Tiller Pilot - self steering system

 Recently installed an ST1000+ tiller-pilot on Teria and went for a test sail to Magnetic Island. 

Definitely a game-changer for singlehanded sailing,  "Tyranny of the helm" is no more thankfully.  the pilot is powered by Teria's 12 volt, 105amp deepcycle battery. It can hold Teria on course for hours, so old skipper can rest, lookout, navigate, reduce sail or attend to other tasks and the boat won't veer off course tack or gybe unexpectedly etc. Takes allot of worry out of sailing to a destination and can arrive far less tired than before. Well worth all the time and effort to set up. 

The ST1000+ is made by Raymarine (now owned by FLIR, Teledyne) It has an inbuilt fluxgate compass and a screw driven push-pull rod that connects to the tiller. 

I use it in it's simplest mode. Just get Teria sailing and well balanced on course, connect pilots arm to tiller, then press "Auto" button to engage the pilot. Other buttons can adjust course by 1 or 10 degrees port or starboard and a "standby" button disengages (freezes) the pilot's arm (then manually disengage from tiller)

To turn pilots power on or off,  there is a switch in the cabin's electrical cupboard.  It's in a 3 gang switch board with a 10amp glass "slo-blow" fuse  (12 amp is recommended, but no-one up here has that size). 

Safety. Now man-overboard could mean bye bye boat over the horrizon. Teria bow and stern rails connected with staunchion lifeline wires all around gunwales plus a safe cockpit area. I now always wear a belt bag with PLB (personal locator beacon) and a 150 offshore inflatable life-jacket for the worst case scenario. The Personal Locator Beacon has GPS in it too, so is quick and accurate but hope it's never needed.  Other measures to stay onboard, are pick the best weather conditions/times and set up correct sail area/routes in advance (to avoid worst rough stuff). And always "one hand (or both legs) for the ship, one hand for yourself" if moving foward on deck, windward side and sit down when doing a task. Read a few stories on this subject, some good and some fatal. The good ones had PLB's and life jackets.

Bought my ST1000 from Road Tech Marine in Townsville. Couldn't find an 8" ram-arm extension rod anywhere here, so made up a jury-rigged one for the first test sail. (Have parts on order through Boating and RV, Townsville)

Electrical cupboard - new ply backing board holds 3 gang switchboard, Mains switch and solar charging regulator

The jury extension wasnt strong enough on port tack, so rigged a shock cord to assist tiller-pilot with weather helm force

ST1000 steers and Tohatsu sailpro 6hp push Teria into 10 knot Sou'easter and 2-3 foot waves, bit bumpy but best/shortest way to get back to Townsville early mornings

Sailing back from Magnetic Island on port tack reach, the ST1000 in operation.

The tempoary ram extension eventually gave out at its join (just a 19mm low density poly pipe tube sleeved over ss rod end). So reverted to hand steering and sometimes the Huntington helm impeder (tiller lock) (which sometimes helped self steering for over a minute ant a time if the wind was foward of the beam, a good back up. The helm impeder is also great around the river estuary etc)

  

Trip #18, days 3-4. Magnetic Island and back to Townsville

 Day 3. Had a lazy morning to relax and tidy up aboard, among the larger cruising yachts at anchor.

Here are photos of Teria's latest daytime cruising interior layout 

Cabin layout

Starboard forepeak - storage

Port forepeak - storage

Starboard main cabin - table space

Port Main cabin - Nav nook

In the above cabin photos note: New attachment points for curtains were added and worked well. Wooden blocks were glued to the coachroof insides with silastic type sealant (incase they need to be moved later) and stainless steel screws were used as the hook points for the expanding curtain wires onto with own end hooks. (Re-used the forepeaks curtains and wires). For the saloon windows "curtains"  only the top expanding curtain wires were fitted  (from Bunnings hardware - curtain wires kit).  These make good tea-towels or wet clothes lines. No need for proper curtains or the lower wires just yet.

While anchored, the sails were reefed down.  (#2 jib hanked on and the main has 1 reefing point) This saves going on deck later in fresh wind open waters , a safer/easier option.

Headed out and encountered a fresh 15-20 knot wind with 1m seas, which made it difficult to use the short route to Townsville (on the eastern coast of Magnetic Island) which would be a painfully slow windward bash into steep seas. Instead sailed westwards with sea and wind on the quarter along the North coast of the Island. At first boatspeed was about 4-5 knots, then the wind kept increasing in strength so after an hour boat speed was 6-7 knots on the GPS! (which is about the quickest Teria has ever travelled at sea, tail current perhaps?). 

