Rigging up at anchor

Due to a low level bridge across Ross river (clearance 6m) the only sailboats that can pass are ones with mast tabernacles.

Yacht with mast tabernacles

In Ross River  Teria begins a journey with her mast down at the barnicle street ramp. Motoring is required to get past the bridge where the anchor is dropped and rigging up on the water can start.

I've thrown in some plain english to combat sailing jargon for those new to this.

Anchored mast down tied to pulpit rail.

Mast stepped (attached) into tabernacle (hinge with pin on deck). Spinaker halyard (lift rope) attached to pulpit (front rail) to help with raising (prevent mast falling back). Halyard tail (end) exits mast base and is tied off on black cleat once mast is up.

 Mast raising - It's the hardest and potentially most dangerous part of rigging up. It's like weight lifting in a watery slightly rolling gym with asymetrical equipment. I break it into 3 stages, it is possible to catch a breath between stages. Slack is taken up on the halyards tail  to act as the mast fall-back preventer. It can be done solo but is far easier with  crew on the halyard tail as this allows 2 arms to be used for the mast lift (push-up) instead of one.

The previous owner of Teria was a nice chap about 6'3",  85kg and mid 30's  so his mast raising demo made it look like child's play. He just grabbed it and up it went in one swift move. However I'm 5'11" ,72kgs and mid 50s so that image was shattered on my first attempt to raise mast. I added a few extra steps to make it achievable without herniating..

Stage 1: Mast was lifted from pulshpit rail up onto a wooden crutch, this makes the initial mast lift a bit easier. It is about 10 degrees from horizontal

Stage 2: I stand in the cockpit get under it as far forward as liftable then lift to shoulder height. using bent knees and straight back. Shuffle forward to gain height. It gets to about 20 degress from horizontal.

Stage 3: The main lift - 20 degrees to 90 degrees. Bend knees and push up with arms suddenly. Walk forward, slide hands down mast as it goes up then push into it. It requires a good sized burst of strength for a few seconds. Once lifting momentum is going push harder until it's past 45 degrees and over "the hump". Very important to take up the halyard slack as the mast tends to bounce back when it hits vertical and the side stays go tight. When the halyard is cleated off properly it's time to say "whew!" and wipe the sweat off the brow. Although the distance from the fulcrum decreases as it goes up, the downwards falling force of the mast also decreases as it gets near vertical.

The ante is upped further when raising it solo. One hand for the mast lift and only one for the halyard. But you really need 2 hands to pull in the halyard... a good strong healthy set of teeth required to achieve this. It's a  dinghy skipper's method. Haul and bite. It's good for now but when the inevitable sets in then other mast raising methods such as garage door springs or shear-legs may need to be devised and built.

The mast is standing, held up by side stays and the spinaker halyard on the front rail.

The forestay is released from the mast and is tied to the top of the roller furler with a lanyard. (Sampson post secures anchor chain or rope)

The jib (sail) is "bent on". The tack (lower front corner of sail ) is shackled to the roller furler. Spring  piston hanks snap onto the forestay.

The jibs clew corner is shackled to the jib sheets ( 2 to 1 purchase pulley)

The jib halyard can be shackled to the jib head.The jib is raised by the halyard and cleated (tied) off. It starts flapping in the wind, so quickly dash back to the cockpit and haul in the jib furling line to wrap the jib up around the forestay.

The backstay need to be rigged up. It is clipped into a bridal which has a pulley system to tension it. Tensioning this tightens up the jibs forestay too.

The mailsail is "bent on" to the mast. Teria has plastic sliders in the luff groove, a rope around the mast stops them from falling out. Luff sliders as opposed to a luff rope are good as the sail is always secured to the mast when dropped, good when in a strong wind...(NB topping lift rope (with green bits) hold the end of the boom up when sail is lowered)

The gooseneck is attached to it's mast slider track. It is a roller furling gooseneck designed for boom rotation..but teria is refitted with slab reefing instead (slab reefing lines and pulley on boom). That's the main halyard and cleat on the mast. (also a currently unused spinaker pole fitting at front of mast)

Down aft - The backstay bridle is tightened. The mainsail sheets (white sail control rope) with blocks (pulleys) and a cam cleat is clipped onto the traveller (slide across the back of boat). (NB Tiller from rudder goes under traveller)

Boom end - Main sheets always left shackled on..the toping lift clips to swiwel tang.  Part of slab reefing system. Cleats for clew outhaul tensioning.  

