Palm Islands cruise - Day 2, Depart Lucinda (trip #13)

Next morning as the sun rose i looked about the anchorage - it was calm, the tide was slowly streaming in and the wind light. Mangrove forests lined nearly every shore, except for the small ramps and docks area.

Dungeness sunrise

The kayak was lashed down in its secure position on the bow, ready for the trip.

River Harbour looking North towards moorings and boat ramp

Looking south up estuary - mangrove forests

The solar panel had found a place on the aft rail, out of the way yet in a full sun part of the boat, tied on with 4mm marine rope.

Motored out past the facilities into the Hinchinbrook channel then turned eastwards. Lucindas inner commercial port and the sugar sheds passed by. The Lucinda sugar wharf, at 6 km length, is one of the longest in the southern hemisphere. it extends from the sheds , across shoals, out to a deep water ship-loading terminal. In the cane harvest season, a long conveyor belt transports the bulk sugar out to the ship.

Lucinda Sugar sheds

The long sugar wharf extends toward the horizon..

Six kilometres out is the ship loading terminal

Hinchinbrook Island with rainforest clad mountains and clouds on the their peaks loomed magnificent to windward. (But didn't get a pic as focussed on navigating clear of the sugar wharf etc)

Once clear of the terminal and shoals, sail was hoisted, the engine cut and a port tack in 5-10 kn NNE allowed a course for Perlorus Island at about 4 -5 knots.

Pelorus ahead - close hauled port tack

Hinchinbrook Island and Lucinda sugar terminal astern

Kayak Search and Recovery (trip 10, day2)

The alarm rang at 0430 and Teria sailed out of port quietly on a light sea breeze. Soon the motor got us to 5.8 - 6 knots over the ground, At dawn I started the search at Rowes Bay beach about 200m off shore and scanned the long beach to Cape Palleranda. My family drove to the boat ramp to have a look too but we all saw nothing there.

 Rounded  Cape Palleranda and motored into the uninhabited Shelly beach National park area - it was also a large shoaling sand bank which is usually avoided by sail boats but it was calm and near high tide so went in. The Sun was just rising and the tide was falling an hour or two past the high point. Then on the first remote beach  - a spot of bright blue lay on the beach - It was "Scamp"!!! . It had missed the rocks of the Cape and landed on the coarse sand of Shelly beach near some stunted mangrove forest.

But the tender was not yet saved - Still elated i turned terias bow towards scamp. The broad sand-mud shoals extended far off this side of the Cape. Terias 2 ft shoal draft helped a bit i took her in to within 200 m of the beach using the centerplate as a rudimentary depth sounder. Once the main keel grounded i spun Teria around 180 degrees, motored out another 50 m and anchored in waist deep water with about 1 foot of water below the keel base.

 The wade ashore with scamp's paddle seemed to be in slow motion. Thoughts of "man vs wild"  and "crocodile hunter" came to mind however they were never in it alone like this.  The life-jacket was on and mobile phone was in a waterproof neck pouch. Tested the sand ahead with the paddle blade, the bottom gradually shelved shallower. Fortunately it was unusually calm with no waves. Surprised a  small 2 ft shovel nose shark near the beach.

Sea weed festooned the Scamp like something out of pirates of the Caribbean. A quick look around and fast paddling across the sea to beat he falling tide which could strand Teria for 8-10 hours if  grounding occurred. The anchor was up and made a beeline out of there under power. The pivot center board scraped the shoal sands until Teria was free. Scamp was following along nicely on it's well tied painter.

Kayak retrieved

After and during this incident a few thoughts on towing a tender came to mind..mostly obvious since this happened

1) Really make sure the tow line is well secured, a really good belay on the cleat with locking half hitch. Don't rush it or get distracted by other things..

2) Tow for short runs in calm waters only

3) Tow by day but NOT at night or late evening.

4) For longer or rougher open water crossings stow the tender on deck

Summer sail - Kayak lost (trip10, day1)

Maintenance prior - replaced a leaking and falling off outboard fuel hose connector, the fitting plus clamp coast about $12 at Motor marine, Townsville.  Top service and a great shop for the outboard powered.

Sat 27th afternoon was preparation time..checked boat/trailer systems, recharged battery,,got the fuel, water and food supplies aboard. along with sailing clothes and personal items. The latest addition being a waterproof mobile phone pouch which also floats and has an adjustable neck string, so it can be worn at all times on the boat or going ashore etc.

