Magnetic Island Marina – Learning all about engine electric systems

Well, the two months planned for our stay in Magnetic Island are way over now. We’ve been back from our SE Asia land trip with the idea to rest a bit and then continue up QLD east coast to Cairns and beyond towards Lizard Island. This is still on the plans but we are stuck in Magnetic Island marina with a new problem, this time an electric problem in the starboard engine. 

The first time we run the engine after coming back on board we didn’t notice that the starter motor remained engaged while the engine was running, it kept going until it gave up and burned with a lot of smoke and a very bad smell, THAT we noticed, something had gone really bad. Since then we’ve been replacing parts and troubleshooting without success. 

The new starter motor installed and the problem persists. The engine’s electric system behaves strangely and problems are intermittent which makes troubleshooting a real pain. At this point we have a retired electric engineer scratching his head and trying to help us. Three times already we thought we’ve found the problem, just to realize with a second test, problem is not fixed and we are back to square one.   

In the meantime we have enjoyed company of many friends. Dave and Booker from Tortuguita came around and stayed at the marina before continuing their travels around the world. We thought we wouldn’t see them again this season but timing was good and we had a chance to share pizza one more time. They just arrived in Darwin now getting ready to go with the rally across Indonesia. As always David has been helping with lots of suggestions and ideas to fix our problem and he keeps doing so over the phone. Mark from Axis Mundis was here as well and joined in the pizza night.  One weekend we rented a car and went over to Cardwell to visit Maryanne and Barry. We met them in Panama, they line handled for us during Zenitude’s Panama canal crossing and we shared many anchorages during the Pacific crossing in 2010.  Their boat Toroa is now in Japan waiting for them to come back to more sailing around there.

So, not all is worry and work and every now and then there is lots of fun too. Like other times before, we'll surely find and fix the problem, hopefully, soon.

G.

Magnetic Island Marina – From a windless week to a week of wind warnings

From Gloucester Island, we left Whitsundays behind and took 3 days of lazy going to arrive in Magnetic Island. Our plan is to stay in Magnetic Island Marina for over 2 months, complete some of the projects in our ever growing list of ‘things to do’ as well as take a month off to travel overseas in a carefully planned SE Asia backpacking tour.

The trip to Magnetic was in a weather pattern when every day was calmer that the previous day. We motored for about 40 miles each day stopping the first night at Cape Upstart, an outstanding place, next day at Cape Bowling Green where we’ve been before and did it all over again, anchoring in the exact same spot, getting the dinghy down, going to the beach, admiring the sea life jumping all over around us, especially the little rays and the big fish. The only misfortune, Oscar’s fishing rode had broken, so we couldn't get dinner this time around.  

Sunset at Cape Upstart

Cape Bowling Green 

Passing by Cape Cleveland

We arrived at the marina and right after lunch our project priorities where just hard to ignore. One of the things we need to do is fix our new main sail design. The sail has extra fabric at the leech and does not raise well, the first reef is the best we can do in light winds. We needed to take some measures with the sail up and then remove it. We knew it would take us around 4 hours. We looked at each other, then at the absolute windless day and decided there may not be another perfect day for the job. So we did, raised the sail, took the measurements, and started with the slow process of removing battens, reef lines, and the sail itself, folding and getting the whole 28 kg of sail ready for transportation to the sail maker that has promised he can fix it.

As expected, having looked at the forecast at least twice daily, on Thursday the wind arrived. After having a week of windless nights my mind had forgotten all about the noises, so when the silence in the boat was replaced, at exactly 3:04 AM, by the vibration of the shrouds, the mast noises and the shackles we had somehow left in the wrong place I was completely awake for the rest of the night. This is what happens after 10 days of fantastic, idyllic weather. Now, after several days of howling wind I have adjusted again and being safely docked in a marina, good sleeping nights are back despite the noise.  

On Friday we took the ferry to Townsville carrying our 28 kg of main sail and found it possible to rent a car from Avis at the ferry terminal. Oscar discovered this as he was getting ready to take the bus to the Avis office in town. For some reason this is not advertised and not easy to ‘discover’. With the car we took our sail to the sail maker, which we found in a farm, 25 km from Townsville. A strange place to find a sail maker workplace, but the guy seems to know his business and just happens to have a daughter that likes horses, as per his explanation.

