Hinchinbrook Island trip - Southern channel to Dungeness, road trip home (Day 5)

 Mon 28 Sept 2020.

After a good sleep and morning coffee, departed Haycock Island about 8 am. The early morning conditions were nearly flat calm, so the southern channel proved to be easy motoring at hull speed (in total contrast to the 25knot SE er the previous evening) timing the seabreeze/landbreeze-calms is essential up here.

Southern channel - Early morning calm, Lucinda ahead

Hilly forested shoreline and clearing skies seaward

Tides are the other thing. it was high tide at 8am so they would be falling on approach to Dungeness harbour entrance. A grounding on the falling tide would mean being stuck for 4-6 hours until it rose again, so extra care needed.

The southern channel shores of Hinchinbrook are also spectacular. Allot of fishermen's speedboats were making the most of the flat conditions too. Teria's GPS showed 6.5 knots over the ground, the falling tidal current was running with us.

Fishing "tinnies" heading westward along the southern channel 

Reached "The Bluff" which protected a mangrove creek which a few tinnies were fishing in. From there was a course change toward Lucinda wharf.

The Bluff - the estuary opens up here and becomes more exposed to seaward

The Easterly seabreeze began to increase around 10 am, reaching 15-20 knots quickly. The outgoing tide against the wind and seas created uncomfortable short steep choppy waters. So throttled back to do about 2 knots and not ship too much water over the bow. Too busy with spray flying to take any photos.

It took awhile to reach the Dungeness channel markers, skirted around river mouth sandbanks, there was one area of muddy water where depth was impossible to see visually, so crept forwards with the centerplate fully lowered and it never grounded.

Once inside Dungeness harbour the water is deep again. Temporarily anchored among the boats near the ramp and resort facilities, as some were away from their moorings. Time for breakfast and do some road trip preparation, removing sails, lashing the bimini down, stowing gear securely and emptying full fresh water containers over the deck to wash it down (also reduce road trip weight)

Entering Dungeness

Dungeness Harbour - final rest stop

Dungeness Harbour - boat ramp area to right

The ramp retrieval went well. Tied up at the end of the ramps floating pontoon while bringing the car and trailer down (Fisho's tinnies could easily go around, they are far faster than a solo TS to launch/retrieve also most had several crew as well. School holiday volume traffic)

A nice wash-down bay had a good freshwater hose. so gave boat/trailer her a quick squirt down. Boat trailers were queing, so out of there fast and into the long spacious de-rigging laneway to get the mast down and secure for the road.

Rigging down lane - Dungeness

The road trip home was fairly good. Stopped in Halifax a small cane farming town (with sugar mill) about 10 km from the ramp for a rest and final check over of the trailer. Halifax also has a good petrol station. Took different back roads through the cane fields at 40-60 km/hr where there was no traffic and emerged at the sugar cane township Ingham (pop about 10,000) which has many repair and other facilities etc for visiting trailer boaters if needed.

Halifax

The Bruce Highway to Townsville had holiday traffic, and the first 50 km had allot of roadworks with red light stops (manned by traffic control contractors). My cruising speed was about 90 km/hr so a tail of cars would develop, but i simply pulled over at roadworks red light and let them all overtake when it went green, then be the last vehicle in "the convoy". Several of these roadwork stops occurred upto about 50 km's south of Ingham. After that it was ok because many overtaking lanes are located on the final stretch. Once in Townsville city's outer limits there was far less traffic than usual and better multilane roads kept traffic flowing.

The boats supplies lasted well. 

Fuel: Used about 25% of the petrol carried. Only 10 litres used out of 42 litres aboard. (Good thing about 4 stroke outboard fuel, no oil mix, so it could be poured into the towing car after trip and consumed fairly quickly.  Next boat trip the fuel is fresh from the bowser. Not really a possibility with 2-stroke fuel, it's likely to just get stale fuel/oil mix for the next trip)

Fresh water. About 25-30 liters out of 60 litres was used on the trip. A good safety margin. Also carried "Aquatabs" (chlorination tablets) for emergency purification (eg creek water) to extend if town-water supply ran out.

Food supply.  About half of the regular dry/tinned food was used. (also had some rice in-case of a several week forced outing). The Trangia alcohol stove used about 0.5 litre of fuel with 1 litre spare (30% of supply).

From a supply viewpoint, the Investigator 563 is probably capable of doing even 10-day unassisted cruises with 2 crew, providing its well stocked up, there is enough stowage room aboard. 

Hinchinbrook Island cruise - Hinchinbrook Channel (Day 4)

Sunday 27th September 2020.