Sun 28th Dec..the Sydney Hobart yacht race was on down south, Wild Oats and Comanche were already in Hobart and much of the fleet were still at sea. Enough sailing motivation was at hand to launch Teria in the middle of the festive season.

Weather at this time of year is hot and humid, the wet season rains were late so it was sunny too. Holidays so a horde of mostly powerboats out fishing and going to the barrier reef. The VHF radio to coast guard channel 22 was running hot with trip sheet logging in and out.. 

Did the usual Ross river launch and rigup, again it was uncrowded with plenty of parks. Then sailed to the down town pontoon to pickup the family about 2 pm for an afternoon sail in 15 knot NE breeze. The relatively new bimini shade was much appreciated and it was a battle for the shaded spots in the cockpit, out terrier Rex always found the best spot with a windward rail cooling breeze too. We sailed out to leeward of a sabot (8') racing fleet with dozens young sailors contesting the National title.

Conditions were right to close reach over to West point, Magnetic Island with some help from the outboard in the lee of the Island.

As soon as the anchor was down, "Scamp" the kayak was carrying our shore party to the beach. Stinger suits on, it was a good time for a swim in the warm sea at the calm beach front. Rex got swimming lessons, he's hardly ever swum before, we took him into a river once and he proved he was capable but definitely prefered hard land.  didn't want to go in, so a little prompting required, like dropping him in about 2-3m from shore, of course he could swim well! After awhile he tested the shallows then swam out to us, Hooray Rex, well done.

Rex's first sea swim, and the kayak that was lost on the way back

It was a nice sail back, jets flew out overhead and the stars came out. Suddenly i realized scamp the trusty kayak was gone!! We usually tow it behind on a rope. It had been gone for 5-30 minutes and its amazing how you don't register a towed tenders absence. A half moon provided little light to see it even if we backtracked. Scamp was lost, with that sinking feeling we would never see her again.

Back at port, the family went home and i anchored aboard Teria overnight behind the western break-wall.

Checked through camera photos and phoned my wife to check her mobile videos and photos. Like detectives, we established the time and place scamp disappeared. I added the wind direction and speed at the time and soon had a search and rescue plan for first light. It was likely to have blown ashore somewhere near Cape Palleranda about 5 miles from the overnight anchorage.

The 7th cruise - Day 2, solo to Radical Bay. Day 3 Ross river

The morning bought Clear sky and a light cool southerly offshore breeze. So prepared for a solo sail - my first solo sail to Magnetic Island in Teria. Around 0900 the light weather gennaker was raised and Teria broad reached clear of the Duck pond at 5 knots, passing a sunken fishing boat with it's cabin just above sea level, it's only 2-3 meters deep. Something to watch out for if entering the harbor at night.

The wind increased to 15 knots and headed us to SE so dropped the lightweight Gennaker and unfurled the working jib for a fast reach towards the Island. A rope on the tiller allowed for limited self-steering to windward, enough time to do deck work or have  a tea break.

Sailing eastwards

Magnetic Island inched by to leeward and motor-sailing kept Teria moving well in failing wind. Checked boat speed with a smartphone GPS navigation app. The Johnson 10 Hp drove us at 5.3 knots on full throttle, tried half throttle and the speed dropped by only 0.1 knot to 5.2 knots!  The Johnson will only see 1/2 - 1/3 throttle in future which should double the fuel - range in theory, until a more suitable 4 HP motor is found to replace it.

Hours later NE headland was cleared. wind and seas increased so cut the motor, and Teria broad reached downwind tacking past Orchid Rocks and into Radical Bay around noon.

Orchard rocks - quite a balancing act

Orchard rocks - mark the entrance to the calm waters of Radical Bay

Ghosting into Radical Bay 

Fishing Chart - Radical Bay and Horseshoe Bays, Magnetic Island

It was flat calm in the anchorage, the sun awning was up quickly and lunch was good.

A shaded cockpit with a view

Sustenance - The hatch board doubles as a table - Esky full of food and cold ice water

Making a cuppa - Trangia stove and thermos of coffee for the trip home.

Kayaked around the bay in 9ft "Scamp", steep hills made of pale granite boulders with many Norfolk Island pine trees rose from the ends of the bay and a pale yellow-brown beach stretched between. Barnacles exposed by the tide encrusted the rocks. The waters below looked good for diving, so the plan to buy a mask and snorkel set was hatched.

Teria in Radical Bay from the Kayak

The rocky shores, the clear waters look inviting.

It's always good to step ashore onto solid ground even if only for a while.

