Palm Islands - Day3, return trip (trip #13)

Headed north and went through the passage between Fantome and Curacao Islands (map) . The waters were protected and the shrub and grass covered hills of Curacao were to windward which slowed the wind. Good fortune in the form of a southerly tidal set of 1-2 knot on the tail, carried Teria through the patchy wind zone under sail, the GPS said 5 knots over the ground.

In Challenger Bay - Curacao Island passage ahead, heading North

Curacao Island to windward

Looking astern - Palm Island to the south

Looking astern - L-R Curacao, Palm and Fantome Islands

The channel is wide and deep, it is sure a nice route for sailing through on the north setting tide.

Once clear the wind backed a bit and the sea got a bit lumpier, couldn't lay the Perlorus channel and was closing with the exposed sea coast on the lee, so started up "Johnno" and went from about 3 to nearly 6 knots over the ground motor-sailing. Checked the fuel level in the 25 litre tank, half a tank used and about 12 litres left to get home with (next long trip may carry about 10-15 litres extra in jerry cans)

This is a good example of the importance of an auxillary engine (for the majority of land-based sailors with regular commitments ashore at least)  It meant it would only take about 1 hour to reach safe lee shores waters again. The motor helps generate some apparent wind which feeds the sails and in turn reduces the fuel required. Without engine the same trip would have meant endless 2 knot tacking and taken all day maybe only reached Juno Bay for another night out. I had to be back to work so it also pays for itself in one trip if getting fired for not turning up on Monday was added to the equation.

But that thought was  not one to dwell on as the spectacular Island scenery slipped by as i consulted the chart (nice to be dry this trip). Soon passed the Fantome-Orpheus Islands channel a shallow coral reef pass into the good Juno Bay anchorage (it was plan B,  if it had to be run allot of tide table checking first , Terias 2 ft draft would make it safer and easier than for a 6 ft draft heavy yacht.)

Motor sailing to clear the lee shore

Smartphone navigation aid - as long as there's a mobile phone signal..!
Also good for text messaging , (ET) phone home and checking the weather forecast.

 The smart phone Nav app is a handy navigation aid. It was nice to know speed over ground and also in the unlikely event of a Pan Pan or Mayday situation the Lat Long coordinates could be read out over the VHF radio.

Map page - It's basic, it has helped out on a dark night before.

 The map page is most useful at night time, when visual cues like light-houses, Island hills etc can be confirmed , and their distance away is often difficult to judge. I still carry the hand-bearing compass/chart onboard as back up should the mobile app pack it in. So it's best to plan to "sail by day - anchor before night" but often when getting back a bit late after dark,,the mobile app helps allot.

 One day i may afford a proper GPS which would be far better (no range limit). Forgot to bring the old Garmin Nuvi along, it's a car GPS (with detail topo card) It can automatically calculate ETA (estimated time of arrival) - an often-asked question during boat-shore communication.

Orpheus Island - Exposed seaward side in prevailing NNE , E and SE winds. 

Came in about 100-200m from headlands on Orpheus's lee shore. This was more because of  dictated wind direction, high on the starboard bow, and trying to lay the Perlorus channel in one tack rather than curiosity (which did kill the cat they say..). The wind was only 5-10 knots NNE so not too rough for it.

Anyway, it bought me close to the Pioneer Bay lookout that i'd hiked to the day before. Yes quite steep and rugged. Nice wild country.

Orpheus sea cliffs - the lookout spot accessed from Pioneer bay on the other side

Curacao and Palm Islands astern 

 Astern the high dark green  blue Islands to the south looked picture perfect.

Soon I passed through the Orpheus-Pelorus channel (map), skirting the extensive reef flat now exposed at low tide at a safe distance. A wind shadow from Pelorus caused becalmed conditions so motored through and used the motor to gain much "windward ground" (without fighting the wind) in the calm lee of Pelorus Island.

It is about 12 nautical miles (17km) from Pelorus Island to Dungeness, Lucinda (map).

Once clear of the Northern point the wind and waves came in again so was able to sail close reaching on starboard tack at about 3 knots in light NE winds. This was good, a fast point of sail for Teria and kept the Lucinda sugar terminal about 30 degrees on the port bow to gain some windward searoom before final approach.