Having taken care of the sail fixing project we will continue with one project on top of another in this marina life, Zenitude going from a lovely livable place to a chaotic messy place, back and forth several times a day, depending on what is it we are trying to fix or which cabinet/area we decide to ‘organize’ next. 

G.

Across the Whitsundays in a week

Going up the coast towards Townsville we decided to start with short day trips and no overnights as the weather has been very mild and enjoyable. We’ve been travelling our way north from Mackay and along the Whitsundays, stopping everyday early afternoon in a different island to enjoy time at anchor. 

Since leaving Mackay, every day we've seen hundreds of butterflies, they are everywhere but most amazingly they seem to be migrating from the coast towards the islands. I wasn't expecting butterflies flying for so many miles over the sea, rather than birds this time we were visited by beautiful colorful butterflies all along the way.

Around the Whitsundays with butterflies

On our first stop, Thomas Is. we found Mark and Shannon from Axis Mundi who have travel plans similar to ours for this year. We hope to meet them in Lizard Island, sometime in September if we manage to get there by then.  

From Thomas we went to Whitehaven Beach and next day to Langford Island where we spent the night in one of the moorings, with a private aquarium just for ourselves, with the fish having a go at our yummy fingers, luckily the kind of fish without teeth. 

Oscar and our own private aquarium

From Langford we had a lovely sail in a strait west direction back to mainland in Cape Gloucester, the very northern tip of the Whitsundays, where we are now, spending several days before continue up the coast towards Townsville.

Cape Gloucester is where Montes Restaurant and Resort is located, famous among locals for their seafood. Just across is Gloucester Island and the little Shag Islet, home to the "EXCLUSIVELY – NON EXCLUSIVE" Shag Islet Cruising Yacht Club. Check their site for news, events and pictures of the most amazing yearly yacht rendevouz (Click here: SICYC) where hundreds of boats congregate for several days of festivities all for a good cause to raise money for prostate cancer. But this time of the year here, there are only a handful of boats.  All around this place is magnificent.

Yes, another beautiful sunset at anchor

Gloucester Island is an uninhabited island with a National Park and camping available on two locations on the beach, Bona Bay and East Side Bay. Today we were saddened to see bush fires burning in the hills and wondered if people in the camping grounds could have accidentally started the fires which are going freely up the mountain where there seems to be no way for anybody to reach.

Beautiful Gloucester Island is burning: 

From Gold Coast to Mackay - A fast trip

On Saturday I will take a plane and travel from Sydney to Mackay, the flight takes approximately two and a half hours. Last Thursday Oscar and his crew left the Gold Coast City Marina and set sail towards Mackay. They arrived at dawn on Monday morning after four days and four nights sailing non stop.

Happily sailing along

This was indeed a fast trip when compared to our trip last year when we did almost the same route lazily sailing up the coast. We left the end of May and arrived in Mackay in mid July, spending a bit over a month and a half to get from the Gold Coast to Mackay. Along the way we stopped in many wonderful places but this year our choice was to make a 'fast' trip and get to warmer latitudes on the other side of the Tropic of Capricorn early in the season.

Mackay is at the southern end of the Whitsundays. Zenitude is now well positioned for the start of our sailing. We can and we'll probably go up to Magnetic Island stopping in places we haven't stopped before. There are many choices. From Magnetic Island we'll keep going north hoping this year we can cover lots of places all the way up to Lizard Island. When the weather collaborates, we want to make trips to the outer reef.  It is good to be back to our cruising life.

The Great Barrier Reef - Mackay to Lizard Island

G.

Back on the Water – Plans for 2015

This week Zenitude was gently deposited back on the water by the Gold Coast City Marina (GCCM) shipyard crew. This time she is not shinny and she is full of dust, waxing and cleaning will be done next week after engines work is finished. We are replacing the engines batteries that lasted 5 good years and installing heat monitors for the engines, a gadget that has taken us too long to finally get so that we can monitor engine temperature and take action well before the alarm goes off. With the impeller issues we had last year this was on the list of ‘have to have’.

