T23 Day 6. Day sail to Red Rock bay, (Cape Cleveland)

 Sunday 24/5/26

Had to sort out jib halyard, it got caught up in a spreader somehow. I was able to stand up on the boom and reach the spreader to free it, the joys of a small boat.

It was a flat calm so motored off at 10.30am heading ESE. Crossed the ferry and shipping channel ok.

 However it was "Mayhem"crossing the Ross river channel entrance. At least 10 tinnies/powerboats all going full speed (20-30 knots) coming in or going out were counted. My course was beam on to all of them also at full throttle (5.6 knots), fortunately they were all fully aware and avoided slow boat Teria.

After that it was a nice cruise at 1/3 throttle doing 5 knots for over an hour with tiller-pilot on. I stayed inshore and followed the 2m depth contour on the gps chart (which was about 12 ft depth on the sounder with tide up)

At 12.20pm the seabreeze began. Sailed at 4 knots on course for Cape Cleveland. 

The wind picked up at 12.30pm so hand steered. A spirited starboard beat to windward.

Anchored in Red Rock Bay at 1.45pm in 5 ft depth on a rising tide. It's the second bay in from Cape Cleveland. It's less windy and more sheltered than further offshore at the Cape. 

After lunch, it was time to reduce sail at anchor for the expected stronger afternoon seabreeze. The VHF's "offshore test" went well, Tsv Coast Guard was loud and clear on Channel 22.

Departed at 3pm and sailed hard at 5 knots back along the Capes' coastline. Kept the depth round 10 ft so as to stay near shore and avoid the wave action further out.

At 3.30pm bore away towards Townsville, away from the Capes' hills and shallows. The wind eased off so tiller-pilot steered and did a lazy 3 knots running downwind.

At 3.50pm the wind dissapeared - becalmed. So motored at 4-5 knots. 

Got back into the wind again at 4.15pm, a ESE 11 knot wind (vhf CG weather report) so shook out the reef in main and sailed at 4-5 knots with tillerpilot. Played Jean Michel Jarre's "Oxygen" as the sun was going down.

Got back to the duckpond after dark at 6.20pm. navigate in to the anchor area waypoint on my gps, also knew where most of the anchored yachts were. Some don't have lights others do. One big expensive powerboat going to the marina had no nav lights on at all.. 

It was a good test of Teria's electrical system. All the tiller-piloting, nav, radio etc had drained the 12V battery down to about 50% or 12.0 volts, too low for comfort. The Coleman LED lantern was a good backup night light in this situation. In future i will need to bring more solar charging along (100w fold out solar blanket) and try to reduce some power draw as well. The main 12v battery is 3 years old, that nearing it's useful lifespan, its at about 80% of new capacity, about 80ah, so only 30ah to play with.