After several nautical miles the windward gain was enough to bear away and "crack the kite", or lightweight genaker. It's about twice the sail area of the jib. It set fairly well and added about 1 knot extra speed. It's simple set-up at present tack clipped to pulpit, rope to clew led back to quarter cleat and halyard to top.

Genaker set - Hinchinbrrook Island ahead, Lucinda on port bow

Palm Islands slip astern - L-R Pelorus and Orpheus

Sugar terminal as navigation reference point - need to stay well to windward

Rounding the end of the sugar terminal, still 6 km to land! Shoal waters

 Shoal waters began just after the sugar loading terminal, the tide wasn't low so didn't follow the lead lights in just beelined it with centerboard down (a reduceable 4 ft draft) and it stayed clear of the bottom.

Hinchinbrook Island loomed large and high to starboard, the iconic white clouds streaming from it's rainforested peaks. What a sight and a major destination in itself.

Used the channel lead lights on final approach. This made for a downwind run and tried wing and wing sailing, it would have been easier with a spinnaker pole ("one day...").

The lowering sun started breaking through and reflecting off the water, i was thankful for the shady bimini you only get half-fried.

The inner Lucinda wharf is pretty substantial, to take molasses ships, but these have to enter via the Hinchinbrook channel which begins up near Cardwell ~22nm (~40km) away to the NW.

Dropped the kite off Dungeness, but still kept sailing in with the main and jib. It's easy to keep them up far longer in a small boat with no worries. About 100m from the ramp Johnno was started and sails dropped for a far more controlled berthing at the floating pontoon. It was satisfying to see Teria   safely returned with awesome Hinchinbrook Island as back drop.

Stock-take of boat consumables

Fuel. I had about 8 Litres of fuel left from 22 litres at the start. (Next big trip I'll will stow at least another 15 Litres)

Water supplies fared much better at the start 35 litres was stowed in 3 drums (2 x 10L and one 15L ) and about 10-12 litres in the ice box (frozen 1-2 L bottles). Used 5 litres from the drums (one bath) (30L left) and about 6-8 litres from the ice box (as the bottles melted) for drinking and cooking.

Stove alcohol. The food was pre-cooked and only had to use the stove on night 2 to reheat dinner and boil 1 L of water. The Trangia stove used about one burner full (~100ml) of alcohol fuel. So the 0.5 L alcohol fuel bottle was heaps.

Chart with Terias approximate track for the whole trip. Day 2 in green and day3 in blue.

It was nearly sunset so the arrival was timely and far safer by day.

Being a Monday there were only a few other speed boater fishermen using the other side of the ramp while i was getting the trailer in.

Put on bulk amounts of insect repellent, especially "bushman" brand, it's a bit like wearing axle grease but worth it.  Long sleeves and long trousers too. The sand flies attack in hordes after dusk and those bites leave mosquito bites for dead as far as itch is concerned, and can itch for days.  Mozzies up here can carry very bad viruses like dengue fever (which can incapacitate for months) so best to put on maximum protection.

De-rigged in the back car park in about an hour. Then washed the boat/trailer/car with copious amounts of freshwater coming out a a large diameter 3/4" hose at the wash-down bay. It seems that Lucinda doesn't have water restrictions yet like overgrown bulging-at-the-seams semi-arid zone Townsville has. I guess it's because Ingham's population has stayed at 10,000 ever since i can remember and the Herbert river provides a great flow of fresh water from the rain-forested ranges to the west. Man and nature are better balanced here (NB: in these ranges is Wallerman falls, a 300m single drop waterfall, highest single drop fall in Australia..2 wd dirt road access, no caravans, well worth a visit)

Road trip

The night drive back took longer than the day drive - 3 hours. In a perfect world i would have anchored in Dungeness overnight and done the road trip by day, but time to work was near..

 took it easy to Ingham doing about 30-50 km/hr along dark narrow cane roads. Stopped at BP servo which has great lights to check tyre air pressures and repack the bearing buddies on the trailer with grease. Bearing failure on the night Bruce highway on a dark night was not an option. The pie and facilities also great. A moment to phone home and put the trip plan in too.