There are no dwellings just the end of a 4 wheel drive track ends here. Only few people reached the bay some would have hiked over from nearby bays with hotel accommodation, and only one 4wd was parked among the trees.

The Sun was beginning to fall in the west, so headed back to Townsville. Fist with motor-sailing to clear the NE headland, then with sheets free raised the Gennaker again to sail at 4 - 4.5 knots before a light easterly breeze.

Heading home - The large lightweight Gennaker extracts considerable power from the light breeze

Altered course to see a huge barge being towed out to sea by a tug boat. It had 4 fair sized houses sitting on its deck! A strange sight, like a real life mega-moves show on TV. Later heard that they were destined for Palm Island which is about 20nm NW of Townsville.

Strange sight - Houses cross the sea on a giant barge

Dropped the Genaker about a mile from Ross river, which allowed a trawler closing in on the port side to pull ahead and enter first. It was important to get the big sail in and reduce speed before getting too close to the rockwall, narrow channel and other boats. Being solo without an auto-pilot means the Teria heads-off on its own best most stable course for awhile, plenty of sea room required while on the fore-deck pulling the gennaker down. Once the jib was unrolled, boat-speed was a safer 3 knots, it's easy to control and furl from the cockpit just before anchoring. The sunset was spectacular, at one point the sea went a mauve color.

Night had fallen by the time the rig was lowered, so motored into Ross River in the dark using green/red  channel beacons, to clear the bridge and stay in the channel, and some shore and star-light to located anchored and moored vessels in the river. I was pretty tired and didn't want to meet a crocodile the hard way, so decided to anchor overnight instead of try to haul-out on the trailer at the ramp.  Found a free spot between some anchored motor-launches. Set up the anchor light. It was dead flat with a light cool southerly, so the outgoing tide pointed Teria into the 17C land breeze. A good view of the milky way galaxy - I often forget about our small place in it when city living. The night sky was only slightly dimmed the lights of Townsville, the nearest suburban streets were about 300- 500 m away to the north. Nature to the south. Lifted the kayak onto the fore-deck so it wouldn't bump the hull if the tide turned or worse still came adrift and got lost. No sandflies or mozzies either, but lit the mosquito coil anyway.

Closed the hatches, had a bite to eat, rugged up and lights out.

The morning light reveals Ross River anchorage

In the light of day, it's always good to see the boat was anchored in a good spot. The Kayak was stowed below, it fits nicely through the main hatch, through the oriental arch and up into the fore-peak. This is a great place for it when launching/retrieving and  towing on the road. It wasn't coincidence that the Kayak was chosen as the hard dinghy, it's stowage potential was a major factor.

Kayak stowage for the road trip

The 7th cruise - Day 1. twighlight sail

The wet season was well and truly over by Sunday 3rd May, forecast was for 10-15 knot SSW offshore winds until mid afternoon then a gentle SE-E sea breeze. Plan was to sail solo, and pickup the family for a twilight sail and dinner.

Launched at 1 pm, a boating family at the ramp kindly held the "Teria" floating at the ramp for a few minutes while I parked the ute and trailer. Once away under power Teria was again in her element, trailer boats are bit like a seal or sealion, they are heavy and ungainly ashore or launching but move almost effortlessly once in the water.

At the rigging up anchorage the local pelicans and seagulls, and even a few fishermen ashore or in small runabouts looked  on at the strange sight of a yacht raising mast and bending on sails.

Wildlife at the rigging up anchorage

Teria sailed off the anchor propelled by a cool 10-15 knot Southerly wind, blowing offshore so the usually rough river entrance was like a millpond.

Gliding out of Ross River before a offshore Southerly wind.

Once outside the unusual wind allowed for a new course to the SE heading for the Cape Cleaveland area on the starboard tack. Rigged up a tiller control line, which allowed me to sit in a comfortable spot out of the sun, with the line cleated Teria self-steered close hauled for minutes at a time, adjustment was needed only when the wind strength changed. The southern shore of Cleveland Bay is a low lying area of tidal mangrove estuaries with little development. The only sign of industry is the Sun Metals Zinc smelter complex a few km inland (originally called Korea zinc).

At 3.30 pm the wind shift happened, first with some doldrum like zephyrs then the seabreeze filled in from the E - NE. This allowed a 4.5 knot  reach towards Townsvilles Strand beach. Then started gybing downwind towards the duckpond, a large yacht was rounding up under motor to leeward of Teria to drop sails for marina entry, so gybed Teria away to avoid them. There are rules like power gives way to sail, but also unofficial ones like the smaller more maneuverable boat gives way if the other boat is undergoing difficult maneuvers.

