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.

Re-launching and shakedown (trip #15)

The 3 day shakedown cruise went well.

Launched at Barnicle st ramp, Railway Estate into Ross River. It was late afternoon and some strong wind was blowing onto ramp and the tide was ebbing out,

Old Barnicle st ramp

The boat still needed a bit of a mechanical nudge to get rolling off. Its done by driving up a few meters rolling back and slamming the brakes on. Once moving "Teria" slid in quickly.

It took awhile to learn the new motors starting and handling, got away into the river and drifted to set up the motor tilt angle.  The rudder/tiller was shipped and full boat handling control was happening.

(Thoughts: Next solo launch in similar weather, it would be worth trying the other ramps with center-line floating docks and steeper gradients. This might make the launch easier with no chance of being grounded, the rudder could be fitted and engine started while docked)

Did some test runs up and down Ross River. The GPS speed read 5.7 to 5.3 knots, about hull speed (with tide current factor) and it only needed around 1/3 throttle to get there. The Tohatsu Sailpro was very quiet, (when its idling in neutral and on the fore-deck, i cant hear it at all). The sailboat propeller really gripped the water, almost no slippage and minimal revs needed for a noticeable maneuvering effect.

Motoring at hull speed - 5.3 knots

Went out solo for the trip, and anchored overnight opposite the Recreational boat park. Shoal draft allowed going inside all the big moored cruisers, nearer to the mangroves (where all the old pile moorings used to be, the are now all removed by the port authority) Allot of fruit bats were chattering in their mangrove roost, before flying off for the night in search of food ashore. Not as many as before i remember, thousands were killed by heatstroke during an unprecedented heatwave last summer which was hotter and lasted far more days than ever before.

Next morning after breakfast, motored to past the low level bridge, anchored at the entrance sandbar and rigged up, raising the mast and sails.

Rigged and ready

A 20 knot Easterly seabreeze sprung up. Motored out on the outgoing tide. The tide against sea situation resulted in short sharp waves that stood right up. So reduced speed to about 3 knots boat-speed to make it comfortable and stop the spray flying too much. Had only the reefed mainsail up, set it and pointed up to keep the boats heel angle minimal for the 4-strokes oil pickup to work. The Tohatsu putted along quietly at about 1/4 throttle but steadily pushed "Teria" upwind into the quite gnarly sea conditions where the river met the sea. The Ultra long shaft placed the propeller way below sea level aft, so even strong hull pitching had no effect on it (ie Cavitation is a common problem for bracket mounted outboards)

A nasty rocky shore of the ports break-wall lay threateningly downwind to the port side, but kept going until it became safer once hundreds of meters sea room opened up before cutting the motor and unfurling the jib and sailing off  on a close reach away from the danger. Its nice knowing a trailer-sailers keel and centerboard slow the side drift rate down considerably. Safer than a powerboat drifting without a motor.

The miles ticked off as Teria heeled over in the increasingly strong wind the further offshore we got. Lashed the tiller so self-steered under sail and could catch a breath in the dry cabin.  Magnetic Island was well down to leeward and we were on course for NE point on Magnetic (route to Horseshoe Bay)

Townsville astern

Magnetic Island to leeward

Castle Hill and Cape Palleranda to leeward

The wind and sea increased whitecaps were everywhere (later saw 27 knots on weather app) and had too much sail up. But solo, with no harness it was too dangerous to change down the jib size, this involved hanging onto the foredeck, removing #1 jib and hanking on #2 jib, raising it and sailing again. It seemed a bit too risky, so decided to turn around and run for it. The jib was furled, then bore away downwind with only the reduced mainsail up. Running before it reduces the wind pressure on the rig, the boat stays upright and big waves are easier to handle. It was still pushing it though, had to watch out for broaching or crash-gybing.

The course took Teria towards Picnic Bay. Had to do a couple of gybes but in strong wind conditions its safer to do this by rounding up and put the bow through the eye of the wind (wind direction), instead of a normal gybe which turns the stern through the eye of the wind.

It soon became apparent that even Picnic Bay was no haven, the wind blew straight down to the wharf creating a dangerous lee shore. No vessels were anchored there as usual either. So gave that up, motored out upwind and hove-to outside, it was a bit less rough here than further offshore. Changed the jib from #1 to the smaller #2.