Some of the fishermen passed me on the highway, they had bigger trucks and lighter boats to haul. I edged along at 70-80 k/hr (still 40-45 knots), you just get the feeling what is comfortable speed. It still takes far longer to stop than a single car would, even with trailer brakes well adjusted.  The odd Kangaroo, horse or cow about. Unfortunately, A some fatal road accidents have happened on this stretch recently due to not seeing wild horses "brumbies" on the road in time (the herd was culled as a result)

Once the roadside lights of the city began to show the way better it was time to breath easy and home base was soon reached without incident.

Ute fuel stocktake. The major cost for the trip was tow-car fuel. Rough estimate about one and a quarter car tanks  was used up - approx, $80-90 worth of  petrol. The petrol was E10 - 10% ethanol mix 91 octane. Might try premium 98 octane next trip for more power.

Palm Islands - Day 3 sail Fantome Island, Challenger Bay (trip #13)

A dark, ominous looking, line squall cloud came through from the east next morning. However, Teria was very snug in Pioneer Bay as winds gusted up over 25 knots..(it would have been more in open waters.)  Some minor rain came with it and normally the pop-top would need to be down in these conditions to keep the cabin dry. The rains only fell heavily from the squall further south (Townsville) and mostly missed the Islands.

Squall line cloud passing over

Squall line cloud

I tried a new use for the bimini canvas. The poptop was raised with the bimini frames still on top. The canvas was pulled over the front of it to act as a rain-wind dodger. The cockpit cushions were added to the sides to add further protection when the boat yawed from side to side.

Raised cabin pop-top with bimini and seat swabs as spray dodger.

This worked fairly well and kept the cabin headroom at maximum height during the passing squall.

Before departure the pop-top was lowered and the bimini raised to full height.

The wind was ok to sail out engine-free. Always a nice way to leave a bay silently. Fortunately the days weather was better, much "cooler" (for summer 29C) , overcast with light to moderate NNE winds.

Headed south along the lee coast, the wind lasted awhile then became unreliable due to the hills blocking wind so motor sailed at low throttle when needed .

Hazard Bay ahead

Spotted a ketch rigged yacht leave Hazard Bay and turn south ahead of me. Crept past the bay, which has an exclusive resort and some coral heads that could surprise a boat.

Yanks Jetty

 Further south motor-sailed past Yanks Jetty.  It's a favoured landing spot due to the all tide floating pontoon jetty  and a National Park camp ground. It's for self-sufficient campers, (no water supply) A ferry may go there from Lucinda. It's a sheltered spot, good to tie up for a day trip and there were a few power boats alongside.

I didn't have that much time left so while the winds were good, decided to keep cruising to see as much of the Palm Islands group as possible.

My first video posted in blog! (and not a link to u-tube) It's basic, uncut, unedited, the winds roaring in the camera mic..

Once clear of Orpheus the wind picked up to sail across Juno Bay at a fair clip. In cruising the coral coast it is noted as a yacht anchorage and there was one yacht anchored there about a mile or two to windward. The second  yacht to be spotted on the trip. Juno is at the north end of Fantome (Eumilli) Island

Juno Bay  - Fantome Island 

Fantome Island and SW Islands

Once clear of the southern end of Phantom,  hardened up onto the wind close hauled..but it was too light so  motor sailed. Only a few petrol horses makes the boat point 20 degrees higher and go at 5 knot hull speed. Teria went into Challenger Bay, the south east end Greater Palm Island was on the bow, it has a yacht anchorage bay noted in cruising the coral coast.  .

Challenger Bay is mostly enclosed the the North, East and South by Islands owned by aboriginal people. Fantome (Eumilli), Curacao (Noogoo), Greater Palm  and a small SE island group (Esk, Brisk, Falcon, Eclipse, Fly, Havannah ). The waters are nicely protected from the weather . Palm Island is cloaked with trees, mostly rainforest and the community is in it's lee.

About midday decided to start the return trip. Put Teria about and headed northwards, close hauled on starboard tack.

Pioneer Bay, Orpheus Island (trip #13)

The 33 C and extreme ultra-violet of the day was on the wane by about 4 pm, so kitted up and headed toward Pioneer Bays beach in the kayak, about 150 m from the Teria   The fringing reef flat corals were a foot or two under the kayak. The tide was low so tied the kayak to a strong looking  rock on the exposed reef - sand flat.

