Waterways

Saturday, April 5, 2014

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.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

5th sail to West Point, Magnetic Island

Saturday 15th March was forecast for calm to very light winds, good for a family outing. The esky was packed and about 6 gallons (30 litres) of outboard fuel was loaded aboard. My wife and daughter took natural ginger based seasickness pills.

Ross River was glassy calm, as we motored out to our rigging up anchorage.

Ross River at Goondi creek embayment

Moored boats on Ross River

Rigging up, furling the mainsail.

We rigged up the mast with mainsail furled to the boom. Plan was to motor to West point, so the boom awning went up too for cockpit shade. Outside the entrance it was very calm and flat, so my wife Lin did most of the helming. The nav app indicted we were doing about 5.3 knots over the ground.

We sat on the bow and kept lookout for sea-life. There were a few small fish jumping, spotted a turtle popping its head up for a quick look and dive. Allot of black winged butterflies were crossing the bay and heading for Magnetic Island, its about a 3 km crossing.

West Point is a good day anchorage on the SW cape of Magnetic Island. Spotted a powerboat at the beach for a lunch break ashore. We anchored about 60 m out, broke open the Esky lunch then headed for the beach in the kayak.

West Point Magnetic Island.

A tourists Car was briefly parked on the beach ridge at the very end of the 4 wheel drive track but after that to beach was deserted. It is a very quiet beach on a weekend considering the Islands proximity to Townsville City, only a few footprint tracks were below the high tide mark.

The wind picked up a bit by early afternoon, so sailed off the anchor and headed north of Cape Palleranda to stay out of the Islands wind shadow. However it couldn't be avoided too long, so motor- sailed which allowed for a direct course at about 5 knots for Townsville.

Once clear of Maggy's lee, the wind came back for the final leg's close reach sail past the strand, Townsville Port and into the de-rigging anchorage at Ross river.

Cape Palleranda with it's distinctive radar dome tower.

We used about half a tank of fuel for the day, about 12 liters. This could have been reduced on lower speed, we went at 80% -90% throttle and at or near hull-speed of 5.3 knots most of the way.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

4th sail - Cleveland Bay and Magnetic Island

Recent monsoonal rains had dropped allot of water on the coast. Great for the town water supply dams and farmers. The effect on us was a half flooded back yard and Teria was bogged on its trailer down in the back corner. It took a week of drying out for the ground to be hard enough to move again. Improved the boats driveway by spreading a ute tray load of finely crushed gravel mostly in low spots that had formed ponds during the rains. With a back wheel spin or two from Jae the ute, Teria broke free of it's trap and was prepared on firmer ground.

Good weather was forecast for Sun 2nd March, we departed from Barnicle St ramp, Ross river on a king high tide. The water was only about a foot below the flat tarmac area so easy. At the rigging up anchorage seaward of the bridge, i tested the VHF radio for the first time, calling coast guard and lodging our trip plan with them (Day sail on Cleveland Bay).

A 10 knot Easterly on a slight sea greeted us as we cleared the harbor entrance. Close reaching on starboard tack on a course seaward of orchard rocks on Magnetic Island, could Horseshoe bay be reached.? The wind dropped a bit so motor-sailing kept our speed up to 5 -6 knots. The east coast of Magnetic Island was a lee shore to us so we stayed at least 1 nm out to keep plenty of sea room.

Listening in on VHF Chanel 16 was interesting, mostly commercial shipping and ferries. A large ship came into port and requested tug boats, soon after two tugs were out and then they went over to Channel 8 for the work of berthing the vessel.

We sailed as far as Arthur Bay, then the wind started picking up from the ENE and seas began to get bigger, it is a more exposed area beyond the protection of Cape Cleveland. Also Coast guard gave a weather report on VHF channel 22, strong wind warning next day. We turned back and ran downwind close to the Magnetic Island Coastline. It is a very steep Island covered in forest and has rounded granite headlands, some of which had nice houses with million dollar views.