After rounding Liver point into Rollingstone bay area (west end of Island), the wind was much reduced by the hills. At first light winds bent around the point, then motoring began in the Islands'  wind-shadow area, and continued on to west point where a fresh breeze on the nose resumed. Some hefty big cabin-cruisers were able to bash straight into the fresh 20knoter back to Townsville, but i anchored off West Point beach for an overnight stay. Called Coastguard on VHF radio to extend the trip-sheet return by 24 hours. Unfurled and lowered the #2 jib to the deck (less windage , no chance of unfurling accidentally) In the past West point has proved to be a good lunch-break and swim anchorage, so i thought it might be ok for overnight anchoring as well.. 

West point Magnetic Island

Make shift sun shade (and drying out shirt)

Nice sunset from West point - looking towards Bay rock

 

Echo sounder/ fish finder display

The echo-sounder worked well,  (aka "fish finder"). Top left screen shows Depth (m), water temperature, battery voltage and local time. The corrugated bottom profile is caused by the boat pitching in small waves, fish blip in water colum and "noise" at top (the transducer is transom mounted, it's only 1-2 cm underwater at rest, it may pitch out momentarily above surface at times? but the depth readout always remains steady). Figured 2.8m would be a good depth with the forecast low tide.

About 8pm,  it was apparent that the anchorage didn't have enough protection from small waves coming in from several directions at the same time. Waves bent around the island here, forming a confused sea. Perhaps changing tides also played a part, hard to see much at night. The result was that Teria had a very uncomfortable confused motion so couldnt get any sleep. 

So around 10pm, decided to motor 7 miles upwind to the  "Duckpond". However, there was an unusual late fresh breeze (15-20knots?) but decided to have a go anyway. At first Teria only crept ahead  at 2.5 knots to stop too much bow spray flying aft and to clear a wide shoal draft area (~2m deep).

 Headed into the wide but shallow "west chanel" between Magnetic Island and the mainland (Cape Palleranda). In these condistions at night, it was almost essential to have the GPS chartplotter, sounder and red lit compass for this first major attempt at night-navigation. It's  next-level above day-time navigation.   Also it proved essential to have the ultra long shaft outboard powerfull enough 6hp outboard  in these conditions, so the prop remained submerged 99.9% during wild pitching (did cavitate it twice mid chanel though) and it's power/high torque propellor could overcome the considerable windage drag on the hull/rig. Also the completely lowered jib was snug and helped reduce windage allot.  It seemed to be a pitch black night except for distant city lights. The cabin acted like a spray dodger if sitting on the cockpit floor, but it was zero-viz ahead protection, so had to have a good look and get soaked every minute or so.

First headed over towards Cape Palleranda, (to avoid hitting middle reef and hopefully find smaller waves) The seas got a bit better over there so could increase to 3.5 knots GPS speed. The echo-sounder allowed minimum depths to be avoided, i found that less than 3m deep caused the waves to get much  more violent, so heading deeper whenever this happened reduced the motion.

Passed close to a fishing shoal where a couple of rugged fishermen in a tinny were still fishing in the uncomfortable conditions. As Rowes Bay was approached, the seas kept improving , so speed could be increased to 4, then 4.5 knots. The seabreeze should have died off by this late hour, but unusually it just kept blowing fresh well into the early hours and from a direction with maximum fetch for seas to become rough for any small craft. Felt safe again, once "The Strand" (Townsville's tourist beachfront) was abeam.

Entered the Duckpond around midnight, crawled in at 1 knot because there was a confusing myriad shore lights (port/ships) mixing with nav lights and anchored vessell lights. Used a strong torch to see hulls, some had no lighting at all. Used the Casino building as a known landmark, it had a distintive green light on this approach (but can change to purple..) 

Finally the anchor ratted down, the anchor light went up and the 3 nav lights went off. Thankfull for flat waters again for a decent sleep. It always feels good to anchor in a reliable safe harbor after a challenging time at sea.

Day 4: 

The Sunrise was a welcome sight. Mornings in the duckpond are often spectacular and the vessels there are interesting. 

Duckpond sunrise - Port bulk loading facility

Castle Hill and cruising yachts

Catamarrans and Teria can use the uncrowded shallow area, Townsville port gantries behind Ross creek rockwall.

Duckpond - Ports cargo docks and bulk sugar sheds on right (also a cruise ship dock)

Deep sea cutter rig cruiser - "The Strand" behind

World cruising 60-70ft motor-sailing ketch rig

Converted mackeral boat - Magnetic Island behind

Cruising yachts - Duckponds breakwall (and "Maggy")

Casino and breakwater marina - new under building construction. 