Low tide Pioneer Bay

Beach meets reef flat at low tide

National Park camp ground sign

View from the picnic table - Pioneer Bay camp ground

The camp ground area is small but well shaded in all directions by trees at all times. It is high up on the beach front next to the granite outcrops and hill of the island. Facilities are simple -  a good composting toilet hut and picnic table. There are about 4-5 dome tent sites. Its a self sufficient site - bring own water, food and everything and take away rubbish. Usual park rules apply, no dogs or pets the main one.  Explore Australia - Pioneer Bay is a good website for camping info here (and all around Australia).

Long ago ( mid 1990's) a group of young friends and i landed on Orpheus Island to camp. We travelled across in my Hartley TS16 and Colton's 5 m half cabin speed boat. We walked across a narrow neck of the Island to the sea cliffs. A nostalgic place and it was time to refresh the memory.

There are no official National park tracks on the Island, this makes it a relatively pristine environment. There was an unofficial  trail leading SE away from the camp ground so set off to explore along that. A small compass in hand to navigate by.

About 100 m along up on a hill overlooking the bay are the ruins of the Pioneers House. Only some stone walls and bits of the wood stove remained. It was a haunting reminder of early European settlement, a goat herder once lived and worked here, perhaps 100 years ago. It would be interesting to learn more of the history of this hut and occupants.

Ruins of goat herders house

I had looked at the chart before leaving and it indicated that the island was narrow at this point, about 1 km wide and not too high so possible in the remaining hours of daylight.

The trail is pretty vague and the woodland trees about 8 -12 m tall and nearly closed canopy, so kept the compass out and noted the general direction of travel (and remember the 180 degree return bearing). The trail went up and then down into a dry creek bed before ascending again. The forest suddenly gave way  to an open grassy ridge zone near the exposed sea cliffs.

Hard to see trail -  compass

There were some small rock cairns made by previous hikers which marked the feint trail that few had ever walked on. I took note of these for the return trip.

Trail marker - to avoid losing the trail on the return trip

Near the top granite boulders protruded from the grassy windswept slopes, some standing like sentinels watching out to seaward.

Looking back toward Pioneer bay - The Teria is a small speck on the right side, which is also where the camp ground is. So the trail went through there somewhere.

The seaward side of the Island is quiet steep and very windswept, the vegetation is stunted by this. Low tussock, grasses and scrubs. Lichens clinged to exposed rocks. The varied hues of blue and green marked the fringe reef and drop off into deeper waters.

Looking south towards Curacao and Greater Palm Islands

The breeze blew in from the NNE, from the direction off Pelorus Island. A majestic looking, sea eagle soared along the ridge line from the south. It somehow glided almost straight into the wind direction without a beat, riding the up-draft, surely a master of the air.

View to the North, Pelorus Island.

Fringing reef from the cliff top

The lookout was steep and rocky enough to be a cliff face, the saddle would be about 50 - 60 m high. So moved carefully.

Allot of blue out there to contemplate.

Earth rise - from Apollo 8 gives a bigger picture of our place

Whew must've been nearly heat stroked! Bloody super el ninos, what on earth could be causing it?! The thermos full of iced water was very refreshing after the climb up. Humid 32 c breezes can only just cool you down a bit. After about 20 -30 minutes it was time to reluctantly make the descent and return to the boat. The tide was rising and the kayak was now moored about 50 m out in the bay, glad the mooring knot to the rock was well tied.

The kayak was in about a foot deep of water, so slowly waded out wearing sandals but also looking out for potential stone-fish. They look exactly like an underwater rock, have venomous spines that could quickly lead to a medical emergency.  The best thing to do was don't step on any rocks if possible, there was plenty of flat ground.

The reason for this awareness is that i have experienced the pain of stone fish venom myself. It was long ago on a beautiful South Pacific Island called Manihiki. Excruciating is the only way to describe the pain, and the foot swelled to double size. luckily it  happened about 50 m away from the Island doctor's residence and surgery so quick treatment (immerse in the hottest water you can stand) helped.

The kayak trip downwind was easier, having the backpack act as a backrest made for far less effort too.

Set up the solar panel hanging below the boom to catch more sun light and to give a bit more shade in the cockpit from the western sun. The solar regulator's LED glowed green too, a full battery charge.

