How We Take Our Dock Lines Off Before Leaving | Tug Drops
Ready to leave the dock, but not sure which lines to take off first?
In "How We Cast Off," Sarah walks through the simple routine we use at our home marina before leaving in our Ranger Tugs R25. We show how we remove our bow, stern, and spring lines, which line we keep on until the end, and how we make sure every line is safely out of the water before we go.
We’re still learning boating ourselves, and Tug Drops is where we share the little things we pick up along the way in simple terms, without assuming you already know all the boating language.
If you’re learning too, subscribe because we have lots more Tug Drops coming.
Have a beginner boating question you’d like us to cover next? Leave it in the comments!
Prefer to read? Here’s the full transcript from this adventure, lightly edited for readability. Timestamps correspond to the video.
0:00 | Learning Boating One Step at a Time
Hi, I’m Sarah.
Hi, I’m Derek.
We’re still pretty new to boating, and when we first started looking for tutorials online, we had a hard time finding information that slowed things down, avoided a lot of technical jargon, and explained not just what to do, but why.
That’s really where Tug Drops came from.
These are the little boating lessons we’ve learned along the way, shared from the perspective of people who are still learning too.
0:24 | What Does “Casting Off” Mean?
Have you ever wondered which dock lines you’re supposed to take off when you’re getting ready to leave?
That process is called casting off.
In this Tug Drops, Sarah walks through how we remove the lines from our Ranger Tugs R-25 at our home marina.
Since Derek is usually at the helm, Sarah handles most of the lines and has developed a routine that works well for us.
0:42 | Our Dock Line Setup
At our home marina, Drops in the Ocean is normally secured with a bow line, a stern line, and spring lines.
Exactly which line comes off first can change depending on the wind, current, and conditions at the dock.
But under normal conditions, this is the routine we use most of the time.
0:58 | Removing the Bow Line
Sarah normally starts with the bow line.
We keep part of the line secured in a daisy chain, so she first unravels that and then removes the cleat hitch.
If you’re wondering what a cleat hitch is, we covered that in an earlier Tug Drops. It’s one of those knots that seemed intimidating at first but became pretty simple once we learned it.
1:29 | Safely Stowing the Bow Line
One lesson we learned early on was the importance of properly securing loose lines.
At first, we were tying them around parts of the boat after removing them from the dock. We eventually learned that leaving loose line around the deck can create a safety problem.
Our Ranger Tugs R-25 has an anchor locker at the bow, which gives us a convenient place to store the bow line.
Sarah feeds the line into the locker while leaving it accessible through the opening so it’s easy to grab when we need it again.
The goal is simple: keep the line accessible, but safely out of the way.
2:02 | Removing the Spring Lines
Next, Sarah moves to the spring lines.
She starts by removing our secondary spring line and getting it out of the way.
Then she removes the stern end of our primary spring line.
Some of our spring lines stay attached to the dock instead of coming aboard with us. That makes returning to our home slip much easier because the lines are already there waiting for us.
We just make sure they’re positioned safely on the dock and out of the water.
2:35 | The Line We Leave Until the End
The forward end of our primary spring line is normally the last line Sarah removes.
That line helps keep the boat controlled while Derek is at the helm preparing to leave.
It also stays permanently at our dock, and it’s usually the first line Sarah reaches for when we return.
2:48 | Removing the Stern Line
Before removing that final spring line, Sarah takes off the stern line.
Once it’s disconnected from the dock, she brings it aboard.
Before we actually leave, that line gets properly stowed in the aft locker so there isn’t loose rope sitting around the cockpit or anywhere that it could end up in the water.
3:13 | Removing the Final Spring Line
Finally, Sarah pushes the boat slightly away from the dock to create some slack in the remaining spring line.
She removes that final line, leaves it safely on the dock, and maintains control of the boat while getting aboard.
Once Sarah is aboard and everything is clear, we’re ready to leave the slip.
3:28 | Keep Every Line Out of the Water
Before we head out, we do one final check for loose lines.
Any line that came aboard with us gets gathered up and properly stowed.
This is probably the biggest takeaway from the whole process: make sure every dock line is either safely aboard and stowed or securely left on the dock.
You never want a loose line ending up in the water where it could potentially find its way toward the propeller.
3:49 | And We’re Off
That’s really it.
Casting off doesn’t have to be complicated.
The exact order can change depending on the conditions, but for us, having a consistent routine makes leaving the dock much easier.
If you’re learning boating and want to learn right alongside us, subscribe and follow along. We have plenty more Tug Drops coming.
Have a good one.
4:09 | One Adventure at a Time
We took a leap and bought a fixer-upper on the Hood Canal, and an empty dock meant one thing.
We needed a boat.
Now we’re building our dream home and our dream life, one adventure at a time.