Motored across to Gould Island early, while the bay was still flat calm and anchored off the lee sand spit for breakfast.

Gould Island

At 10 am a NNW breeze of 5 knots came in so set sail for Cardwell. Light conditions for the drifter for a couple of hours. A hot sun beat down, the Bimini's shade made it bearable.

The wind backed to a NE seabreeze and freshened to 15-20 knots. Dropped the drifter and broad reached at full speed with full jib and main into the Hinchinbrook Channel. The plan was to visit Cardwell but concluded the wind was very favorable for a long south bound leg, and Cardwell had become a lee shore as well, so made the best of it.

Hinchinbrook Channel chart

Hecate point passed by quickly, as Teria heeled with a bone in her teeth,  at 5-6 knots. The channel was miles wide at the northern end, so stayed closer to the Islands shores than mainlands mangroves andsand bars to leeward. There also happened to be a favorable south setting tidal current as well so kept sailing at pace.

Further along encountered a patch of light winds behind a large mountain, so motored a mile or so. Then the NE wind returned, funneled between a gap in two mountain ranges. Teria reached past Gayundah creek, heeling nicely. It is a well known yacht anchorage and several were anchored there. 

Gayundah creek - reaching toward anchored yacht

The scenery in this area is spectacular. White clouds streamed to leeward of the mountain peaks, capping them like snow. 

Cloud capped mountains and mangrove forest

3 other creeks, similar to Gayundah, on this stretch are good anchorages too. I had the wrong scale chart, which had no channel navigation beacons on it. Just picked them up by eye and kept to the correct side of them. But did miss one  and sailed right across a river mouth sand bar! fortunately the tide was ok and Teria shallow, just a confused bunch of small standing waves and yellowish water marked its location in the tidal current.

Creek entrance 

Rainforested hills meet channel

Looking NE 

Wilkin Hill (145m) and Leefe peak (256m) passed to port,  admired the rain-forest clad cliffs descending to the waters edge, full of bird calls as the boat silently glided on by. The wind eased off  further in the lees of these hills, so motored the narrower southern miles of the channel. Mangrove forests with myriad smaller channels, fishermen's paradise, passed to starboard.

Passed Haycock Island around 5 pm,  thought there could be time to make the 10 nm or so to Dungeness , so motored on. However, a stiff 25 knot SE  headwind hit on rounding Reis Point. Furled the jib and motored into it and a sharp chop, reduced to 2-3 knots speed. The jib unfurled at the top, so dropped and stowed it below to stop windage/further problems, and pressed on a little more, spray flying from bow to cockpit.

Haycock Island - first pass

Near Reis  Point

Watched some bigger yachts gliding effortlessly downwind in the other direction (motoring, sails furled) so decided to do a U-turn and follow them. This turned out to be a wise decision as they went to  Haycock Island to anchor for the night. 

Sundown over Cardwell ranges - Haycock Island anchorage

Anchored near about 3 yachts and 100 m from a houseboat near the north end of the steep, mid channel, rain-forested islet. The sun went down, the mozzie net soon covered the pop-top, coils were burning away repelling sand-flies, and dinner was good. Was tired from the long day-sail so turned in about 8 pm. 

Then the houseboat party ramped up. A big 240v generator powered a huge stereo which thumped away at 80-100 bpm to raucous abandonment.  The boisterous 2 storey rectangular box was lit-up like a floating Christmas tree/tavern with sound amplification (Sound travels much further on calm waters, than in a built-up area with council reg's ashore) 

It was impossible to sleep, so up-anchored and quietly idled away, past the yachts and to the other side of Haycock Island to re-set the pick. Amazingly it was nearly perfectly silent there, only about 400 m away but the small but high well vegetated Islet blocked all the stero's thumps etc really well.

Live and learn. That's the good thing about boats, they can be moved to more favorable locations easily be it weather or wildlife related.

Haycock Island - chart

Hinchinbrook Island - Zoe bay, east coast, Brooke Islands to Cape Richards (Day 3)

 Saturday 26 Sept 2020.

Caught up on sleep (after 2-3 hrs on first night) Woke to the "Northwind 7" TS motoring past about 8 am and the stunning views of cloud and rainforest cloaked mountains.

Other yachts were also up-anchoring too and most were heading south in the opposite direction to nearby Lucinda. The trip north was a longer one with few boats to be seen at all.

Had to motor all the way as the weather was unusually dead flat calm again. The Tohatsu sailpro 6 pushed Teria along at 5 knots and with no range-anxiety at all.  This was just the situation where the reliable fuel miser motor came into its own and made the entire trip feasible in the week long time frame.

