Next morning took the kayak for an early morning paddle at Horseshoe Bay.
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| A Junk rigged cruising yacht |
The nearby beach was a good place to test scamp's first anchor out. It's an old light weight "coral reef" grapnel (designed in the old days before reef damage became an issue - it's 4 heavy wire claws are designed to bend and release should it become caught on a coral head).
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| Lightweight anchor for scamp |
The small beach was separated from the main tourist beach by a mangrove creek, looked out for crocodiles but saw no signs (they usually don't go out this far offshore). Along the rocky shoreline birds flew and called out and rock crabs scurried away. It was nice and shady behind the hills and trees but soon the sun began to top the ridge lines, signalling time to get back to
Teria
(Although the April nights were cool the days were above average 31-32C, very hot for "autumn".)
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| 4 yachts |
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| Rocky shoreline |
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| Teria |
The first breeze came in from the South about 8 am, so sailed silently out of the anchorage. Motor sailed close inshore on a flat sea, something that was not wise to do when the usual 15-20 knot trade winds made for potentially dangerous rocky lee shores.
Went into Gowrie bay first then anchored in Florence Bay for lunch at 9.30am. Allot of birds were "talking" and kookaburras were laughing away - a happy bird bay. A dive boat and tinnie were the only other craft and a few beach campers made up the only other inhabitants. Good to re-visit a place where i'd first beach camped in 1979 and sailed "Jakkari" my Hartley TS16 in the 1990's. The bay had not changed one iota in all that time - brilliant. Just a few tracks gave access from the Islands east coastal road.
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| Florence Bay |
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| Leaving Florence Bay |
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| Arthur Bay |
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| Arthur Bay |
Soon was on course for Ross River. Motoring across a glassy flat sea. It got very hot around midday, rigged up steering lines from tiller to cabin to stay under the bimini and raised poptop out of the blazing sun.
The fuel tank level was getting lower, only about 30%, so throttled back half revs and dropped from 5 to 4 knots to conserve fuel and increase range. Picnic Bay dropped away on the starboard quarter, wasn't planning on any breeze at all.
But at 2 pm a light easterly sea breeze kicked in, so hoisted the light Genaker. However, the wind soon increased so was back to jib and full main. (In retrospect should've waited in a bay at magnetic until the breeze eventually came in. The other note was to bring extra fuel along next time. (in a 12 litre Jerry can), the old Johnno being a bit thirsty by today's standards.)
The breeze got up to an ideal 15 knots, so couldn't resist just reaching across the wind at full speed, came in close to Magnetic islands reef flat - exposed at low tide. Then close reached back past the port and into Ross River boat ramp around 6 pm as the sun went down.