Oscar is targeting Wed/Thu to depart. With hired crew he is hoping to be in Mackay in 4 to 5 days and then wait for me, while I finish my working duties in Sydney at the end of April. This year we plan to reach Magnetic Island, some way or another but hopefully slowly and without overnight trips, before the end of May. We have planned a month long land trip (Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam) during June. Zenitude will stay in Nelly Bay marina.

We’ll be back on the water in July. Our intention this year is go slowly north up to Lizard Island. We do want to spend time there to visit the outer reef as many times as weather allows. Hopefully then, the northerlies will come sometime in October letting us sail back south without too much ‘wind on the nose’ type of trip. Destination on the trip back will depend on many things and it is too far in advance at the moment to plan and get it right.

These are the plans, which of course may change, more than once, after all it’s good to go where the wind takes you.  

G.

The end of 2014 - Zenitude out of the water

Hamilton Marina

November was a busy month for us in Sydney while Zenitude remained at the docks in Hamilton marina, waiting for Oscar and crew to take her to cyclone safe latitudes.

Marina residents

Somewhere in the Whitsundays

But before the crew arrival we enjoyed a bit more of Whitsundays sailing with Anne and John visiting from the US. We first met them in the Caribbean when they were cruising in their boat Livin’ the Dream. Together we survived the experience of spending a cyclone season in troubled Venezuela back in 2008 and we’ve been in touch ever since. They had promised they would fly to Australia for a month long holiday and it was great to have them for a little while with us.

On the 26 of November Oscar and crew, our son Gonzalo and our friend Phil, started the trip south with a little hope of good northerlies, which seemed to be always 2 days away as the forecast kept changing. The trip was mostly ok but there was a lot of frustration as there was no good weather to stop neither at North West Island nor at Lady Musgrave as they were hoping to do. After 10 days of mainly motor sailing they arrived in Hervey Bay. The crew had run out of time and could not keep going, so Zenitude stayed in Urangan Marina for the month of December.  

We did the final leg, Hervey Bay to Coomera in the Gold Coast during the week after Christmas. It was a good trip, with just one stop at the anchorage in Kingfisher Bay Resort for the first night and then down the Sandy Straight, across Wide Bay Bar (more scary than ever, even in very calm weather), continuing all the way in an overnight to the Gold Coast Seaway where we entered early afternoon to be ‘welcomed’ by hundreds of people in the water making all kind of silly things like falling just ahead of our catamaran from their water skis.  

We made it safely to the Gold Coast City marina just a day ahead of the New Year with little time to organize anything fancy for New Year’s Eve. We welcomed 2015 in a quiet starry night with a special dinner and the very cold bottle of champagne.

A week later the friendly staff of GCC Marina took care of Zenitude and hauled her out of the water where she is now resting and getting ready for next season once summer and cyclone season are over.

Targeting April to be back in the water

G.

Back in the Whitsundays

After spending a couple of days in Hamilton and about a week in Airlie to provision we were ready to leave marina life behind, so when the weather improved we happily left the docks for a week around the islands.

Previous time in the Whitsundays we missed Whitehaven Beach. This time we wanted to make sure we wouldn't miss it so we headed there after spending a night in Stonehaven.

Such an amazing beach we were glad we made it this time. You can anchor almost anywhere alongside the beach but the most protected area is towards the south end. The problem is this part of the beach is totally crowded with day visitors, including the little seaplanes that bring couples for a romantic time at the beach. Our strategy worked out well by spending daytime at anchor in the isolated places and going back to the good anchorage for the night. We found that by evening this place is usually quiet, except for the camping area that seems to have visitors most of the time. 

Outstanding

A romantic setting at the beach

Zeni and the clear waters of Whitehaven

A view from the inlet at the end of the beach

We had about 8 days before my flight to Sydney to go back to work and we spent these last days going to places we missed when we came up. The wind was mainly from the NNE this time so we visited anchorages that are not available in the predominant SE winds. The weather was lovely, the places a lot less crowded this time of the year and we sailed to more remote places visiting White Bay in Haslewood island, Plantation Bay in Lindeman Island and the highlight of the week, Thomas Island.

And then the week was over and we headed back to spend the last night at Turtle Bay before going to Hamilton marina. Zenitude will stay here for a month, while we wait for our dear American friends John and Anne from Livin’ the Dream that will be visiting Australia and join us for some more of Whitsundays sailing towards the end of November. 

G.