Small Bay , east coast of Magnetic Island

Sailed into Geoffrey bay to see if it was OK to anchor, the chart showed a sizable fringing reef filling up most of the bay leaving little room for a protected spot. Snorkelers were out and marked the edge of the reef with dive buoys. The was a boat ramp with its lower edge exposed by the spring low tide. Dark patches on the seafloor implied many scattered small reefs which we didn't want to drop anchor onto. First it would smash up the life there and second the anchor was likely to get stuck. So headed off on a broad reach in calmer waters along the coast.

Allot of commercial tourist vessels and the coast guards large launch went in and out of Nelly Bay harbor-marina. It is the most protected on the Island due to large seawalls being built. No boats are allowed to anchor in there, a marina berth is mandatory. On the VHF each vessel reported that they were arriving or departing the harbor.

There was a monstrous multi-floor box set forming a huge eyesore on Bright point. It's probably because the straight sides of the building don't complement the landscape, smaller houses blend in because they have trees and sloping green or grey roof-lines etc breaking up their outlines. Councils should only approve architectural designs that blend in with the environment. Anything else is detracting a little from the natural tourist draw-card.

Bright Point - Nelly Bay

We rounded Hawkings point and ran into Picnic Bay to round up and anchor just off the stinger net on the lee side of the jetty. The bottom looked like sand. This is proving to be the best bay to anchor in for us. Time to have a rest, paddle ashore. Anchored next to us was another small yacht with a family out for a sail. They had a dinghy with a small outboard and oars and it looked like a well set up small cruiser.

Scamp took us ashore

Picnic Bay anti-stinger enclosure (net) and anchorage

Picnic Bay Mall

Picnic Bay boat ramp view

View of Townsville from Picnic Bay

Spring Low tide exposes fringing reef flat

By 1600 it looked like the few other yachts out there, big and small, were heading towards port Townsville. So we went back aboard. This time i pulled Scamp the kayak up onto the fore-deck. She didn't stow snuggly but did squeeze in almost vertically with the fatter stern up forward - I didn't want to tow it downwind in rising seas and wind. There was just enough room left to haul the anchor.

Small yacht heading home

Used the trusty Johno for a few minutes to power straight upwind out of the bay and go around the reef's marker beacon. We sailed fast with full sail up on a loose reach. The kayak had the added benefit of being to windward of the fore-hatch, so it acted as a nice spray shield and the hatch could be left open for ventilation below.

Townsville port to leeward

Magnetic Island astern

It was another quick 50 minute crossing, nearing port i furled the jib to slow us down a bit at the boistrous break-wall entrance, then we glided in on flat waters. The anchor and de-rig routine went well - it gets easier with practice. . Called coast guard on VHF channel 22 to let them know we returned safely and they could take us off their trip sheet. The first test sail for the VHF radio went really well, it's a great bit of safety equipment and gives an extra layer of security at sea.

Ross River bridge ahead - Scamp on deck

Ross River Port - Rosshaven Marine and Trawler berths

The anchor set up with the 10 lb CQR with new 6 mm diam chain (7m) on the old 10 mm warp seems about right for Teria in our conditions. It's easier to raise and lower with the reduced chain weight, (was 8m of 8 mm chain) also it held well in sand and mud. In the river at low tide i had the 7 m of chain over and tied the warp off on the bollard. On the Island i let out about 6 m more warp.

Pelican on Ross River

One of the best part of any trip is motoring back along the river's calm water, the rocking and rolling over and the safest mooring ahead - the back yard. Left Scamp tied to the rails on deck for the tow home, it looks ungainly but saves on time and effort.

In regards to trip planning, it looks like Horseshoe bay is near the limits of day-sailing range. Leave really early and get back late. An overnight anchorage there could be better.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Fatty Knees sail on Ross River

A good weather window was happening so Took Fatty Knees "Jai Dee" out for a sail on Ross River on 14th Feb. It was very sheltered inside the River about 5-10 knots gusting 15 kn from the ENE. Barnicle st ramp was almost deserted with only a handfull of boat-trailers parked there and no one on the ramp.

