Crew this trip was an old uni days buddy Dr Con, now an environmental consultant. We had got into windsurfing in the late 1980s and done a fair bit of hiking over the years.
The 9 am launch and rig up anchored near the mouth of Ross River went well. Teria beat into 15-20 knot ENEer with 2-3 foot seas on the starboard tack fairly comfortably. This allowed us to stay to windward of Platypus shipping channel and the east coast of Magnetic Island a few km to leeward.
"Ocean Drover" , a live cattle ship, soon over hauled us off Nelly Bay (marina).
Wind and seas picked up as the protection of Cape Cleaveland was lost, so Dr Con took the helm and i reefed the mainsail.
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| Reefed the mainsail for the first time |
Teria has a slab reefing system on the mainsail to reduce sail when over-pressed. The wind felt like it increased to 20 knots gusting 25, waves increased to 3-5 ft and beating into this at 5 knots made it a bit too wild. We rounded up to reduce speed to a few knots, I lowered the main halyard and hauled in the reefing rope and cleated it off on the boom. This pulled the luff cringle and reef clew cringle down to the boom and slab of sail hung down beside the boom on the lee side. The hanging sail was rolled up and tied with three reefing lines hanging from the sail. Teria rode allot more comfortably , sailing slower, barely getting any spray over the rail.
Once the NE point looked clear we bore away and broad reached and ran off Orchard rocks well the port. Hove-to and shook the reef out, hauled the main up slowly it was a bit reluctant to go up.
Teria ran quickly downwind past Radical Bay where 3 large yachts were at anchor, tucked in behind the sheltered headland there.
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| Yacht anchored in Radical Bay |
We rounded the corner into Horseshoe bay and were soon close-hauled in flat waters heading for the yachts anchorage. Skirted the oyster farm lease marker bouys and got hit by a few wind bullets, which heeled us over and needed the main sheet released. It's a stable trailer-sailer though, the gunwales didn't go under. A beach catamaran sailed out and back in with us.
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| Sailing into Horseshoe Bay |
Horseshoe Bay is a wide and very sheltered bay at its SE corner. This is where passing yachts anchor and where the waterfront has developed. We tacked up through the fleet of about 5 vessels and anchored in close about 70 m from the beach, with 1'10" draft and neap tides, tidal grounding was unlikely for us. The awning and cabins pop-top went up to expand the dry accommodation area by 60%. a few rain showers came by no worries and one left a rainbow floating in the sky between the Islands hills.
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| The first visitor |
The were two 30-35 foot mono hull yachts, one large motor cruiser, an large sailing cat, a Hood 23 yacht and a tourist motor boat at anchor there.
Horseshoe Bay waterfront is nicely set up with a short strip of beach fronting restaurants, pub and shops. A stinger net and public amenities block including an outdoor cool water shower for swimmers kayakers to wash the sand and salt off.
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| Dinghy beach and stinger net at Horseshoe bay |
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| A nice short strip of cafe's, shops and a hotel are the few signs of civilization |
On the other side of the small boat ramp, there are some low set tourist apartments and a couple of shops. Cassuarina and beach almond trees made for a shady foreshore with lots of picnic tables and a very laid back vibe with live music drifting from the local hotel. Black Cockatoos were having a good time meters from us, eating fruits on trees.
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| Black Cockatoo |
Behind the beach ridge there's a low creek with swamp land forest, it then rises up to a second beach ridge with plenty of forest up to 30 m high. We went into the first street on the left and Dr Con, soon identified signs of koala bears in the area. Their gum tree species, claw marks on the trunks, then koala droppings. Strangely these were not bad at all, green inside and smelt like gum leaf oil. A wild Koala was soon spotted high up in a tree,it's the first Koala i've seen in the wild in decades, he was a fair size too. Offshore Islands are often good native wildlife refuges.