Didn't delay and headed off for Ross River early (as it's usually calm conditions early mornings). Motored out and found the wind/waves were still from the SE but moderated to about 10 knots. Teria was ok going straight into it at 4 knots. Crossed the main channel of the port while it was quiet, passed the outer bulk loading berth and new rockwall extension with its channel dredge sediment unloading dock.

Port Extension - Google maps 2023

The port expansion is a A$1.64 billion, 30 year, project which will allow panamax-sized ships upto 300m long gain access in a few years time Townsville port expansion project. For now the dredges will operate in the channel until 2024. Dredging channel. This a good detailed overview with photos from 2019 just before they started https://www.ship-technology.com/projects/townsville-port-expansion-project/ The project should lower import container shipping costs (and hopefully retail prices) for North Queensland consumers too. Currently Townsville is the largest port in Australia for sugar, lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) and fertiliser (Phosphate) exports and biggest container and automotive import port in northern Australia. 

Used the GPS chartplotter to goto the "lead lights line" for Ross River. This kept Teria well away from the new port rockwall to leeward (with wave reflection etc), and was good to practise by day, just incase it has to be done at night in future (perish the thought). Once on the lead (pronounced "leed") lights line, turned Teria hard right, then entered the river mouth with beam wind/seas which was an easier motion.

Being a Sunday, the river was busy with small fishing "tinnys",  Aluminium or fibreglass open runabouts from 3-5m length anchored everywhere. So anchored Teria in a new spot to de-rig the mast, the depth sounder made this an easy thing to accomplish in a brand new spot.

Derigging Teria's mast 

Ross River mouth and channel looking seaward - ominous clouds

Castle Hill 

The Port Bridge - TSers' lower masts! 

Fishing at Ross River mouth on sandbar (my usual de-rig spot)

Cats are great for tidal beaching

Each pontoon has 4 ramp lanes, all are wheel chair accessible, seperate floating dock to left also with wheelchair access gangway.

Ramp signage - Coast guard log-in reminder and dredging operations warning.

Trip #18 Teria - June2023. Cleveland Bay and Magnetic Island

Dometic Cool-ice 33L Esky

This was the first test-voyage for the new Esky (or "ice-box"). It performed very well too, staying cold the entire 4 days and 3 nights trip. At home the ice bottles still had about 20% ice remaining, ( Didn't drain the cold water out). This long ice time meant that no dry backup food supplies were touched (only the "breakfast box" powdered milk, coffe, tea and cereals.) The Esky kept pre-cooked meal boxes, fresh fruit, butter, luncheon meat, chocolate etc and  (1litre) of milk cold for the entire trip. The esky had about twice the cold-time endurance of my old blue "ice coolers" (which are now relegated to shorter land trips)

"Ice Box" Esky - Dometic Cool Ice 33L

The esky has 35mm of good foam bonded to tough rotomoulded HDPE plastic outer and inner layers. The airtight lid has a neoprene gasket and precise hinges. There is a drain plug but it wasn't needed as ice was inside 6.5 litres of plastic bottles (from the home freezer). It's strong - can kneel ontop of it to get into the storage area and even sit on it in the cabin, an extra seat. It's also a small bench top.

It is a perfect size and for Teria's short handed cruising trips of 3-6 days duration. (It might be a tad too tall for I563's that want to fully use their foward bunk boards and sleep more crew upfront though)

It can be bought at most camping stores eg Snowys, Sydney - Dometic Cool ice 33L. (Lots more details and specifications)

It's small enough to be carried/maneovered by one person fully loaded up as well. Can load up ice and food in the kitchen, get it through the boats companionway into the cabin. It's small and light enough to slide backwards to free up some legroom in the "head" (chemical toilet in forepeak). It's large enough to hold 4 days of cold food for one person.

 

Trip #18 Cleveland Bay and Magnetic Island (Days 1 & 2)

 The first trip of 2023 at long last. 8th to 11th June. It was also a "shakedown cruise" as both Teria and skipper have been ashore far to long and there were a few new boat additions to sea-trail as well.

Day1: After reading all the signage (crocodile habitat, port extension works, marine park zones etc) launched Teria at Ross River boating park ramp ok and motored over a quiet spot upstream to anchor overnight. I like the flat waters on the river, very few other boats and a just a few seabirds on the river bank. 

Launching depth for trailer and boat

Launching ramp and pontoon

Mast down portable anchor light rigged

 Tried the Aust volunteer Coast Guard's "trip log" mobile app for the first time. At Coast Guard they can then see all the planned trip details on their computer. 

It was the first sea test of the Garmin fishfinder and handheld GPS chartplotter, both worked well. Also the first sea test of the Huntingford Helm Impeder, it kept the boat on course while on the foredeck while anchoring. Also first trip out for the Dometic 33L cool-ice esky with 4-day ice holding.

