Original rudder restoration - Fatty Knees

The simplest and quickest way to get the rudder going again was to attach the rudder fittings to the original fixed rudder blade.

Removed the pintles and tiller fitting from the broken kick-up rudder. Then bolted these fittings onto the original fixed rudder blade. It was  a fortunate piece of spare gear that came with the dinghy sale. The original blade was beautifully crafted from a single piece of oregon pine or similar, faired nicely and varnished. The fittings had come off this blade once so they fitted on easily again (with a little bending of the tangs)

Original fixed rudder blade Fatty Knees dinghy

It certainly looks allot stronger than the kick-up rudder. It is definitely allot simpler. Only bad thing is it is a fixed blade with no kick-up function, hitting the bottom should never happen. It needs to be fitted in deep enough water and removed likewise. Some new techniques to devise and learn for getting away, returning and navigating shallow waters  - such as using an oar as a sweep in the transom notch.

Shipping the rudder, lower pintle first

Rudder shipped. Gudgeons and pintles detail.

Tiller fitting

Raised tiller position

Anyway the dinghy's seaworthy again and plenty of time gained to repair the broken kick-up rudder

Broken rudder on Fatty Knees

It was a nice 30C, 10-15kn ENE onshore breeze in early December so we took the Fatty Knees out for a sail.

1 ft waves were breaking and the wind was blowing straight onto the beach. This made getting under way a bit more difficult than usual. I had to walk the bow out past the shore break, get the centreboard half down, bear the bow away, sheet in a bit, jump aboard, sheet right in and close haul away.

When just clear of the break i put the rudder blade full down, hoping to sail clear ..but it was a bit too early, a breaking wave caught the bow and washed us shoreward, the rudder blade bashed down into the sandy bottom a few times so it had to be raised again in order to sail clear of the lee shore. Once clear it was lowered again as usual.

All was good for at least 15-20 minutes, we sailed out off Cape Palleranda into a confused lumpy sea which was due to two wave directions meeting up, they came from the north and east. Once clear of the cape we tacked and set course for Rowes Bay end of the beach to the south of us.

After a few minutes there was a bump, loud bang then the rudder blade broke. At first i wasn't sure what had happened, the tiller felt strange. I thought we hit something, but nothing to be seen. Not a log was it a turtle? We saw the lower 3/4 of the blade floating astern, i checked the rudder which still apparently had a blade hanging down. On seeing the damage it became clearer, the rudder blade had split in half down the centreline. It was made of plywood so de-lamination allowed it.

I pulled the half blade up , as in its weakened state it may break off completely. Then we couldn't steer the boat. We kept an eye on the half blade floating away, it drifted off 5 m, 10m, 15m..disappearing for longer and longer below wave crests. I wanted to retrieve it, for curiosity's sake and possible repair.

So we decided on using the oar to steer the boat. Out of it's stow bag in the bow then the two parts of the oar clipped together (like a tent pole). At first it was shipped into a side rowlock and rowed to get the bow to turn towards the "blade overboard". This wasn't too good so next was to put the oar into a small notch in the transom and use it as a sweep oar - a quick way to rig up a jury steering system. This worked and we headed back to pickup the half blade.

Sailing back was quick enough but it was far harder to steer than normal. I held the sweep against the rudder stock head with one hand and steered with the other. (to make a better job a rope lashing would have been better)

Anyway we sailed back about 1km on a beam reach to downwind run in a fairly safe manner.

On the beach a closer inspection of the damage revealed that the blade had cracked just where the aluminium clamp ended, then the plywood split along a centreline de-lamination. The design of the lower swivel clamp was an accident about to happen. It appears to be an after-market possibly home-made job, not the original rudder.

Heavier weather - 2nd day (trip #12)

Daybreak came and realised i was off the boat ramp when a tourist speed boat did many laps around Teria with kids gleefully screaming as they clung to a huge tyre device towed behind it. Managed to boil the water without tipping the trangia stove over on speedboat wakes and have some brekky.

Hauled on the Johnnos starter cord, many times, and to no avail..she was not starting (for the first time) and looked like it was flooded with fuel. So sailed off and anchored in amongst the 20 or so yachts further into the fairly calm and very well sheltered anchorage area. wind gusts were still over 15 knots at times tho.

