The Sorrento boat moorings are the field of swing moorings off the town's front beach, north-west of the pier, and The Scuba Doctor lists them as a shore dive in their own right with a depth range of 2–15 m – considerably deeper than the pier – on a position given only approximately from aerial imagery. The interest is what a mooring field becomes over decades: each concrete block and its chain and riser is a small artificial reef, colonised by sponges, ascidians, hydroids and mussels and scoured clean of sand by the tide, and the sand and seagrass between the blocks shelve steadily from the beach toward the edge of the South Channel. Working seaward from block to block gives a natural navigation line and a gradual depth profile that the flat piers cannot offer.

The life reflects the tidal position: weedy seadragons from the pier's seagrass wander through the shallower moorings, smooth stingrays and fiddler rays settle between the blocks, squid and cuttlefish hang around the chains at dusk, old wives, leatherjackets and wrasse shelter on the growth, and octopus occupy the gaps under the blocks; the deeper outer blocks toward 15 m carry the heaviest filter-feeder growth and the most fish. Bottles and other debris dropped from moored boats over 150 years litter the sand, as they do under the pier. The dive is governed by the same tide as Sorrento Pier – slack water only, with a current that builds quickly – and by the boats: in summer the field is full and the site is unusable by day, so it is essentially a winter and off-season dive.

It suits experienced Open Water and Advanced divers who know Sorrento Pier and want more depth from the same beach, and photographers looking for growth-covered structure in clean water. Combined with a night dive on the pier it makes Sorrento a two-dive shore destination.

Park on the Esplanade or in the ferry car park at Sorrento Pier and walk north-west along the front beach to a point opposite the mooring field, about 250 m from the pier. Enter from the sand, surface-swim out towing a flag and descend at the first mooring blocks in 2–3 m, working seaward through the field toward 15 m. Exit back onto the front beach or, at slack water, at the pier ladders.

Dive only outside peak boating hours; in summer the moorings are occupied and tenders run constantly.

Like Sorrento Pier next door the mooring field lies close to the South Channel and the tidal stream runs through it strongly on the flood and ebb, so it is a slack-water dive – roughly 30–45 minutes after slack at the Heads – and divers should be prepared to hold a mooring chain when the tide picks up. It faces north-east, sheltered from southerlies and south-westerlies and exposed to northerly and north-easterly chop. In summer the moorings are full of yachts and their tenders, which rules out daytime diving; winter weekdays are empty.

Visibility is usually reasonable in the tide-flushed water.

Enter from the front beach at slack water, descend at the inner mooring blocks in 2–3 m and work seaward from block to block, using the chains as navigation, down the slope to 12–15 m at the outer edge of the field. Turn at half gas or when the current starts, return up the slope by the same line of moorings, and surface close to the beach with an SMB.

No regular operator; occasionally added to Sorrento Pier dives by Bayplay guides for experienced clients; otherwise independent divers, mostly in winter when the moorings are empty.