricky mooring solo?

Q John has been sailing with friends for many years but has finally decided to buy his own yacht.

- JAMES STEVENS

It is a 10m cruiser racer which he reckons will be light enough to sail single-handed, as his partner has shown little interest in yachting.

Apart from crewing on yachts John has sailed dinghies and has completed the RYA Day Skipper practical course, but he has little skippering experience.

He is on his first solo voyage, very sensibly taking everything slowly and carefully. He has decided that his first stop will be a mooring buoy to save any close manoeuvring in a marina.

The mooring he is looking at has a pick-up buoy and there is a little less than a knot of tidal stream. If John points into the tide, the 10-knot wind is about 40 degrees on the port bow.