The first stop was the bay west of Agnes Island, mentioned in "Cruising the coral coast". The land out here was a bit more windswept and scrub-like. A few km's westward the Thonsborne trail met the sandy beaches tucked under the towering mountains above, if any hikers or boats were there they were unseen, dwarfed by the huge landscape. 

Eva Island, off Cape Sandwich

A light 5 knot SE seabreeze kicked in , so set sail Northwards but was soon motor sailing to keep the speed up and traverse the length of long sweeping beaches with sand dunes. Was able to steer for Eva Islet off Cape Sandwich keeping the motor assisted sails drawing (this reduces revs required and saves fuel)

Decided to take the opportunity and head for Brooke Islands group as the weather was forecast to remain good for the day. These Islands are about 15nm off Cardwell and about halfway to the barrier reef. Way out in exposed waters territory.

Brooke Islands

The Islands formed a beautiful chain of rainforest green humps, laced together with light green coral reef and surrounded by azure blue waters. A magical place that had to be sailed along, slowly ghosting at about 1 knot. Birds were happily living there in the National Park and a marine National park is over the entire area too. One of natures' gems protected.

South of Brooks, a few "reef boats" zoomed by about half mile off, returning from a mornings fishing or diving trip. These are usually about 5-8m long with powerful outboards or inboard engines which can get them out there quickly during the calm mornings and run back downwind when the breeze kicks up (They cost about 3-10 times more than Teria and consume that much more fuel too, but are made for well-funded no-nonsense boaters with limited time afloat. 

Brooke Islands

Teria ghosted along the lee side of the group, slowly passing a barnacle encrusted floating object - a lost divers' flipper, floating for months in the ocean.. Stayed outside pyramid shaped bouys which marked the no anchoring zones near the fringing reefs and anchored for late lunch off a sand cay beach on the Northern end of the small archipelago.

It would have been an amazing place to snorkel, but being solo it was too risky. Only an activity to be done in a buddy system with someone able to operate the boat onboard. (so minimum 3 person crew).

The VHF radio now picked up the crackle of Cairns marine rescue as well as those of Cardwell and Townsville. It was geographically between Townsville and Cairns. At least help if needed was within radio range in all directions here (and no need to last resort of the EPIRB)

The Offshore Islands from this point north are quite different from the ones to the south. These Islands have beautiful dense rain-forest cover, while the southern ones are often windswept scrubby rocks. To the north i could see the Barnard Islands and Dunk Island in the distance. Westward behind Hinchinbrook the Cardwell ranges cloaked in rainforest stretched northwards toward Tully and Innisfail. This area is its own cruising ground with Cardwell as the base ramp.

Beach at Brooke Islands

Hand-steering for long distances like this sure makes an old fella tired, so a good feed, re-hydrate a good recovery nap did wonders. It also brings thoughts of auto-pilots to mind. (like the Raymarine ST1000 tiler pilot..) For now a tiller-brake and remote steering ropes will do. These ropes allow me to sit in the hatchway under the shady bimini/ pop-top and steer from there when motoring.

A bit of afternoon sea-breeze came up about 3pm. So set sail for Gould Island, but with time running out , changed course for the closer Cape Richards. Approached this an hour or so later, running downwind on a broad reach.

Cape Richards

The Cape was the last bastion of permanent human habitation on Hinchinbrook. A classy resort once hid away among the forest overlooking a perfect beach, and it used to welcome yachties at the beach bar in the 1980's Alan Lucas reports in my old CCC. But it is no more today. Nature and economics won out. A cyclone decimated it, and much later a bush fire sadly destroyed what remained of the abandoned ruins. 

Sailed on to the first sheltered embayment near the Cape. Green sea-turtles surrounded Teria, it must have been their sea-grass feeding ground and have never seen so many in one place before! The area looked a potentially exposed to a bit of wave action, so motored a mile or so further along to a National park camp ground on the west shore of Missionary bay. 

National Park anchorage, Missionary Bay

Rounding the final headland there, smoke from a family's beach side fire indicated the first people on shore since Zoe Bay. The sheer scale of Missionary bay was mind blowing. A postcard over water sunset followed by a dome of stars later were other highlights.

Missionary Bay sunset

The other good thing was mobile phone reception returned here. The phone and internet signal had been cut off  since somewhere off Lucinda. So it was nice to catch up with family again and switch the star identifying app, 

The ice in the esky was all melted by now, so ate the last fresh fruit. Started on the dehydated and tinned foods. (the precooked meals lasted first 2 days on ice)

Hinchinbrook Island cruise - Dungeness to Zoe Bay (Day 2)

 Fri 25 Sept 2020.