Had a go fixing the outboard, it would be nigh impossible/ very dangerous to try to get home without it going in the current weather. Removed the spark plugs, fuel soaked and dirty, and did some rudimentary plug cleaning with my leatherman (note- bring good plug cleaning gear, &/or spare plugs) . It finally fired up on one cylinder after many attempts at plug removal and cleaning.

So set sail about 10am. Attempted to go back the way I'd come in around the windward eastern side of Island. Persevered  trying to tack upwind into 25 knots plus and short steep 2m plus seas upwind of a dangerous lee shore consisting of huge granite boulders..Teria was knocked over a few times to about 50 degrees heel, so the hatchboards were all put in, allot of wave leaping, crashing into troughs. and another note taken - tie the anchor down or take it below before heavy weather sailing.  Almost reached Radical Bay, but it was barely sheltered from the blast and the boulders to lee had whitewater smashing all over them,, I imagined what could happen in the worst case scenario should the rig break and the engine not start again, so made the decision to give up, turn tail and run for safety.

It took about 5 minutes to run back the distance that had taken about an hour to achieve before.

Once back in Horseshoe Bays shelter, it was time to regroup , sort things out and decide on the next move. One of the things to sort was the roller furling jib somehow got tangled up on it's-self. Either look for spark plugs on the Island and probably spend another day offshore at the Island (and miss work etc) or "have a go". The new plan was to go around the sheltered North West end of the Island and try to go against the roaring wind and seas on the inshore and hopefully less rough channel near the mainland, getting to the mainland again was the aim,,even Cape Palleranda would do, preferably the Strand/duckpond and just maybe Ross River where the trailer was.

The run down the outside of Magnetic Island was fast..for an Investigator. At times Teria surfed waves and got up on the plane, the usual bubbly wake stopped and a surfboard like smooth flow raced astern. At other times Teria broached, suddenly heeled over about 50 degrees and rounded up into a startling u-turn. Luckily the jib was furled away and the main is fully battened so no terrible sail flapping happened. These broaches were cause by "bullets" of wind being speed up by the very steep hills of the Islands coast (the Townsville fairway beacon wind speed was later found to be 25-30knots on the BOM site so these could have been more)

I stayed fairly close to the uninhabited coast first on port tack running,, but round ups meant heading at the rocks-beaches there. So changed tack to starboard so round-ups headed toward safer ocean.

Finally at Rollingstone Bay side there was flat calm and peace at last in the lee of the Island. I took this opportunity to drop the mainsail and lash it to the boom. Then get the motor running again, it was on 1 cylinder so could do about 3-4 knots on flat calm.

Rounded West Point and started getting strong headwinds, but the seas were relatively slight on the inshore side, around 1-2 foot height. Wave energy must be proportional to the cube of the height or something eh? because it was allot easier to go into these waves. Even so, a good one would smash most of the forward momentum out of the hull.  Some small fishing boats were anchored there sheltering, one boat set off with Teria and headed for Cape Palleranda ramp at 3-4 knots with water spraying all over them (they would normally do 20-25knots). Water was also spraying all over and into Teria and me once the shelter was past. Both boat and man were saturated in no time, my jacket a mere token object to this punishment (note- bring the old offshore oilskin next time!)

I checked below, windows were leaking, hatches were leaking, bunks were sodden, even the laminated chart was taking on water! But the motor suddenly fired on both cylinders!! We were racing - into it at 4-5knots then smash! about 2 knots again..build up..smash again. Had to throttle off quickly to get a less damaging speed of about 3 knots.

Hugged the fringing reef of the Island, fortunately it was low tide  and the exposed reef flat reduced most of the wave action to about 1 ft height or less straight from ahead. Good upwind progress at 4 knots into a howling 25-30 knots on the nose. Sub-horizontal spray still driving across the decks into the cockpit area.  Here's a video of Teria battling strong headwinds under power.

Soaked, motoring into strong headwinds

Strong winds - bimini lashed down, decks drenched. With no sails up it was at last possible to take a photo.

Got up towards Picnic Bay before having to leave the reef flats "shelter", this run had allowed most of middle reefs length to be traversed too. The course from there was to clear middle reefs eastern end and navigation pole. The waves were again 2-3 ft height and now at 45 degrees to the bow, not so good for a motor hanging off the transom on a frame. It got wet and sometimes the wind heeled the boat under bare poles so cavitation of the prop happened.. with resulting demonic revs and throttle off.  The motor went back to one cylinder again,, crawling past the reef end at 1 knot barely able to steer, nearly past the windward side of the reef (it was very shallow here 2-3m so anchoring feasible a magnitude less as worrying as the lee shore on the orchid rocks/radical bay side).

