roadstead

1. (nautical) A partly sheltered anchorage; a stretch of water near the shore where vessels may ride at anchor, but with less protection than a harbour.Examples: "The shores of Protection island form on its south side, which is about two miles long, a most excellent roadstead, and a channel into port Discovery, near 2 miles wide on either side […]"; "[…] I found we were lying in a roadstead among many low and rocky islets, hovered about by an innumerable cloud of sea-fowl."; "[…] that was the time when at the mast-heads of the three-deckers and seventy-fours moored in her own roadstead […] the blue-jackets, to be numbered by thousands, ran up with huzzas the British colors with the union and cross wiped out […]"Synonyms: road, roads