Another vote for the bosco boat hook and its additional wire strop. Great for lassoing cleats, and good for mooring buoys as well. The singlehander's friend.
I have tried a number of other "infallible" methods for hooking a cleat or reeving a rope through a mooring eye - none of them worked (other than to relieve me of money) - no I should not say that they didn't work cause that is not entirely true. They worked nearly perfectly whenever I practiced, but never seemed to work properly when needed for real. The bosco was a different story. I was always confident of this device.
-------------------- "Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors - and miss."
Robert A Heinlein