Just cleared the reef when the motor died and couldn't be restarted. The strong wind quickly blew Teria down wind a few 100m before I could get the mainsail raised.  She steadied up at 1-2 knots under main, then the jib rolled out and took off at 4-5 knots with rails going under, rounding up etc until i got the trim right and in the groove. Enough windward ground (many km) had been won by motoring up the channel, so could now lay the Strand beach near the rockpool. It was a struggle to sail upwind like that, less sail area would be better, but no choice in that.

As the Strand approached the wave size  began to abate and sailing got easier. A great feeling of having made it to safe shores seeped in as each minute went by. I kept close inshore for tacking up wind, now having the western breakwater to windward to stop the unrelenting wave energy.

Dropped anchor in the duckpond anchorage off the Casino and Marina. Flat safe waters again! Sorted things out, especially got the motor running again and a hot drink into me. Wind chill factor with the constant drenching of the inadequate jacket was starting to take it's toll. About 9 hours of sailing.

About 5pm radioed coast guard that i was on the last leg back to Ross River. The final leg was rough too, but not too far offshore, near other vessels and civilization of the port area.  Motor sailed with furled jib to clear the shipping channel. Also the most unbelievably confused set of seas happened just off the Ports breakwall. Waves were rebounding at about 50-80 degrees to the main seas to cause this. Nearly reached an anchored trawler before tacking onto port tack and sailing again (with idling motor) for the entrance.

On approach i realised that the rudders top pintle fitting was working loose, the nuts and bolts had undone about 15mm and the fitting was flogging around just about to break off - ie loose the rudder and steering on final windward approach to a leeward rockwall entrance. Not good. A quick lashing with some 8mm rope quickly fixed it, it pulled the rudder head towards the traveller and held the loose pintle against the transom and saved the steering system.

Once in and anchored it was a very very slow crawl into the cabin. Got out of the wet gear and into dry clothes plus a hot drink from the thermos allowed  motor function to return. The return upriver all went well but i didn't sign off to coast guard duty until the Teria was actually back on dry land again at the Barnicle st ramp around 8pm. Their radio shift ended at about 5pm but then a phone answering service allows contact after hours to sign off the tripsheet.

Heavy weather and Horseshoe Bay. (trip #12, day 1)

For the midwinters sail i headed off solo from Ross River for an overnight at Horseshoe bay. The weather was about 25C by day 15C by night, 20-25 knot SE and overcast with showers forecast (no strong wind warning issued).

Once rigged tried to sail out of River but couldnt quite point high enough so furled jib and motor sailed. On the way had to stow the bimini and furl it with rope. (lesson, do that before hand in over 20knots)

Set off under full sail but soon the lee rail was under, so took a reef in the main sail. The wind kept increasing so changed down the jib to #2 , it was a bit difficult to operate the halyard shackle (so note taken)

It was a fast close reach on starboard tack , about an hour to be well to windward of Picnic Bay. Kept going into offshore waters and over 2m seas and strong wind with the spray flying. every time a rain shower came the wind increased,,lesson "showers" = "rain squalls" offshore.

 Was a few nm off orchid rocks by nightfall.  A 3/4 moon behind cloud plus city lights glow was enough to see the silhouette of Magnetic Islands hills. Anchored ships way offshore and navigation pole lights of the ship channel , and even the evening star help with direction. (compass still pretty basic and unlit, except by red led headtorch) ,,there were very few shore lights on this part of the coast rather dark there.

Once clear of orchid rock point, Teria was able to run downwind before the seas, which eased things off. I kept the Cape Cleveland lighthouse astern.

Navigation was also backed up by a GPS smart phone in a watertight pouch. The app showed boat position on a google maps satellite image.

To check sail the LED head torch could be switched to white, then back to red for night vision.

Once the lights of Horseshoe Bay appeared it was time to Gybe in. but too hairy for that so rounded up and tacked instead.

Soon was close hauled on port tack in the smooth waters of the bay. The many shore lights and anchor lights on boats helped guide me in. Tacked up a few times to get closer to the anchored boats before dropping the pick about 100m from the breach shorebreak. I was inside a large game fish boat and some big trimarans, good thing about very shoal draft.