Fish finder/depth sounder (and esky's) first trip out

Handheld GPS chartplotter with bracket mount, first trip out. The blue area indicates a shallow tidal zone.

The electronic chart on my GPS, has all the navigation beacon lights and navigational hazards on it. This is great if selecting a new anchorage area, the GPS chart shows where any rocks, reefs, wrecks or undersea cables or pipelines are located, so they can be avoided. The zoom function can be used to get a good look.  leave my GPS bracket unsecured while moving, as the GPS is designed to be handheld to operate and see the small chart screen. After use i stow the GPS on its bracket.   It's portable and floats, so can be used on other small craft like dinghy's.

Day 2: The millpond waters, mossie net and coil made for a sandfly free good sleep onboard.  

A good mosquito net over the hatch is needed in tropical mangrove creeks

Another first use item for me. Activated another Coast Guard mobile phone App called "Safe trx". It plots your GPS position every minute or so on "Google maps", and coast guard base can follow your exact path/position in real time. It's good for when on the move between destinations, so long as you have mobile phone signal. 

Glassy waters at Sunrise on Ross River 

Quiet part of Ross river, Mt Stuart (VHF repeater on top)

Motored out past the cabin-cruiser moorings and past the port bridge to re-anchor, slowly raise the mast and setup sails etc. 

Townsville Port's extension was well underway. The rockwall is far longer and the new wall is also a bit higher than the original ones. It forms a huge sea-pond which is being backfilled by dredge sediment from the main access channel expansion (wider and deeper, for bigger ships).

Calm morning for motoring, Townsville and Castle hill astern

It was flat calm on Cleveland Bay at mid morning. After an hours motoring it was unusually calm still, so changed plan a bit and set course for Cape Cleveland lighthouse. It's normally in a difficult upwind position from Townsville, but conditions were perfect to reach it around noon time. Teria was cruising along at 5.1 knots, over a flat sea-grass seabed just 15 - 25 feet below. Spotted the water swirl from either a sea-turtle or dugong which feed on the seagrass meadow below.

Also wore my new PLB in a waist-bag at all times while the boat is moving offshore. Read of a life-saving rescue of a solo sailor in a very remote region, only the PLB alerted and guided SAR crews to him in the middle of the sea. He would've been lost and drowned without it. Hope it's never needed.

The seabreeze began to come in when 20 minutes from the Cleveland lighthouse, however this was ok as the sizeable hills of Cape Cleveland kept the waves down in their lee. 

Anchored for lunch and a rest near the high tide.  The depth sounder and GPS chart helped find the best anchoring location and safe depth. (The tide was falling, so these two navigation aids prevent getting stranded by the tide in unfamiliar waters)

Cape Cleveland hills and lunch anchorage

Cape Cleveland historic lighthouse

Hauled the kayak onboard and stowed on foredeck (always do for rougher sailing legs) Set full sail and course for Magnetic Island, now about 10 miles downwind. The wind was about 10-15 knots SE so made good speed.  Passed an empty bulk carrier ship, floating high on it's marks, it was one of two waiting to enter port. The sounder saying it was about 16m deep, (the deepest water on the whole trip). It also indicated that the seafloor is very flat overall around Cleveland bay.

Heading westward on a nice broad reach

Magnetic Island on the port bow

The bimini shades the cockpit while keeping an eye on the anchored ship

Bulk carrier at anchor

The sun was low in the west and lit up the granite hills of Magnetic Island brilliantly. About 20 or more yachts/vessels were anchored in Horseshoe bay, so carefully sailed in past them and found an open area among the shoal draft vessels (Catamarans and cabin-cruisers) closer to shore. Logged off the "Safe Trx" app after anchoring safely. 

The hills of Magnetic Island on approach from South to Horseshoe Bay

A fleet of cruising yachts, cabin cruisers and a few trawlers anchored at Horseshoe bay.

A golden-red sunset backlit the fleet with their masthead anchor lights on for the night (my anchor light is setup in the rigging, relatively low at about 6ft above deck, next to the mast - but reckon it's a good spot for any yacht's dinghy crew to see in the dark) Moon rise was around 11pm, so there was a good night-sky of stars. 

The "Evening Star" - Planet Venus is the first celestial body to show at dusk

Horseshoe Bay anchorage, masthead lights

The cockpit galley - Trangia, LED lantern and sink bowl.

Most of my dinner food for the trip was pre-cooked, packed into plastic containers and stowed in the esky. The Trangia 27 spirit cooker re-heated dinner  and still had plenty of fuel in it's burner to boil a couple of kettles of hot water for the thermos and a hot milo. Simple but effective. A small plastic bin with a recycled bread bag was good for any rubbish generated aboard.