The problem when you have been cruising for a while, spending every night at anchor, is that you really resent all the fuss involved in taking a marina berth. All those lines you carefully coiled and tied, the fenders that you cleaned before you put away (not to mention that you stored them underneath more frequently used items like sails and cases of wine and beer).

Then there is the loss of privacy: blinds have to be drawn at night, and your romantic dinner in the cockpit is subject to the comments of passing strollers who have become so used to watching reality TV that they have lost touch with the common courtesies of real life.

It has its compensations. Being able to step daintily off the deck in a tight skirt to go out to dinner without having to tuck it into your knickers before you lower yourself into the dinghy, is one that springs to mind. Arriving back at the boat heavily laden with provisions, it is a joy to be able to load them directly instead of from a pitching dinghy. However, after several months in a marina in Brisbane, we were pleased to be cruising again. We spent one lovely night at anchor in Moreton Bay before heading for Mooloolaba (50 miles north of Brisbane), where we once again had to take a mooring berth.

We have just moved moorings, the third time in as many days. A 30+ knot blow is forecast to come through. Every fishing vessel for miles is heading for port, and the Wharf Marina in Mooloolaba is desperately juggling boats and moorings in order to try to accommodate everyone.

This morning's manoeuvring required us to drop an anchor and reverse into an awkwardly placed dock designed for a 10-metre boat. Had we gone bow-in as normal, we would not have been able to secure the boat properly as only a half of the boat's length is in contact with the berth - plus we would have had 30 knots and rain straight into the deckhouse.

Apart from preferring not to have had to move at all, this mooring method is our favourite (although lying at anchor is without doubt our preferred option, but alas, that is not possible here). We find it an easy and safe way to moor, yet many yacht crews seem to avoid mooring this way, or simply do not think of it as an alternative to a conventional beam-on mooring.

If there is any chance of us being pinned to a dock by tide or wind, we always opt to go stern-to with our anchor out. It is easy to go when it's time to leave, or if conditions deteriorate, so the boat does not get beaten up alongside the dock.

We moor this way often on fuel docks, or whenever we are faced with large black tires along the dock, or whenever we think conditions beam-to on the dock will be poor.

In some areas, buoys are laid to allow stern-to moorings with the bow attached to the buoy. Unless the buoy is far enough from the dock, i.e. significantly longer than your boat length, it is impossible to secure the boat against strong or gusty winds from any angle forward of the beam. Much better to drop your own anchor at the right distance from the dock and use the buoy as an extra spring.

The key to mooring this way is to ensure that the chain will pay out smoothly and quickly so that the helmsperson can achieve sufficient speed to maintain steerage way as they reverse. We let the anchor run out free rather than driving it down on the electric windlass. Agree on a signal, so that whoever is controlling the anchor does not lock it off too early, but does snub it when required. (But remember it will be easy to avoid making contact with the dock by simply shifting into forward gear.) The stern can be positioned by blasts of forward power aginst a suitably turned rudder.

Make sure the anchor is dropped to windward if the wind will not be from straight ahead and allow plenty of scope. Have two stern lines ready, one on each side. Nothing could be easier, and it is so much kinder on the boat.