roadstead

Etymology

From road + stead.

noun

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.
   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 […] 1798, George Vancouver, chapter V, in A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World, volume I, London: G.G. and J. Robinson, page 248
   In 1620 junks began to arrive from China depositing hundreds of migrants, and with the resumption of China's official trade to Southeast Asia in 1683, the numbers of junks arriving annually in Batavia's roadstead grew from an average of three or four to about twenty. 1992, Leonard Y. Andaya, “Interactions with the Outside World and Adaptation in Southeast Asian Society, 1500-1800”, in Nicholas Tarling, editor, The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, volume 1, Cambridge University Press, page 349