to all of you who responded to our question a very big thank you, the information is invaluable. it has answered ALL of our questions and concerns and we feel armed with the correct information now as we make our way to the marine supply store, yet again. a little diligence certainly pays off where this is concerned. brian hit the nail on the head when he spoke about the changing tides here, they can vary greatly, sometimes it is almost impossible to jump down onto the deck from the pier, even harder if your trying to jump back up onto the pier at the low tide on certain days we have what they call 'spring tides'. his reply about using different knots also struck a chord because a bowline IS almost impossible to untie without the use of a tool when it has a heavy load on it. i found that out one day when we had an unusually low 'spring tide' and the boat had gone almost a foot lower than usual and was putting quite a strain on the lines and now i only use the round turn with two half hitches as it does untie very easily and on the cleats use the cleat hitch as it also unties very easily when under strain. i had used the sliced loops at first but found it impossible to remove under strain. that was very scary and with the wide range of tides and not knowing just how high or low they will become the advice was right on the nose! there were so many great ideas, just a wealth of information, can't thank you enough! wishing you many days of fine sailing!