To comfortably cruise the East Coast of Hinchinbrook in a small boat requires a good weather window. Even before leaving Townsville, the long range weather forecast was watched carefully..on apps like Seabreeze, Willy weather wind. Mostly for the forecast wind and sea heights, also the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) for synoptic charts which show the isobars and pressure systems affecting wind strengths. September is still middle of the northern dry season so rain was unlikely. Generally SE to NE seabreezes blow most days at 15-20 knots, with winds easing off at night. but passing high pressure systems down south can weaken the winds for a few days.

The wind was forecast light with slight sea for a few days, so decided to visit the east coast first up and hopefully reach the more sheltered waterways off the north coast and Channel before conditions piped up again. Even if daily seabreezes kicked in early they would generally help north bound sailing. but the main problem is finding a calm enough anchorage and not being blown onto a lee shore.

Departed Dungeness early and headed into flat calm conditions under motor. Followed the red nav bouys and fishermen's boats out, then turned and headed past the sugar sheds at 5 knots and followed the 6 km long sugar loading jetty out (as shoal waters closer to the Island) 

Departing Dungeness for Hinchinbrook Island

The channel out of Dungeness

Lucinda sugar sheds, Molasses wharf shed on right

Lucinda sugar jetty

Large Catamaran and powerboat overtake

Lucinda bulk sugar loading terminal, 6 km from land

Set course for Zoe Bay once the shallows were cleared, still flat calm. Had the main up in case any wind came and for awhile a light SW land breeze pushed Teria along silently at 3 knots. The wind shadow of the Island soon had the motor going all the way into Zoe bay.

These videos show the contrast between motoring and sailing. Noisy but fast/reliable vs slow but peaceful.

Anchored off the South Zoe creek entrance and National Park camping ground. Closer than the few cruising catamarans and other yachts.

Took the kayak in and pulled up in the creek near about 4 power boats. Chatted with a bloke in a substantial sized camp, then walked about 1 km through rainforest up to Zoe falls base pool. Then up a steep hillside to the top pools of the falls for great views. A hiking group was up there and had a chat or two, most people like to know where you originated from and how you got there. Solo sailing an 18 fter probably an unusual story. They were on a 5-day trek of the Thonsborne trail, there were quite a few fit middle aged there, so it's not just for the young only. (other groups may have arrived by boat)

Zoe Bay vista

South Zoe falls

Zoe Bay from top of falls lookout

South Zoe creek, camp ground landing

Zoe Bay beach

Motored across the Bay past about 5-6 cruising vessels 30-50 footers, mostly catamarans and one mono hull. The mountain to beach scenery is spectacular, world class. Dropped anchor off North Zoe creek, applied the insect repellent, then explored it with the kayak. It's alot larger than the other creek, with a reasonable tidal entrance for shoal draft boats (has a few scattered coral rocks) bit soon drops into some deep pools among mangroves. 

Met a couple on a Northwind 7 trailer sailer, their boat nestled against the beach. (It's shallower draft than an Investigator, but is a much larger boat at 22 ft loa) they were well prepared for creek anchoring with a pop-top sandfly net (from Canada) and a 12v fan below. Definitely experienced TS cruisers. Their route was similar to my one, anti clockwise out of Dungeness, as the prevailing winds are favorable on the east side and easy to get back against the wind in the sheltered channel. 

Saw a 40 ft Wharram cat anchored further up the creek. A crazy speed boat came out at planning speeds, although the wake was fine in the kayak, it messed with the Northwind TS nosed in on the beach a fair bit with the skipper holding it off while the wake hit them. 

Decided to stay anchored out away from the sandflies. Found the old mosquito net up in the forward locker and draped it over the pop-top. Also lit a mosquito coil in the cabin as usually done and had no problems with the biting insects. 

Mt Bowen, Zoe Bay

North Zoe creek

Regarding boat wakes in anchorages, I've found that the Investigator 563 seems to handle them fairly well and nothing has fallen over dangerously onboard yet (even the lit up Trangia stove, touch wood). Maybe its the permanently low center of gravity of the lead keel of an I 563? 

Hinchinbrook Island cruise (trip #17), road trip & Dungeness (Day 1)

Thursday 24 Sept 2020.

