Day 3. Had a lazy morning to relax and tidy up aboard, among the larger cruising yachts at anchor.
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..
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| West point Magnetic Island |
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| Make shift sun shade (and drying out shirt) |
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| Nice sunset from West point - looking towards Bay rock |
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Echo sounder/ fish finder display
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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.
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Duckpond sunrise - Port bulk loading facility
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| Castle Hill and cruising yachts |
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| Catamarrans and Teria can use the uncrowded shallow area, Townsville port gantries behind Ross creek rockwall. |
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| Duckpond - Ports cargo docks and bulk sugar sheds on right (also a cruise ship dock) |
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| Deep sea cutter rig cruiser - "The Strand" behind |
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| World cruising 60-70ft motor-sailing ketch rig |
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| Converted mackeral boat - Magnetic Island behind |
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| Cruising yachts - Duckponds breakwall (and "Maggy") |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Derigging Teria's mast |
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| Ross River mouth and channel looking seaward - ominous clouds |
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| Castle Hill |
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| The Port Bridge - TSers' lower masts! |
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| Fishing at Ross River mouth on sandbar (my usual de-rig spot) |
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| Cats are great for tidal beaching |
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| Each pontoon has 4 ramp lanes, all are wheel chair accessible, seperate floating dock to left also with wheelchair access gangway. |
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| Ramp signage - Coast guard log-in reminder and dredging operations warning. |
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| 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)
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| "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'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.
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