Only 5 Litres of water was needed for a bucket bath, good to get the salt and sweat off. The cockpit seat cushions made good side shades too.

Once dusk fell,   set up the LED anchor light under the boom for dinner time. Heated up a pre-cooked meal with the Trangia stove on the cockpit floor. One burner full of fuel did that plus boiled water for tea and the litre thermos. Bought the big esky with many frozen ice bottles in it, these kept the cold drinking water going. A bit of toe cramp set in but the rehydration salts fixed it.

Went around and silenced all the persistently sleep-depriving noises such as slapping halyards and creaking rudder before turning in. But there was a new persistent noise - splash, sploosh, spalsh it went on an on..ok what is this one?! . The torch revealed scores of 10 - 15 cm long fish hunting down small thin 10 cm fish, the light attracted them and made for a surface breaking feeding frenzy..  So had to turn the LED light off and the fish immediately quietened down.

Cloaked in the new moon's darkness it was good to watch the electrical storm on the ranges about 20 km away. Lightning flashed across the western sky in huge arcs, a great spectacle. The yellow light glow from coastal towns was also visible. Ingham, Taylor's Beach and even Townsville's locations were marked by eerie glows in the sky.

Palm Islands cruise - Day2, Orpheus Island (trip #13)

Sailed across a narrow straight and was soon motor-sailing along the lee (west)  coast of Orpheus Island (map). It is mostly a boat-accessed National Park and has no roads.

Arriving at Orpheus Island, (Perlorus Island behind) 

Orpheus is 11 km long N-S and about 1-2km wide, The area is about 13 km2 so it's a fair sized island and it was hard to see another boat anywhere. Much of the island has a fringing coral reef so skirted this and stopped for lunch at a small mangrove creek bay on the NW side. The tide was high , though falling, so motored over the reef fringe and anchored on a rock ledge bottom in about 1.5m deep water with a 1-2 knot current coming out of the small creek.

Orpheus Island - Mangrove creek 

Mangrove creek

Rocky Headland

The peace was soon interrupted by March Fly attack. They are about 1cm long and like to "bite" peoples limbs. At first nothing is felt then a sudden jab of the proboscis into skin soon makes you jump. The mosquito coils didn't deter them so had to resort to swat without mercy, Luckily they are slower than household flies, the cap brim came in handy. The survivor of the "dirty dozen" survived to hopefully tell the others onshore of the danger.

March Fly

Bought a folding camping chair out for the first time. The type i had just fit the width of the cockpit and it increased the luxury star rating of the Teria considerably. It could also be set up on the cabin floor.

Camper chair in the cockpit - Armchair sailing

Got away before the tide went down too far and headed south for  Pioneer Bay (map). It has a National Park camp ground. Picked up a public mooring in the deserted bay. The rope was huge and heavy about 2" (40mm) diameter, so tied on with Terias 1/2" (12mm) mooring rope.

It was the inshore one of 3 blue mooring buoys , there are also white fringe reef marker buoys, all to minimize damage to coral bombies on the sea floor from boat anchor chains. The light yellow sandy beach of the camp ground beaconed.

Pioneer Bay camp ground beach

Pioneer Bay is actually 2 bays in one. The north one has the camp ground beach and the south bay has the James Cook University Research Station about 1 km away.

A look at my chart, it covered a large area so doesn't have too much detail. The 6 km long wharf at Lucinda gives an idea of the scale. Navigating in close relies on looking out carefully and going slow with the centre-plate down.

It was getting very hot about 33 C plus humid (70%) , so rested until about 3 pm in the shade and breeze funnelling through the forward facing fore-hatch. I was going to call the posts "summer cruise" but this doesn't match the reality "hot sea sauna " would be closer.

This year the regular wet season has been stunted by a Super-el Nino event..it's the second year of this here. About a quarter of the usual 1100 mm or so rainfall fell in Townsville in 2015, it was below 300 mm probably a (bad) record.  Queensland has a severe drought, some were relieved by some recent rain. But any rains are usually just patchy cells, not the broad drenching monsoonal type of rain (Dam filling rain). Luckily the rain showers have been happening for about 2 months to date which has certainly greened the landscape again.