Secured the deck, got the anchor light going. "Scamp" the kayak was stowed in the cabin for the rough crossing so pulled it out and stowed on foredeck. The bimini was unfurled but not raised, just used to act a rain dodger while dinner re-heating Thai style pasta spirals on the trangia was underway. Hot milo wasn't too bad either!

It was too rough to take any photos, only a go-pro would've cut it.

Rigging Fatty Knees 8

Launched Jai Dee at the newly completed stage 1 of the Townsville boat park in Ross River.
It's off Boundary street, south Townsville.

There is a large car-trailer parking area for over 50 boat trailers. As it was a windy weekday only a few boats were there. Launched at pontoon B, each pontoon has 4 ramp lanes. The gradient of the ramp is a bit steeper than the old Barnicle st ramp further upstream, no problem with a light 50kg dingy on the work ute. Still prefer the oldest  ramp at Barnicle st for the far heavier Teria ( the loaded boat and trailer over 1000kg) as it has less gradient.

Launching JaiDee at newly completed Townsville boat park ramp.

Pontoons/ramps - shipping the rudder

The floating pontoon in the centre of the ramp lanes makes it easy to launch and tie up the boat. The protected leeward side of the pontoon is easier for Jaidee to be launched and rigged.

Here is a sequence for rigging a Fatty Knees 8 in the water at the ramp.

1. Rig stowed. 2 part mast fits in hull. 2 part oars in grey bag in bow.

2: Push top mast into sails luff sleeve.

3: Join lower mast to top mast.

4: Push whole mast into luff sleeve.

5: Connect boom to gooseneck fitting on mast , then secure sails outer clew corner to boom end with outhaul line. (sheets are left attached to boom when stowed)

6: Raise rig

7: step mast

8: Luff downhaul tensioned (+holds whole rig down into boat securely)

Next is to put the life-jacket on, centre board in, weigh anchor, hop in and go.

At the beach Rig drop - undo luff downhaul and pull mast out of step

Heading off  - Rig raise 

Out sailing - Pelican in flight

Ashore on a sandbar - Ross River on an grey day with Townsville city CBD skyline

Rigging up at anchor

Due to a low level bridge across Ross river (clearance 6m) the only sailboats that can pass are ones with mast tabernacles.

Yacht with mast tabernacles

In Ross River  Teria begins a journey with her mast down at the barnicle street ramp. Motoring is required to get past the bridge where the anchor is dropped and rigging up on the water can start.

I've thrown in some plain english to combat sailing jargon for those new to this.

Anchored mast down tied to pulpit rail.

Mast stepped (attached) into tabernacle (hinge with pin on deck). Spinaker halyard (lift rope) attached to pulpit (front rail) to help with raising (prevent mast falling back). Halyard tail (end) exits mast base and is tied off on black cleat once mast is up.

 Mast raising - It's the hardest and potentially most dangerous part of rigging up. It's like weight lifting in a watery slightly rolling gym with asymetrical equipment. I break it into 3 stages, it is possible to catch a breath between stages. Slack is taken up on the halyards tail  to act as the mast fall-back preventer. It can be done solo but is far easier with  crew on the halyard tail as this allows 2 arms to be used for the mast lift (push-up) instead of one.

The previous owner of Teria was a nice chap about 6'3",  85kg and mid 30's  so his mast raising demo made it look like child's play. He just grabbed it and up it went in one swift move. However I'm 5'11" ,72kgs and mid 50s so that image was shattered on my first attempt to raise mast. I added a few extra steps to make it achievable without herniating..

Stage 1: Mast was lifted from pulshpit rail up onto a wooden crutch, this makes the initial mast lift a bit easier. It is about 10 degrees from horizontal

Stage 2: I stand in the cockpit get under it as far forward as liftable then lift to shoulder height. using bent knees and straight back. Shuffle forward to gain height. It gets to about 20 degress from horizontal.

Stage 3: The main lift - 20 degrees to 90 degrees. Bend knees and push up with arms suddenly. Walk forward, slide hands down mast as it goes up then push into it. It requires a good sized burst of strength for a few seconds. Once lifting momentum is going push harder until it's past 45 degrees and over "the hump". Very important to take up the halyard slack as the mast tends to bounce back when it hits vertical and the side stays go tight. When the halyard is cleated off properly it's time to say "whew!" and wipe the sweat off the brow. Although the distance from the fulcrum decreases as it goes up, the downwards falling force of the mast also decreases as it gets near vertical.