The Duckpond is a very calm place to free anchor off Townsville. Large break wall's shelter the place from nearly all directions except for Northerlies. It is shallow 2-6 m deep has a mud bottom. Dropped the anchor and sails then phoned to organize the time to meet my wife and daughter at the Ross creek pontoon for a twilight sail.

Motored around the breakwall and into Townsville port along the beaconed channel into Ross Creek. Pulled alongside the pontoon to pickup the family and headed out again for the evening sail back on the duckpond. It's the first time they experienced an amazing sunset at sea and we watched the night unfold. A cloudless sky gave a great view of the moon stars and city-port lights with colorful reflections on the calm waters of the bay. A nice place to enjoy dinner. The anchor light shone bright.

Kayak tows with little drag

Anchored in Townsville's "Duckpond" for the night.

Back at the pontoon the family got back on Tera firma again and headed home. I took Teria back over to the duckpond to anchor for the night. First dropped the pick near the eastern wall with a couple of 40 ft fishing boats with generators. The wind backed to southerly again about 10 pm so re-anchored on the other side near the Breakwater Casino, a quieter a more sheltered place to get a good rest.

6th sail - 2 day cruise around Magnetic Island

Sunday 23rd march looked like good weather for the next few days. So prepared the supplies for a 2 day overnight trip. Two 10 liter water containers, extra fuel, iced esky and galley box were stowed aboard. Slowly learning to do most of the preparation the day before which makes the departure from home easier on the day.

Crew this trip was an old uni days buddy Dr Con, now an environmental consultant. We had got into windsurfing in the late 1980s and done a fair bit of hiking over the years.

The 9 am launch and rig up anchored near the mouth of Ross River went well. Teria beat into 15-20 knot ENEer with 2-3 foot seas on the starboard tack fairly comfortably. This allowed us to stay to windward of Platypus shipping channel and the east coast of Magnetic Island a few km to leeward.

"Ocean Drover" , a live cattle ship, soon over hauled us off Nelly Bay (marina).

Wind and seas picked up as the protection of Cape Cleaveland was lost, so Dr Con took the helm and i reefed the mainsail.

Reefed the mainsail for the first time

Teria has a slab reefing system on the mainsail to reduce sail when over-pressed. The wind felt like it increased to 20 knots gusting 25, waves increased to 3-5 ft and beating into this at 5 knots made it a bit too wild.  We rounded up to reduce speed to a few knots, I lowered the main halyard and hauled in the reefing rope and cleated it off on the boom. This pulled the luff cringle and  reef clew cringle down to the boom and slab of sail hung down beside the boom on the lee side. The hanging sail was rolled up and tied  with three reefing lines hanging from the sail. Teria rode allot more comfortably , sailing slower, barely getting any spray over the rail.

Once the NE point looked clear we bore away and broad reached and ran off Orchard rocks well the port. Hove-to and shook the reef out, hauled the main up slowly it was a bit reluctant to go up.

Teria ran quickly downwind past Radical Bay where 3 large yachts were at anchor, tucked in behind the sheltered headland there.

Yacht anchored in Radical Bay

We rounded the corner into Horseshoe bay and were soon close-hauled in flat waters heading for the yachts anchorage. Skirted the oyster farm lease marker bouys and got hit by a few wind bullets, which heeled us over and needed the main sheet released. It's a stable trailer-sailer though, the gunwales didn't go under. A beach catamaran sailed out and back in with us.

Sailing into Horseshoe Bay

Horseshoe Bay is a wide and very sheltered bay at its SE corner. This is where passing yachts anchor and where the waterfront has developed. We tacked up through the fleet of about 5 vessels and anchored in close about 70 m from the beach, with 1'10" draft and neap tides, tidal grounding was unlikely for us.  The awning and cabins pop-top went up to expand the dry accommodation area by 60%. a few rain showers came by no worries and one left a rainbow floating in the sky between the Islands hills.

The first visitor

The were two 30-35 foot mono hull yachts, one large motor cruiser, an large sailing cat, a Hood 23 yacht and a tourist motor boat at anchor there.

Horseshoe Bay waterfront is nicely set up with a short strip of beach fronting restaurants, pub and shops. A stinger net and public amenities block including an outdoor cool water shower for swimmers kayakers to wash the sand and salt off.