Mast tabernacle detail. The pivot pin is held in with spring clips. The boom vang pulley is shackled to the mast tabernacle.

It's about ready to go sailing now.

Next is haul up the mainsail. Make sure the boom is raised in it's track. Teria has no winches,,so "sweating it in"  required while the bow is pointed into the wind. Then the boom is pushed down and clipped in to tension the sails luff.

Usually the wind is blowing from ahead when on course to exit the river.. so the motor is fired up and the center-board lowered before the anchor is raised. Motor - sailing under main sail helps drive the hull against the wind, sometimes against the incoming tide too. Steep waves often build up once past the protective sandbank so hull speed is dropped to 2-3 knots to get through comfortably. Really only about 3-4 horsepower is required when motor-sailing. The 10 hp engine is usually just idling to half throttle. motor-sailing out has an additional safety factor, if the old motor ever died at the critical time it would be easy to swing about and sail back in to calm waters. (Returning is usually just sailing downwind to the anchor spot, then turning the bow into the wind to slow the boat down for anchor drop..

Once out there, it's always a great time to hear the jib unfurl, flap and quickly go silent as the wind fills it. The motor is idling until it can be established if wind power alone is strong enough to drive the hull at a respectable speed. Once the motor goes silent, the boat heels over, the wind and sea forces take over and Teria surges forward with a life of it's own.

Lift wire maintenance

During the last sail the swing centerplates lift wire got jammed into the case somehow, so the plate couldn't be raised via the control line in the cockpit. A small thing causing a major problem.

So it was back to the wylo yard to see what was causing this. 

Teria with big cousin a wylo2

Teria was set up on the keel stands so the centerplate could swing freely.

Inside the upper stainless lift pipe was removed. A storage locker was built around it so some gentle persuasion with a chizel and hammer here and there gained enough space to remove the pipe.

I used a lever handle with the lift rope wrapped around to free the stuck rope/wire join. Luckily the join didn't break in the process. It's a very small space in there. I often wondered what went on inside the lift mechanism, the rope to wire join was revealed for the first time.

Lift wire to lift rope join revealed.

Lower lift pipe and lift wire

The wire has a soft eye and swage, the rope has a soft eye and whipping.

The problem was the swage had got jammed into a slightly smaller hole (<5mm diameter) in the top of the case at the base of the lower lift pipe. The hole may be lined with a metal bushing glassed in to take the wear of the lift wire angling across it, but its really too inaccessible and small to see exactly how its made in there. The jam problem may have been caused by shortening the lift wire an inch or so during the centerplate restoration last year.

The rope-wire join looked good enough for reuse. But to avoid a re-run of the jamming i filed the rough bumpy bits off the swage, reducing its diameter a mm or so. After reassembling the upper stainless lift pipe , the tail end stopper knot was retied 6" shorter. This should prevent the swage from reaching the small centercase hole (which caused the jamming) when lowering the centerplate next time. 

Bay Rock (trip10, day2)

Anchored in the calm of west point for an hour to rest and eat breakfast.

Breakfast - A small table made with the hatchboard under the bunk cushion. Trangia stove in the cockpit and food box on bunk stows in the corner space.

From the hatchway i could see Bay Rock a few miles away to the NW.

Bay Rock is a lonely and remote place and used to have a manned lighthouse  (now on display at the Martime museum in Townsville).  The lighthouse was built in 1886 with a lighthouse keepers house next to it. It was to guide sailing ships and steamers into the quarantine station at west point.  In 1920 John Laswon was the last lighthouse keeper who lived on the rock with his wife family. Lawson was lost at sea when his small boat capsized on a supply run. One of the boats crew was also attacked by a shark and thrown into the air but survived and swam to shore with another crewman. The light was automated after this tragedy.

Weather was favourable light NE breeze and slight seas,,and was already close so decided to set course to explore Bay Rock.

West Point, Magnetic Island 

Bay Rock ahead, (Acheron and Rattlesnake islands behind)

The crossing was pleasant in the mid morning, rounded the seaward side (video) and anchored in the lee just beyond some fringing coral reef. A  half cabin power boat with two fishermen were already trying their luck,, so with someone else present it felt allot safer setting off in the scamp kayak for Bay rock's beach landing.

