Space in front of bay to take ship (6)
I believe the answer is:
embark
'to take ship' is the definition.
(to get on a ship)
'space in front of bay' is the wordplay.
'space' becomes 'em' (in typography, a space as wide as a letter 'm').
'in front of' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'bay' becomes 'bark' (bay can mean to bark or howl).
'em'+'bark'='EMBARK'
(Other definitions for embark that I've seen before include "Set out on journey" , "Put to sea" , "Set out (on an enterprise)" , "Go on board ship or plane" , "get on board" .)