Dinghy beach and stinger net at Horseshoe bay

A nice short strip of cafe's, shops and a hotel are the few signs of civilization

On the other side of the small boat ramp, there are some low set tourist apartments and a couple of shops. Cassuarina and beach almond trees made for a shady foreshore with lots of picnic tables and a very laid back vibe with live music drifting from the local hotel. Black Cockatoos were having a good time meters from us, eating fruits on trees.

Black Cockatoo

Behind the beach ridge there's a low creek with swamp land forest, it then rises up to a second beach ridge with plenty of forest up to 30 m high. We went into the first street on the left and Dr Con,  soon identified signs of koala bears in the area. Their gum tree species, claw marks on the trunks, then koala droppings. Strangely these were not bad at all, green inside and smelt like gum leaf oil. A wild Koala was soon spotted high up in a tree,it's the first Koala i've seen in the wild in decades, he was a fair size too. Offshore Islands are often good native wildlife refuges.

Koala bear signs, gum leaf and dropping

At first he was a bit hard to see..

At a better camera angle, the big koala sit proudly high atop his tree.

Back aboard Teria, a wash with a sponge and bucket got rid of the kayaking salt. Only need about 2 litres for that per person. Three two seat kayaks were out to see the sunset over the bay, magic.

Kayaks around sunset on Horse shoe Bay

The LED anchor light was rigged under Terias boom and with head torches we had enough light to cook on the Trangia camp stove. It runs on alcohol fuel which is safe on a boat, it can be put out with water. The Trangia also has 2 pots, a fry pan and a kettle ingeniously packed inside it. We put it on the cockpit floor , so it was easy to operate from either cabin or cockpit, and it couldn't fall down from this spot.

The LED anchor light was tied above the awning onto the back stay. It gives 360 degree white light for a 2 nautical mile range and helps avoid collisions at night.

The Bay had dwellings or buildings scattered around us so the lights from these were reassuring and gave a good visual position fix should anchor drag happen. The moon was down but stars were out in force.

The bunks on board are a good size and over 6 foot long with 3" foam. I woke up at midnight to silence boat noises one by one. 2 Halyard slaps in the aluminium mast, rudder knocking, then awning guy sawing on a shroud wire..live and learn. After that it was very quiet, only a cool light southerly breeze blew..Terias hull has no wavelet slap around the waterline - this was a bad problem in my Harltey 16 when i over-nighted on her, resulted in a bad nights sleep..its very hard to sleep with a constant rhythmic noise happening like that..slap slap slap .. Teria is fortunately the opposite  - silent, slept really well.

In the morning a 2nd feathered visitor was standing on the sampson post behind the furled jib. Some kind of kingfisher, amazing how the bird out here have so little fear of people.

After breakfast a passing yachty came over by dinghy for a visit and yarn. Troy's Clansman 30 was set up for single handed live aboard sailing. He lived off the sea catching fish and kept a sprout farm going on board. With solar and wind power added, it was possible to live on a low budget yet still keep maintenance up. This cost was estimated by Troy at about 5-10% of a boat's purchase value per year. A Fleming windvane was fitted to take care of self-steering. His dinghy is a fold-a-boat , about 12 foot long with 3.5hp, it folded to about 8" thick and 2' high so could stow on the side deck against the cabin side.

The Clansman 30 is a capable, good value, coastal cruising yacht. While searching for Clansman 30's info recently, i came across a 2014 post by Troy "sailing - not just for the rich and privileged" with some good advice about how to live on the sea.

A 2020 update: Troy and his partner Pascale have a great u-tube channel called free range sailing, here is their introductory video.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5RTZi2i92M

Troy's Clansman 30

About 2pm we up-anchored and ran downwind out of Horseshoe bay. The tall mountains provided us plenty of shelter but we still had a good tailwind to push us along at 3-4 knots.

 The only other water craft we saw were 3 jet-skis on a tour returning eastwards to Horseshoe where they were based.

Dr Con helming along the 5 beaches Bay side of the Island.

 We passed Huntingfeild Bay which had a strange rocky point of a different rocktype to the rest of the Island. Rollingstone Bay had a rocky shore with no beach and allot of forest cover.

Townsville re-emerges behind west point

The final push back to port was on when we rounded west point, then motor-sailed to windward into a small chop to get past the calm lee side of the Island. It was a bit hard to see middle reef at first but the gps and compass helped , and the black and yellow reef end pole markers were soon in view, so we passed between this reef and the Islands fringing reef.

The 10-15 knot NE wind returned once clear of picnic bay point, so is was a good close reach back to Ross river to log out with coast guard on the VHF around 4 pm , de-rig before the bridge and haul out at Barnicle st around dusk.