The dead coral at the top of the beach made pristine clink underfoot before the trail up was found, an old stone stairway made it easier to ascend in the blistering heat (34C and humid)

Teria and fishing boat at anchor with clouds over the Hervey Ranges on the mainland.

 Looking South back towards Townsville and Magnetic Island

Granite rock covered in orange  and white lichen overlooks the fringing coral reef below

 The site of the old house was flattened with coral carried up from the beach long ago but not a thing remained except low dry stunted shrubs and grasses. The rock reclaimed by nature.

Paddled scamp around the side of the rock,  over coral beds and past barnicle encrusted shores with a sea surge on them. The midday heat soon drove me back to Terias cooler bimini shade.

The trip back was good, sailed until becalmed behind Magnetic Island then motored through, skirting the almost invisible fringing reef there.  Fishermens open dinghys seemed to mark the reef edge and the smart phone app with GPS mark on a  google map fixed the Terias position and confirmed this. Navigation is a bit tricky here as middle reef also lurks in the straight. It is marked by two yellow and red navigation pylons at each end with cardinal markers on top. The app map helps before spotting the markers. Of course the good old laminated paper chart is always on hand too along with the tell tale compass on the hatch top.

Tacked back up to picnic bay for a breather, only to discover that the center board lift cable was stuck fast. The plate was still fully down. This would make re-trailering difficult if not impossible later on..better to "fix" it in tropical coral Picnic Bay rather than the crocodile habitat of Ross River's mangroves later on

No amount of cajoling would free it either from inside or under the keel snorkelling. So jury-rigged a rope outside the hull to pull the plate up into the case.

The trip back was about half speed under reduced sail with the external hull ropes taking 2 hours, but got Teria winched back on the trailer OK.

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.

Solo to Cape Cleveland (trip 8, day2)

The Red Baron biplane was a good alarm clock, they take off at the Western breakwall and it's amazing how they can land in a short space.

At anchor

Once the sun was well up and the wind was right, Teria was sailed off the anchor and out into a 15-20 knot Easterly on Cleveland Bay. Barely a cloud in the sky and thousands of scintilla shinning ahead. The new Bimini top worked as hoped and the cockpit is now a cool shady place to be.

The wind strengthened further offshore and the boat felt over-pressed, the lee rail was a few inches above water level,, it's a hard thing to push an investigators lee decks underwater. There's just enough space to get out from under the bimini over the hatch to reach the mast and reduce sail with a single reef in the main. There was allot of force and the small reefing line pully on the boom let go at one end, a 30 year old pop-rivet had finally died, so simply wrapped the reefing line around the boom at the gooseneck to take the load and sailed on about 4-5 knots.

Self steering to windward was good, a long starboard tack with a lashed helm gave us allowed for about about 10 nautical miles hands free sail to windward of Magnetic Island. Slowly clawed upwind of the Platypus shipping channel. Hardly any other craft out there except the regular ferries and a port survey vessell. Set the mackerel lure but didn't get any strikes.

Helm lashed, self steer to windward

Trolling

Coffee break

Orchid rocks point

Tacked to port and close hauled past a lone shipping navigation beacon painted bright yellow and black, not on my old chart but the harzard probably deep below.

Chart of Cleveland Bay

A few hours and 8-10 nm later open waters and stronger wind came up, still a few miles to leeward of the Cape and it's light house. Wasn't going to make it there today so held course for the lee side of the Capes mountain. Bullets of wind began to hit a few miles off, so dropped the number one jib and raised to smaller number 2 jib for the first time. Discovered that the shackles that fitted the number 1 jib cringles were too small for the heavier cloth and thicker cringled No2 jib, not the best spot to remedy that with a few trips aft to the spare bits box to find larger shackles. The bimini was till up and my bulky conventional life jacket was just a tad too big to allow easy movement under the bimini on a 20-30 degree heeled deck.

With the reduced sail Teria could still claw to windward for the remaining few miles and close on the coastline of Cape Cleveland. The bimini was dropped as it's windage was getting too much.

Sailed over shoal waters extending well off shore, the centerboard kicked up and i spun the boat around and sailed clear before becoming stuck there in that remote place. The tide was on the rise which was good.  The waves were small in the lee but the wind channeled through the hills and seemed to increase as bullets of wind came hurtling down almost knocking Teria way over at times. So furled the jib and dropped the mainsail a lay a hull for a rest, the boat still heeled about 10-20 degrees under bare poles in the strong conditions.  Hauled the kayak out onto the foredeck and lashed it down for the downwind leg. Plenty of excitement for an old fella for one day. A large Army Chinook helicopter flew by at low altitude on their way out to the lighthouse area on the tip of the exposed Cape.