Finally had the right sail area set for a spirited reach across the wind towards Townsville!.

Quite a relief to make it back to "The Duck-pond".  It's Townsville's best open anchorage for yachts. Its close to "The Ville" casino (formerly Jupiter's)  and the "Breakwater Marina" which offers very secure berthing at a price.

"Duck pond" anchorage - Castle hill, Townsville.

Anchored upwind of the the other 30 or so deep keeled yachts in the shallow part of the Duck pond not far from the breakwater wall. Had a huge area to myself, another advantage of shallow draft. This Harbor is good for yachts to anchor off Townsville, the ports breakwall's protect it from most prevailing winds (only a strong northerly would get bumpy). Most go ashore inside the Breakwater marina.

Once recuperated from the rough adventure outside, it was nice to hear the howling wind tucked safely in the flat waters near civilization again. Put the pop-top up and used the bimini as a spray dodger/windbreak. Dinner always tastes good and the city shore lights were a great backdrop. The winds kept going longer than usual even at 9pm it was whistling through. Had one annoying rope tap, took a long time to find it, a loose end from the kayaks lifting handles. No mosquitos or sand-flies out here either.

Lights of Townsville

Awoke next morning to a relative calm, just a light offshore land breeze. So made the most of it and motored out early. Passed a T Colvin (American) designed steel hulled Junk rig schooner, a classic hybrid of east/west tradition and steel. A crusty solid blue water voyaging yacht, the junk rig would be easier to handle/ reef down by a small crew from the center cockpit too. They have long shoal draft keels.  In 1987 i was live-aboard cruising an Endeavour 24 and got to know the owner of a Colvin 47 junk schooner in Sydney. Larry had built her himself on NSW's North Coast, the yacht/ship had the old world charm and practicality of Slocum's spray, easily handled rig and plenty of cabin room for living aboard.

Thomas Colvin designed steel junk rigged schooner. 

The breeze was about 10 knots on the nose, while outside going back past the port. Altered course to let a few fast ferries go by, watched a ship being turned around by tugs and a bulk carrier being loaded with lead-zinc concentrates from Mount Isa mine.

Townsville Port

The Tohatsu made easy work of it, gaining the valuable upwind ground while conditions were still mild. Ross River entrance was also good and safe this early. Once inside, anchored at the sand bar, had breakfast about 8am and de-rigged the mast. The seabreeze started picking up from about 8 am.

The tide was about 2 hours on the rise, so beached Teria (for the first time ever) at the steeply sloped sandbank, so could climb straight over the bow to get ashore. The sand bank although windswept was a haven to many sea and shore birds. While the tide was still low, flocks of hundreds of small shore birds were feeding on the exposed sand-flats, not sure what the prey was but did see armies of small crabs scurrying about for their feed time too. Other birds included a lone pelican, lone egret, some seagulls and terns? The mangroves formed a large forest to the south and protect Ross River and South Townsville from the elements (even in cyclones), they are also huge nurseries for fish, prawns and other marine life as well as haven for fish, large mud crabs and the top predator - salt water crocodiles. So being wary of these, stayed on the high ground of the sand bar and away from their muddy habitat. There was some mangrove die back to seaward of the sand bar but also a little regrowth landwards of the sand bar, nature is dynamic, the whole system would move a bit year to year, maybe the unprecedented February flooding this year cause a bit of damage. (it certainly created a few new sand banks within the river estuary.)

Beached at sandbank, across from Ross haven Marine facility. 

Ross Haven harbor is relatively new being opened a few years ago about the same time as the port bridge was built across the River. The trawler fleet now resides in the new harbor, Ross Haven has a big travel-lift that can haul out large vessels like trawlers or cruising yachts, and has a hardstand there. The new harbor can also berth small ships.

The Port Bridge - 6 m clearance

Ross River - A handful of motor cruisers, Only sub-6m height, monohull vessels can get in here now.

Motored back under the bridge, past the Recreation boat Park and moored motor cruisers and docked allot easier than the first day, bit of practice makes a big difference.

Barnicle st ramp pontoon

The haul out went ok, except it wasn't fun getting the wire hooked on in the cross tide. (another case for the center-line dock ramps)

The tow-handling going home was great. The shakedown went fairly well, no calamities and brushed up on some techniques. The New Tohatsu outboard passed with flying colors and only used a couple of liters fuel. Got a better idea on how much/many provisions, water, fuel and what gear to bring too.

