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.
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| water supply |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Anchored in Enterprise channel, Dungeness |
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| Sunset over Cardwell ranges |
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| 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).
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| A level seat.. |
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| 30 degrees heel, dried out. |
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| 1:150,000 scale chart of Lucinda |
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| 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.
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