It was time to run for it, and head for port. Tried Jib only at first which was comfortable in the 30 kn gusts near land.



As Teria got further away from the hills influence the wind setled down again so rounded up and raised the reefed mainsail for the 4-5 knot broad reach 8 nm back to Ross River.  Here's a  U-tube video  Sailing downwind

The bimini went back up under these more comfortable conditions, but was dropped again approaching the river. The quick stowing abiilty of the bimini is a must, usually the boom needs to be let way out to allow the biminis bow to rise up and over on dropping it..other way is to release the boom vang and lift the boom during the bimini drop.

The Sun was setting on arrival and the danger of the entrance breakwall was cleared before it got too dark. I did overshoot the de-rigging anchorage and grounded on a mud bank but turned ok and got away to anchor and phone call in with the Volunteer Coast guard to let them know the trip went well and sign off the trip sheet. (The radio base closes about 5 pm on Mondays, they hand over the radio listening watch to port authorities at night) It was a moonless time of night so slowly motored up river with spot light. Tried my first night haul out and it went ok under big floodlights at the ramp.

twilight sail 2 and Bimini test (Trip #8, Day1)

Around 2pm the Teria was launched at the old Barnicle street boat ramp ("national Park" ramp - it is the second ramp described in Fishing Townsville's post,  newer ramp has a steeper gradient.  The old gentler gradient ramp is the first ramp as you drive in,) It went well, thanks to the new sliding plastic on timber aft bilge crutches (aka "bunks"). A few shoves on the bow dislodged the hull from it's grip and she slid away smoothly after that, with a big long haul/hang on the painter line to stop 1 ton of boat and gear which generated a fair bit of inertia. Pulled Teria back in to hop aboard and start the engine ok, but the throttle was stuck at idle speed!! This was enough to reach the pontoon to tie up so the trailer could be parked. Then idled away along the estuary towards the river mouth. Once clear of things like moored boats, took the outboard cowl off to try and free the throttle,,quickest best i could do was to push the throttle linkage and gain a few revs which allowed a respectable 3 knots hull speed. Tho this was tiring and had to rest and idle away frequently. The thought of cancelling the entire trip crossed my mind, but Teria is primarily a sailboat and there was wind so kept going.

Once rigged up, motor-sailing was used to clear Ross river. Tacking in a confined channel about 50-60m wide as the wind was coming almost straight down the channel. The bimini top was also raised and quickly proved itself in the confined waters, no hindrance to working the boat while providing excellent shade. Once clear a 10 knot Easterly was enough to starboard tack to windward and clear the sugar loading terminals wharf which just out to seaward of the main breakwalls of the port.

Dropped the bimini then main-sail in the ship swing basin and made it to the  pontoon to pick up the family  on time. Rex, our terrier, needed a bit of a carry to get past the expanded mesh walkway and aboard, 9 kg's is a good size for a sea dog, easy to get them on or off a boat. For the next upwind motor the boat hook was employed to push the throttle linkage which was far easier to maintain, it probably didn't look too good to the casual observer but minutes later we were away,  minutes later we were reaching clear of the entrance under full sail.

The western break-wall was rounded ,  a few tacks on the smooth "Duckpond" (haven't seen any ducks yet!) were made before anchoring in the SE corner. Dusk was falling and a cool breeze swept the cockpit area, so half raised the bimini so it acted as a windshield (or dodger), so the cockpit became a fair bit more comfy for dinner with almost no windchill factor.

Townsville western break-wall harbor

Twilight western break-wall harbor

Sunday ended all too soon and time to get ashore. Instead of the pontoon landing we tried our first night-time beach landing as it wasn't far from where we were plus the outboard throttle problem remained. The nearest beach is "tiny beach" in the SE and windward corner of the duckpond.

A bright torch - spot light was very handy, also the tide had risen and covered tiny beach up so only rocks remained. With lookout on the bow and we navigated to the right spot, i swung under the bow rail and stood on the sand of tiny beach which was about 1 foot below the seas surface and held the bow. The wind was from the E-SE which blew the hull downwind away from the rocks. Everyone got ashore ok.

Port lights