Shake down cruise # 2 - Ross River to Magnetic Island

The Teria was back on the road again on the 24th December, she already towed better with the trailer modifications. 

I arrived at the coast Guard ramp in Townsville about 9 am on 30th December but it was soon apparent that all the trailer spaces were already full.  

Had a chat with the coast guard officer on duty, the boat-trailer car park was filled at about 4.30 AM by recreational fishermen. It was the annual Christmas and New Year holiday plus the weather forecast was for light winds and flat seas - a perfect combination for a packed-out boat park. In desperation some boaters had parked on the councils grass nature strips, only to risk getting slapped with a $50 fine from the council.  The Port Authority runs the Coast guard ramps and boat trailer-park but the city council is responsible for all the surrounding nature strips etc. The ironic thing was cars without trailers or even tow-bars were allowed to take up valuable boat-trailer parking space, counted at least 5 solo cars there and it's still legal to do this on weekdays. The nearby casino car parks could have accommodated these solo cars who don't pay annual boat or trailer registration fees (around $400 pa). Meanwhile some guys religiously paying their rego fees are also paying parking fines for going on the grass,  I hope the authorities get together and sort it out one day soon.

It was suggested by the coast guard officer that we try the Barnicle street ramp at Ross River, so once my crew Ricky arrived we headed over there and found it had plenty of spaces available. It's run by the Townsville city council and there were upgrades and expansions done in recent years. It's a relatively quiet ramp , possibly because it's about 2 km to the Ross river mouth and an extra 1 km to Magnetic Island. However, the big deterrent for all masted vessels  is the new low-slung port access bridge over the river entrance, which has a low clearance of only 6.5 m which is not even enough for a trailer sailer. The Port Authority built a new harbor to seaward of the bridge for the prawn trawler fleet and Ross Haven ship yard  within the new port reclamation area. Townsville based Yachts now have to moor in the marinas or anchor in the more exposed  break wall near the casino. There was a proposal a couple of years ago, for a river break-wall seaward of the bridge and pile moorings for yachts too but this may have not been approved.

Fortunately we have a tabernacled mast and I hoped that it could be possible to motor out and raise the mast to seaward of the low bridge. Ricky was an experienced catamaran sailer and fisherman having owned two Cobra 16 cats and a 14 foot runabout, and the weather was good, so felt confident we could try the unusual sailing ground of Ross River.

We launched with only a few big pushes this time and tied up at the floating pontoon.

Mast down at the floating pontoon on Ross River

Then motored past the nearly deserted pile moorings, inhabited by a few motor launches and several yachts trapped in there until they can figure out how to lower their masts. A couple of yachts at anchor had their masts lowered and had mast lowering-raising systems with tabernacles and sheer legs. 

Once  we passed the bridge, we anchored in a quiet spot behind a natural sand-bar on the natural river entrance. After checking that my centerboard pivot seal was holding back the sea, the mast went up as it would on the trailer - everything can be done from the deck. Then the rest of the rigging up continued. This time the jib was raised and furled before raising anchor and motoring out. 

Motoring out of Ross River with mast raised and sails ready.  The port break wall  extends well past the bridge and provides protection from Northerly winds and waves common in summer. 

Once clear of the port's rockwall we unfurled the jib, cut the engine and began sailing. The wind was light from the North, so we were going slowly. One of the good things about sailing is you have to adapt to the wind conditions and this sometimes suggests the best way to go. So it was decided to motor-sail  upwind -destination Magnetic Island about 11 km offshore. The sea was flat calm so we got hull speed.

I checked my Garmin GPSmap60 handheld but it decided to play up with an inverted screen and no access to navigation pages. Maybe the rains in Papua New Guinea where i used it for work finally got into its micro-chip.

The midday sun up here is extreme. I knew that already, but you have to experience it to believe it, skin fry's quickly. With mainsail up there was nowhere for the boom awning to go, so just covered up with anything at hand, like a spare life jacket. Also we took shifts on the helm, the cabin with it's pop-top raised was good protection for the off-watch crew.

Pop top and fore hatch raised keeps the cabin cool. 