The ante is upped further when raising it solo. One hand for the mast lift and only one for the halyard. But you really need 2 hands to pull in the halyard... a good strong healthy set of teeth required to achieve this. It's a  dinghy skipper's method. Haul and bite. It's good for now but when the inevitable sets in then other mast raising methods such as garage door springs or shear-legs may need to be devised and built.

The mast is standing, held up by side stays and the spinaker halyard on the front rail.

The forestay is released from the mast and is tied to the top of the roller furler with a lanyard. (Sampson post secures anchor chain or rope)

The jib (sail) is "bent on". The tack (lower front corner of sail ) is shackled to the roller furler. Spring  piston hanks snap onto the forestay.

The jibs clew corner is shackled to the jib sheets ( 2 to 1 purchase pulley)

The jib halyard can be shackled to the jib head.The jib is raised by the halyard and cleated (tied) off. It starts flapping in the wind, so quickly dash back to the cockpit and haul in the jib furling line to wrap the jib up around the forestay.

The backstay need to be rigged up. It is clipped into a bridal which has a pulley system to tension it. Tensioning this tightens up the jibs forestay too.

The mailsail is "bent on" to the mast. Teria has plastic sliders in the luff groove, a rope around the mast stops them from falling out. Luff sliders as opposed to a luff rope are good as the sail is always secured to the mast when dropped, good when in a strong wind...(NB topping lift rope (with green bits) hold the end of the boom up when sail is lowered)

The gooseneck is attached to it's mast slider track. It is a roller furling gooseneck designed for boom rotation..but teria is refitted with slab reefing instead (slab reefing lines and pulley on boom). That's the main halyard and cleat on the mast. (also a currently unused spinaker pole fitting at front of mast)

Down aft - The backstay bridle is tightened. The mainsail sheets (white sail control rope) with blocks (pulleys) and a cam cleat is clipped onto the traveller (slide across the back of boat). (NB Tiller from rudder goes under traveller)

Boom end - Main sheets always left shackled on..the toping lift clips to swiwel tang.  Part of slab reefing system. Cleats for clew outhaul tensioning.  

Mast tabernacle detail. The pivot pin is held in with spring clips. The boom vang pulley is shackled to the mast tabernacle.

It's about ready to go sailing now.

Next is haul up the mainsail. Make sure the boom is raised in it's track. Teria has no winches,,so "sweating it in"  required while the bow is pointed into the wind. Then the boom is pushed down and clipped in to tension the sails luff.

Usually the wind is blowing from ahead when on course to exit the river.. so the motor is fired up and the center-board lowered before the anchor is raised. Motor - sailing under main sail helps drive the hull against the wind, sometimes against the incoming tide too. Steep waves often build up once past the protective sandbank so hull speed is dropped to 2-3 knots to get through comfortably. Really only about 3-4 horsepower is required when motor-sailing. The 10 hp engine is usually just idling to half throttle. motor-sailing out has an additional safety factor, if the old motor ever died at the critical time it would be easy to swing about and sail back in to calm waters. (Returning is usually just sailing downwind to the anchor spot, then turning the bow into the wind to slow the boat down for anchor drop..

Once out there, it's always a great time to hear the jib unfurl, flap and quickly go silent as the wind fills it. The motor is idling until it can be established if wind power alone is strong enough to drive the hull at a respectable speed. Once the motor goes silent, the boat heels over, the wind and sea forces take over and Teria surges forward with a life of it's own.

Lift wire maintenance

During the last sail the swing centerplates lift wire got jammed into the case somehow, so the plate couldn't be raised via the control line in the cockpit. A small thing causing a major problem.

So it was back to the wylo yard to see what was causing this. 

Teria with big cousin a wylo2

Teria was set up on the keel stands so the centerplate could swing freely.

Inside the upper stainless lift pipe was removed. A storage locker was built around it so some gentle persuasion with a chizel and hammer here and there gained enough space to remove the pipe.

I used a lever handle with the lift rope wrapped around to free the stuck rope/wire join. Luckily the join didn't break in the process. It's a very small space in there. I often wondered what went on inside the lift mechanism, the rope to wire join was revealed for the first time.

Lift wire to lift rope join revealed.

Lower lift pipe and lift wire

The wire has a soft eye and swage, the rope has a soft eye and whipping.