 A long awaited trip to Hinchinbrook Island was finally possible. The Island is a large continental Island National Park located between Lucinda and Cardwell. It is uninhabited with no permanent buildings, except for a few camping grounds which hikers and boaters can pitch a tent. The Island is about 35 km long N_S and 25 km wide up at the northern end. Yet it's "hidden" between Townsville and Cairns on a beautiful stretch of wet-tropical coastline. Small farming or forestry towns are dotted along the coastal fringe, backed by world heritage listed rain-forested mountains.  Boating is mostly done in the  Hinchinbrook channel near Lucinda (Dungeness) or Missionary Bay at the north end (from Cardwell) but when the weather is right some boats visit the east coast or nip-out to the great barrier reef. 

It was to be Teria's biggest cruise to date. It's about 140 kilometers by sea to go around the whole Island, and having never done it before estimated it may take 7 days. My 1980's copy of "Cruising the Coral coast" by Alan Lucas helped trip planning. 

I packed 42 litres of petrol and 60 litres of fresh water, as well as 10 days of food supply aboard. (26 litre icebox for first 2 days, then dried and tinned food after) It was probably overkill, but the boat could carry it and better to be safe than run short miles from anywhere.

water supply

Fuel supply

The other supply and camp gear items were also checked over. Stove/fuel/matches, cutlery and dishes, insect control, sunscreen and protective clothing, batteries and chargers, Navigation, toilet gear, safety gear..the list is long and even one critical item left out could make a huge difference or wreck the trip.

Hinchinbrook Island region

After final preparations, the ute with Teria on trailer, departed at 11.30 am. The road trip from Townsville to Dungeness harbour is about 140 km's. Holiday traffic and Highway roadworks south of Ingham cause some delay. Turned off  onto a quiet local road and was soon at the boat ramp at Dungeness, the southern gateway to Hinchinbrook Island (and Palm Islands).

Although the 4 ramp lanes were busy with speed boats, there was still no hassle at the generous rigging up lane near the park and ramps. Once rigged i waited until there was a lull in the ramp traffic and backed Teria into the sea. The boat slid off and was tied to the floating pontoon dock at the side of the ramp, while the ute was parked among the many trailer rigs. The car-boat trailer park is huge, with plenty of overflow unmarked dirt parking space as well, but found a sealed park up the back. 

Dungeness, boat rigging lane

Dungeness is well facilitated - Pubs, convenience store, boating resorts with docks, public toilets and bait/tackle/ice shops. Charter boat companies operate from here - renting fishing boats, houseboats and water taxis to take hikers over to Hinchinbrook Island.  

It was 3pm as Teria left the dock. Bit like a beached seal entering the sea, slow and ungainly on land ,, then comfortable in it's true element again. The conditions looked too rough outside the river entrance with a 25 knot Sou'Easter  kicking up a nasty looking chop. So best to anchor in the sheltered estuary for the night and depart early to get clear of the port before the daily seabreeze stirred it up too much.

Motored upstream, past many moored vessels and found an open patch to anchor. Re-heat dinner and make a cuppa on the Trangia stove and get a good nights rest in calm waters. 

Anchored in Enterprise channel, Dungeness

Sunset over Cardwell ranges

Cabin, fore-peak well stocked. Pop-top in "dodger" position.

But a navigation error became apparent at 10.30 pm when the keel grounded as the tide fell.  Teria slowly tilted over, so had to place everything that could fall over or move on the low side.  We were bilge-on sandbank by midnight. Investigators sit at 30 degrees heel when dried out. This might not sound allot but it's fairly uncomfortable and slow to move around. Found the anchor with a small search light, safely away from the hull, so got some sleep as she rose up imperceptibly with the incoming tide (about 2.4 m  or 8 ft range that night, its floor to ceiling height in a house).

A level seat..

30 degrees heel, dried out.

1:150,000 scale chart of Lucinda

Chartlet in CCC (that i didn't look at when anchoring, the sandbank is well indicated)

The phone alarm clock rang at 4 am, floating free with one hour before high tide turning, so motored off and anchored in the deep Chanel area, between moored vessels to get more sleep.

I had forgotten to pack my 1:50,000 scale chart and the GPS aboard was for hiking (with no marine charts loaded). The 1:150,000 scale chart aboard didn't have enough detail. Tiredness from the road trip etc (and being too blase' as anchored here before) could also have been factors.

Anyway this incident was enough motivation, to vow to become more diligent at navigation in future to avoid tidal strandings or worse. Have the correct scale and detailed marine chart of area aboard. Also a marine GPS and electronic depth sounder (to check depths when anchoring) were on the wish list.

This was a good place for the lesson, in a sheltered river on a soft sandbank..far better than an offshore coral head or rocky reef. Also as it occurred overnight meant no sailing time was lost.