We  wore sun hats, long sleeves and sunblock but more could be done to ward off UV and IR radiation. Some lessons learnt for next time - like wear long pants, foot wear, better sun-hats etc. A large and very nice yacht sailing along called "It's a Beautiful Thing" sailed past with full main and Genoa heading for Cape Cleveland, she had  a broad bimini sunshade top over the cockpit and it looked very comfortable for the skipper. Hmmm, a bimini would be a nice addition..

Magnetic Island ahead!

Magnetic Islands hills loomed near and Picnic Bay's beach gradually rose into view. Rick had been in here before so knew of the reef and navigation beacon marking the safe entrance to the bay. The jib rolled away with a haul on the roller furling line and the fully battened mainsail was pulled down quietly after the halyard was released.  It was low tide and we saw some small power boats anchored at beach near the stinger net. We motored in there for a look but it looked too shallow and constricted for us, so we anchored off the end of the pier on the other side. The blue canvas boom awning was pulled from it's stowage compartment below the cockpit and was up in minutes. What a difference the shade makes.  The awning has 3 PVC pipes inside long pockets that go across it and 6 ropes tie it down to the wire lifeline that goes around the side of the boat.

Picnic Bay, Magnetic Island - the blue boom awning creates cool shade. 

While having lunch we had a look over at the wharf. It had closed to commercial Ferry traffic partially due cylone Yasi damage in Feb 2011 and partially because of a huge marina and wharf development further along the Island at Nelly Bay. People could walk out to a large safety fence about 3/4 the way out.  The wharf was great for anglers, and with little boat traffic now Picnic Bay has become a very nice quiet haven to visit.

We didn't have a dinghy aboard in order to keep things simpler on this test sail.  I vowed to get one and set foot on the Island one day.

Conditions looked OK for the first sailing off the anchor test. The awning was stowed, center-board lowered, mainsail raised and anchor pulled up. Once Ricky was back off the fore-deck, the jib was unfurled and backed to help the bow swing around and we tacked to windward to clear the reef marker post. It's a nice sensation to sail off from an anchor or mooring.

The wind quickly increased as we cleared land, it had picked up to 15 knots from the North East while we were anchored, and was on the port quarter when we raised the center-plate and set course for Ross River's entrance. Teria sailed with a bone in her teeth before 1 m seas, there was strong weather helm so i lowered the pivoting center-plate about 1 foot (30 cm). This had the immediate effect of balancing the helm significantly and the yacht tracked straighter - one more advantage of having a swing back keel, very pleased about that.

It took about 50 minutes to cross to Ross River.   we were doing about 11 kilometers/hour according to Ricky's GPS smart phone app.

Rick on the helm as we approached Ross River entrance

Ross River entrance ahead

Once again we were in the calm of Ross Rivers port breakwall, we slowed down a bit by furling the jib but the tailwind on the mainsail kept Teria sliding forwards at a respectable rate of knots. We passed the new ship basin which was home to Ross Haven Marina and the trawler fleet. They had to relocate here when the bridge began to block their access to the sea off. I don't know whether private yachts can anchor in there even for a short while so kept going

New Ross Haven Marine and Trawler harbor in Ross River

Rounded up again at the sandbar anchorage about 300 m to windward of the  grey concrete port bridge.  A fully battened mainsail is a great thing in these tight situations because it doesn't flap crazily in a strong wind like a normal mainsail would do. The fully battened main remains still when the wind is flowing on both sides of it, lowering the main can be a well paced task and not a quick grab at flapping sail cloth. Once the sails were off the mast was lowered again. It needed the two of us to do it, so though to better get a mast-crutch down aft happening so i could do the job myself next time.

We tested Teria's ability to drift downwind without a rig or a motor. It actually had some steerage way and could turn downwind then ran before the wind on hull windage alone at about 1 knot, there was also a 1-2 knot incoming tide behind us so we cover about 1 km of river silently at about walking speed with no sail or engine. Felt like something out of the engine-less era and time to see life on the river drift by. 

Finally we conceded to the modern world and increased the decibels for the final run to the pontoon. The trailer mods were not perfect as the boat was riding bow high due to the cross frames not being low enough up forward. Rick came up with a quick solution, in the boat trailer park, i lowered a bow roller 40 mm or so by unbolting it from the aft side of a beam and re-bolting it to the front side. 