The problem was the swage had got jammed into a slightly smaller hole (<5mm diameter) in the top of the case at the base of the lower lift pipe. The hole may be lined with a metal bushing glassed in to take the wear of the lift wire angling across it, but its really too inaccessible and small to see exactly how its made in there. The jam problem may have been caused by shortening the lift wire an inch or so during the centerplate restoration last year.

The rope-wire join looked good enough for reuse. But to avoid a re-run of the jamming i filed the rough bumpy bits off the swage, reducing its diameter a mm or so. After reassembling the upper stainless lift pipe , the tail end stopper knot was retied 6" shorter. This should prevent the swage from reaching the small centercase hole (which caused the jamming) when lowering the centerplate next time. 

Bay Rock (trip10, day2)

Anchored in the calm of west point for an hour to rest and eat breakfast.

Breakfast - A small table made with the hatchboard under the bunk cushion. Trangia stove in the cockpit and food box on bunk stows in the corner space.

From the hatchway i could see Bay Rock a few miles away to the NW.

Bay Rock is a lonely and remote place and used to have a manned lighthouse  (now on display at the Martime museum in Townsville).  The lighthouse was built in 1886 with a lighthouse keepers house next to it. It was to guide sailing ships and steamers into the quarantine station at west point.  In 1920 John Laswon was the last lighthouse keeper who lived on the rock with his wife family. Lawson was lost at sea when his small boat capsized on a supply run. One of the boats crew was also attacked by a shark and thrown into the air but survived and swam to shore with another crewman. The light was automated after this tragedy.

Weather was favourable light NE breeze and slight seas,,and was already close so decided to set course to explore Bay Rock.

West Point, Magnetic Island 

Bay Rock ahead, (Acheron and Rattlesnake islands behind)

The crossing was pleasant in the mid morning, rounded the seaward side (video) and anchored in the lee just beyond some fringing coral reef. A  half cabin power boat with two fishermen were already trying their luck,, so with someone else present it felt allot safer setting off in the scamp kayak for Bay rock's beach landing.

The dead coral at the top of the beach made pristine clink underfoot before the trail up was found, an old stone stairway made it easier to ascend in the blistering heat (34C and humid)

Teria and fishing boat at anchor with clouds over the Hervey Ranges on the mainland.

 Looking South back towards Townsville and Magnetic Island

Granite rock covered in orange  and white lichen overlooks the fringing coral reef below

 The site of the old house was flattened with coral carried up from the beach long ago but not a thing remained except low dry stunted shrubs and grasses. The rock reclaimed by nature.

Paddled scamp around the side of the rock,  over coral beds and past barnicle encrusted shores with a sea surge on them. The midday heat soon drove me back to Terias cooler bimini shade.

The trip back was good, sailed until becalmed behind Magnetic Island then motored through, skirting the almost invisible fringing reef there.  Fishermens open dinghys seemed to mark the reef edge and the smart phone app with GPS mark on a  google map fixed the Terias position and confirmed this. Navigation is a bit tricky here as middle reef also lurks in the straight. It is marked by two yellow and red navigation pylons at each end with cardinal markers on top. The app map helps before spotting the markers. Of course the good old laminated paper chart is always on hand too along with the tell tale compass on the hatch top.

Tacked back up to picnic bay for a breather, only to discover that the center board lift cable was stuck fast. The plate was still fully down. This would make re-trailering difficult if not impossible later on..better to "fix" it in tropical coral Picnic Bay rather than the crocodile habitat of Ross River's mangroves later on

No amount of cajoling would free it either from inside or under the keel snorkelling. So jury-rigged a rope outside the hull to pull the plate up into the case.

The trip back was about half speed under reduced sail with the external hull ropes taking 2 hours, but got Teria winched back on the trailer OK.

Kayak Search and Recovery (trip 10, day2)

The alarm rang at 0430 and Teria sailed out of port quietly on a light sea breeze. Soon the motor got us to 5.8 - 6 knots over the ground, At dawn I started the search at Rowes Bay beach about 200m off shore and scanned the long beach to Cape Palleranda. My family drove to the boat ramp to have a look too but we all saw nothing there.

 Rounded  Cape Palleranda and motored into the uninhabited Shelly beach National park area - it was also a large shoaling sand bank which is usually avoided by sail boats but it was calm and near high tide so went in. The Sun was just rising and the tide was falling an hour or two past the high point. Then on the first remote beach  - a spot of bright blue lay on the beach - It was "Scamp"!!! . It had missed the rocks of the Cape and landed on the coarse sand of Shelly beach near some stunted mangrove forest.