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| Koala bear signs, gum leaf and dropping |
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| At first he was a bit hard to see.. |
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| At a better camera angle, the big koala sit proudly high atop his tree. |
Back aboard Teria, a wash with a sponge and bucket got rid of the kayaking salt. Only need about 2 litres for that per person. Three two seat kayaks were out to see the sunset over the bay, magic.
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| Kayaks around sunset on Horse shoe Bay |
The LED anchor light was rigged under Terias boom and with head torches we had enough light to cook on the Trangia camp stove. It runs on alcohol fuel which is safe on a boat, it can be put out with water. The Trangia also has 2 pots, a fry pan and a kettle ingeniously packed inside it. We put it on the cockpit floor , so it was easy to operate from either cabin or cockpit, and it couldn't fall down from this spot.
The LED anchor light was tied above the awning onto the back stay. It gives 360 degree white light for a 2 nautical mile range and helps avoid collisions at night.
The Bay had dwellings or buildings scattered around us so the lights from these were reassuring and gave a good visual position fix should anchor drag happen. The moon was down but stars were out in force.
The bunks on board are a good size and over 6 foot long with 3" foam. I woke up at midnight to silence boat noises one by one. 2 Halyard slaps in the aluminium mast, rudder knocking, then awning guy sawing on a shroud wire..live and learn. After that it was very quiet, only a cool light southerly breeze blew..Terias hull has no wavelet slap around the waterline - this was a bad problem in my Harltey 16 when i over-nighted on her, resulted in a bad nights sleep..its very hard to sleep with a constant rhythmic noise happening like that..slap slap slap .. Teria is fortunately the opposite - silent, slept really well.
In the morning a 2nd feathered visitor was standing on the sampson post behind the furled jib. Some kind of kingfisher, amazing how the bird out here have so little fear of people.
After breakfast a passing yachty came over by dinghy for a visit and yarn. Troy's Clansman 30 was set up for single handed live aboard sailing. He lived off the sea catching fish and kept a sprout farm going on board. With solar and wind power added, it was possible to live on a low budget yet still keep maintenance up. This cost was estimated by Troy at about 5-10% of a boat's purchase value per year. A Fleming windvane was fitted to take care of self-steering. His dinghy is a fold-a-boat , about 12 foot long with 3.5hp, it folded to about 8" thick and 2' high so could stow on the side deck against the cabin side.
The Clansman 30 is a capable, good value, coastal cruising yacht. While searching for Clansman 30's info recently, i came across a 2014 post by Troy "sailing - not just for the rich and privileged" with some good advice about how to live on the sea.
A 2020 update: Troy and his partner Pascale have a great u-tube channel called free range sailing, here is their introductory video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5RTZi2i92M
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| Troy's Clansman 30 |
About 2pm we up-anchored and ran downwind out of Horseshoe bay. The tall mountains provided us plenty of shelter but we still had a good tailwind to push us along at 3-4 knots.
The only other water craft we saw were 3 jet-skis on a tour returning eastwards to Horseshoe where they were based.
We passed Huntingfeild Bay which had a strange rocky point of a different rocktype to the rest of the Island. Rollingstone Bay had a rocky shore with no beach and allot of forest cover.
The final push back to port was on when we rounded west point, then motor-sailed to windward into a small chop to get past the calm lee side of the Island. It was a bit hard to see middle reef at first but the gps and compass helped , and the black and yellow reef end pole markers were soon in view, so we passed between this reef and the Islands fringing reef.
The 10-15 knot NE wind returned once clear of picnic bay point, so is was a good close reach back to Ross river to log out with coast guard on the VHF around 4 pm , de-rig before the bridge and haul out at Barnicle st around dusk.
The only other water craft we saw were 3 jet-skis on a tour returning eastwards to Horseshoe where they were based.
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| Dr Con helming along the 5 beaches Bay side of the Island. |
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| Townsville re-emerges behind west point |
The 10-15 knot NE wind returned once clear of picnic bay point, so is was a good close reach back to Ross river to log out with coast guard on the VHF around 4 pm , de-rig before the bridge and haul out at Barnicle st around dusk.