I short and long tacked to windward heading for the bridge near the river mouth, about 2 km from the ramp. The dinghy tacks flawlessly in very tight spaces, so went in among the near deserted pile moorings and moored yachts on the south bank. But also sailed into the spots with good wind on the north bank. Some small fishing boats 10-16 foot were anchored and having a go, Barramundi season is on.

The bridge pylons funneled wind from dead ahead, so allot of short tacks in a narrow pass but once free the wind strengthened and Jai Dee continued beating to windward in the smooth waters in the lee of the entrance sand bar.

Once clear of the protective sand bar the wind strengthened to about 15 knots, gusting 20 or so, and 1 foot waves started to buffet the Fatty knees, however she rose over these like a buoyant cork, sending spray peeling over into the cockpit. The Townsville port's southern breakwall was on our lee side, but never felt worried. We reached Trawler harbor, about a further 1 km from the bridge. The protective sand bars deepened and it got rougher and windier, maxing us out. Even a 16 foot fishing boat turned back here. It was as far as Jai Dee could go with its full sail up (a custom reefable rig would be needed to go further safely)

Reached into the New harbor which was flat calm, the entire Townsville trawler fleet moved in here , along with Ross Haven marina after the Port bridge went up. Ross Haven caters to large yachts and motor vessels now days. It is an open often wind-swept location compared to their previous sheltered base in the river.

The run back was fast. I got as low, and far aft as possible in a recumbent position which kept the weight in the right place at the bottom of the hull. This makes Fatty Knees remarkably stable downwind in a blow. Two guys on racing sea kayaks slowly overhauled me, paddling hard.

The bridges sheltered lee has a nice sand beach, so stopped for a rest. Finally able to get the camera out safely too.

Calm harbor and beach in the Lee of the Port Bridge. The centerboard can be left in while beaching and still clears the boom.

Townsville Port Bridge, heavy traffic bypass across Ross River

Looking upriver to Mt Stuart.

The Fatty Knees rig was dropped in seconds, the anchor went out and walked along the unlikely beach.

Didn't go too far, the mangroves ahead are good crocodile habitat.

Put the rig back up and sailed upriver with the wind astern. Anchored in the old trawler pen bay, it's a good rest spot and place to open the snack box and water bottle, calm and mozzie free and the trees ashore act as a wind break.

The old trawler pen bay is at 5th Avenue, South Townsville. Goondi creek a small mangrove tributary opens into this man-made bay. The land to the north of this to 7th Ave is designated for the $25 million Townsville boat park, to be built over the next few years. (Rosshaven Marine and the trawler wharf moved from here). It's mostly for powerboats (and any sail boat that can quickly lower its rig height to less than 6m.) Looks like there will be plenty of room with peace and quiet around Goondi creek for awhile though.

The good old trawler mooring wharf is empty. It is planned to be modified and used again as part of the recreational boat park.

Headed back to the ramp, but the sun was setting so just had to keep sailing around in the calm waters - magic. Sailing right up to the ramp is improving, this time was able to round up and stop in a controlled manner. Found a new trick when the boat has drifted exactly into the right (calm) spot the daggerboard can be lowered to the bottom which holds the boat rock still like a parking brake. Gives time to tidy things up get sorted out and have a good look around before stepping out. I always step out on the shallow landward side of the dinghy, a hull-shield between you and a crocodile must be better than nothing and deeper water. Haven't heard any reports of the stealthy beasts being around Ross River but never take un-necessary chances, people are taken from time to time further north.

There was a deep haze to the west and the sun began to redden up, by the time we were on the road it was a large red ball still well above the horizon.

King Tide in Townsville

The King tide of kingtides at 0921 on 31st January was one of the highest ever recorded at 4.12 meters, locals had never seen it this high before. Category 2 Cyclone Dylan veered away from us the night before and everything was still in shut-down mode. Ferries and small vessels were all moored up and big ships left port. Business was closed including the volunteer coast guard. No-one was on the water yet. It was lucky the cyclone missed us with these king tides running at the same time. There was almost no wind and sea was unusually calm with very rare SW offshore winds (caused by the cyclone to the south of us)