But the tender was not yet saved - Still elated i turned terias bow towards scamp. The broad sand-mud shoals extended far off this side of the Cape. Terias 2 ft shoal draft helped a bit i took her in to within 200 m of the beach using the centerplate as a rudimentary depth sounder. Once the main keel grounded i spun Teria around 180 degrees, motored out another 50 m and anchored in waist deep water with about 1 foot of water below the keel base.

 The wade ashore with scamp's paddle seemed to be in slow motion. Thoughts of "man vs wild"  and "crocodile hunter" came to mind however they were never in it alone like this.  The life-jacket was on and mobile phone was in a waterproof neck pouch. Tested the sand ahead with the paddle blade, the bottom gradually shelved shallower. Fortunately it was unusually calm with no waves. Surprised a  small 2 ft shovel nose shark near the beach.

Sea weed festooned the Scamp like something out of pirates of the Caribbean. A quick look around and fast paddling across the sea to beat he falling tide which could strand Teria for 8-10 hours if  grounding occurred. The anchor was up and made a beeline out of there under power. The pivot center board scraped the shoal sands until Teria was free. Scamp was following along nicely on it's well tied painter.

Kayak retrieved

After and during this incident a few thoughts on towing a tender came to mind..mostly obvious since this happened

1) Really make sure the tow line is well secured, a really good belay on the cleat with locking half hitch. Don't rush it or get distracted by other things..

2) Tow for short runs in calm waters only

3) Tow by day but NOT at night or late evening.

4) For longer or rougher open water crossings stow the tender on deck

Summer sail - Kayak lost (trip10, day1)

Maintenance prior - replaced a leaking and falling off outboard fuel hose connector, the fitting plus clamp coast about $12 at Motor marine, Townsville.  Top service and a great shop for the outboard powered.

Sat 27th afternoon was preparation time..checked boat/trailer systems, recharged battery,,got the fuel, water and food supplies aboard. along with sailing clothes and personal items. The latest addition being a waterproof mobile phone pouch which also floats and has an adjustable neck string, so it can be worn at all times on the boat or going ashore etc.

Sun 28th Dec..the Sydney Hobart yacht race was on down south, Wild Oats and Comanche were already in Hobart and much of the fleet were still at sea. Enough sailing motivation was at hand to launch Teria in the middle of the festive season.

Weather at this time of year is hot and humid, the wet season rains were late so it was sunny too. Holidays so a horde of mostly powerboats out fishing and going to the barrier reef. The VHF radio to coast guard channel 22 was running hot with trip sheet logging in and out.. 

Did the usual Ross river launch and rigup, again it was uncrowded with plenty of parks. Then sailed to the down town pontoon to pickup the family about 2 pm for an afternoon sail in 15 knot NE breeze. The relatively new bimini shade was much appreciated and it was a battle for the shaded spots in the cockpit, out terrier Rex always found the best spot with a windward rail cooling breeze too. We sailed out to leeward of a sabot (8') racing fleet with dozens young sailors contesting the National title.

Conditions were right to close reach over to West point, Magnetic Island with some help from the outboard in the lee of the Island.

As soon as the anchor was down, "Scamp" the kayak was carrying our shore party to the beach. Stinger suits on, it was a good time for a swim in the warm sea at the calm beach front. Rex got swimming lessons, he's hardly ever swum before, we took him into a river once and he proved he was capable but definitely prefered hard land.  didn't want to go in, so a little prompting required, like dropping him in about 2-3m from shore, of course he could swim well! After awhile he tested the shallows then swam out to us, Hooray Rex, well done.

Rex's first sea swim, and the kayak that was lost on the way back

It was a nice sail back, jets flew out overhead and the stars came out. Suddenly i realized scamp the trusty kayak was gone!! We usually tow it behind on a rope. It had been gone for 5-30 minutes and its amazing how you don't register a towed tenders absence. A half moon provided little light to see it even if we backtracked. Scamp was lost, with that sinking feeling we would never see her again.

Back at port, the family went home and i anchored aboard Teria overnight behind the western break-wall.

Checked through camera photos and phoned my wife to check her mobile videos and photos. Like detectives, we established the time and place scamp disappeared. I added the wind direction and speed at the time and soon had a search and rescue plan for first light. It was likely to have blown ashore somewhere near Cape Palleranda about 5 miles from the overnight anchorage.