June cruise 2024 (trip #20) - Day 3. Horseshoe Bay, Cape Cleveland and Townsville Duckpond

Horseshoe Bay sunrise and a Wharram cat

Anchored near shore, Horseshoe Bay.

Slipped away quietly under sail at 10am. The wind was weak, so hoisted the main at anchor, weighed anchor and ran downwind about along Horseshoe Bay beach (but outside the yellow shark control bouys) until clear of the anchorage area, then Gybed and headed seawards, in clear wind well away from the lee of the hills.

10/6/24, Day 3. It was a nice close haul on starboard tack into a 10 knot South west land breeze. Course was for Cape Cleveland, with a plan to gain southerly miles until the wind backed to the SE late morning as predicted, then sail for Townsville on port tack.

Clouds form out to sea over the great barrier reef

However nature doesn't always follow the "windy app" prediction. Instead the land breeze lasted hours longer, so just kept heading south. Which was easy because George was helming and the course was steady. 

Teria was only a mile from the Cape's lighthouse when the predicted wind shift happened, and it backed so it was right on the nose. Motored into it for 10 minutes and anchored in Redrock Bay for lunch. 

I had skipped brekfast and was ravenous, sandwiches and fruit never tasted so good.

Set off for Townsville at 2pm on a dead run with a 15 knot tail wind. The ST1000 was ok while the waves were slight for just the first mile or so. As fetch increased waves were formed, and George couldn't hold course, so I hand-steered for port at an easy 5 knots.

ST1000 steering Teria away from Cape Cleveland

I was getting a bit weary and didn't relish doing ramp haulout late afternoon. So called QF8 Townsville Coast Guard on the VHF and extended the trip plan by another 24 hours (They update the "Tripwatch" app and send a link to your mobile, the app shows you and others at home your current and past track on google maps). 

Now the time-pressure was off it was a nice sail and anchored in the Duckpond's flat waters for the night.

Tiller Pilot - self steering system (Trip #19)

 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 at a time if the wind was forward of the beam, a good back up. The helm impeder is also great around the river estuary etc)