The retrieval went without a hitch the repaired trailer rollers were good. Once on the hard i re-adjusted the keel rollers and side bunks. The Teria was now acceptably level on its trailer, the bow had dropped down by about 3" (75 mm) (Some serious re-fabrication to a trailer frame will be needed to drop it further.)

Once on the road home, i noticed how much the stability of the boat on trailer had increased by lowering the boat on the trailer by about 6" aft and 3" forward. This lowering also made it far easier to launch and retrieve Teria than on shakedown sail #1. The trailer is still backed in as far as possible with the mudguard tops nearly under, but now the hull can float much further up onto the trailer. This in turn allows the aft side bunks to hold the hull and stop the stern drifting off while the winch cable is being attached.

The process of mast raising and lowering in the river doesn't take much longer than doing it on land at the boat ramp. The bridge deters 99.9% of yachts so it is a very uncrowded un-rushed river and ramp with ample time and space.  Picnic Bay is a really laid back idyllic day anchorage and the Teria sailed well. All in all the 2nd shake down cruise was a success and the boat seemed about ready for regular passengers.

First day out - gear failure

Teria close reached into the calm waters in the lee of the breakwater, going well. Suddenly something in the rig snapped with a loud twang and the boat shook a bit, potential trouble! A quick scan up and down the rig revealed all was in place as it should be, then i remembered a  post on the Investigator 563 forum where an owner discovered a half broken chain-plate fitting during a total refit.. A look there revealed the windward chain plate u-bolt's deck-plate had lifted about 3 mm off the deck, a very hard to spot small detail but it was potentially serious, i strongly suspected that the u-boat had half broken - the whole rig was supported by this on this tack.

Instantly we let fly the sheets and rounded up into the wind to relieve the winds pressure on the rig and fittings. The outboard roared to life and Glenn steered us into the wind while i dropped the sails. We motored close to the breakwater and dropped the CQR plough for the first time.  Next we dropped the mast and lashed it onto the railings.

Securing the mast on deck in calm waters of the breakwater anchorage.

Whew rig saved, so retreated to the cabin for lunch and a break, plus time for a couple of pics.

Lunch aboard Teria.

The cabin is kept cool by a forward opening hatch.

We had 2 mobiles aboard for communications, so called my wife who was watching all this from the Casino breakwall to let her know the sail hadn't gone exactly as planned but we were ok and heading back soon.

Leaving the shelter of the break wall, Magnetic Island in distance.

Once the anchor was up we motored out and were soon ploughing into the 15 knot Easterly and 3-4ft waves. Our course back to the harbor entrance took us across  the windward side of the breakwall, about 150 m out, the seas got a bit confused with rebound waves off the wall. The 10 hp outboard hangs off the transom on a bracket, bit a precarious perch in confused seas, but it had already a second attachment to the boat in place - a strong chain incase it's mounting clamps slipped off. Going over some waves the propeller came out of the water and it began cavitating - once the prop is underwater again air forms on the low pressure side of the blade,  the prop wont bite into the water at all and just spins up into very high revs, this is in effect similar to loosing traction in a car. The answer was to quickly throttle off and keep it set to about 1/4 speed. We went a bit slower at around 3 knots but the cavitation didn't happen again and the boats motion was far more comfortable too. The good thing about having a keel is there is hardly any sideways drift at slow hull speeds.

 A  fuel tanker ship arrived when we did and was self-maneuvering in the entrance to the port but we squeezed around  and opened up to 5 knots. Once in the calm harbor things went like clockwork. The retrieval went allot better than the launching did. I nosed the bow into the floating pontoon so Glenn could go ashore and get the trailer in. I took the boat out and slowly nudged the bow into the trailer's guides. Once lodged in place the winch cable went on and Teria was winched up out of the sea.

Securing gear for towing, the outboard comes off the transom bracket and is kept in the tow vehicle.

It didn't take long to get it tied down and we rolled off for home. Some work had to be done on the boat and trailer but I was satisfied that we had come back safely under our own steam. The boat didn't leak, handled nicely under power - in seas and around the ramp,  anchored securely and sailed well even only for a short time. The rig drama drove home that you have to keep checking the gear aboard and keep it maintained. I had done this but not enough it seems, But sometimes in the end the only way to find out is to have a go and get out there.