From Orpheus to Dunk Island

We spent two days in Orpheus with nice weather, a bit windy for the long dinghy ride to the James Cook University research centre where the giant clams are located. The tide times didn’t help to motivate us either, the low tide that exposes the giant clams out of the water was quite early in the morning and it wasn’t as low as the Spring tides. We had this amazing experience last year (check this blog entry ) and now we thought we better leave it for next time around, surely on our way back conditions should be better.

As we were happily thinking how good a time and place this was to relax after our hectic last days in Maggie, an alarm going off on the port engine that was running for a little while to charge batteries, ended with our ‘time to enjoy’ mood. It was time to work again. Quick assessment revealed that the new sea water pump installed in Maggie was leaking oil. So, there it was again, we hardly finished fixing the starboard engine for the port engine to get jealous and require Oscar’s full attention. 

Initially the thinking was it would be an easy fix, just a matter of adjusting the bolts and maybe changing the ring. Of course, nothing comes easy when you are in a mooring, in a remote island with no access to shop for parts, obviously one of the bolts was damaged and required replacement, of course we didn’t have a spare of this particular bolt. At that point Oscar was concerned to remove the pump to check the ring, in case another bolt (there are four of them) could get damaged as well. Instead of risking a complete not working pump he designed a temporary ingenuous ‘oil re-cycling’ method to get us to a more suitable place where to have work done. We have several liters of spare oil on board but Oscar thought it would be better to collect the oil and put it back if we needed to use the engine. (He had just changed the oil not so long ago).

Next day, with a forecast of 10-15 SE wind we decided to leave Orpheus and get going north to Dunk Island. Perfect, you would think but it wasn't. What we got was early morning katabatic winds (west), which was good for sailing while lasted but at around 10.00 the wind died with the forecast wind never showing up so we had to resort to motoring the rest of the way.

Oscar’s oil recycling method worked well and we did good time arriving at Dunk Island early afternoon.  Being a Saturday, we found it a bit crowded but with a great atmosphere. As we approached the anchorage we saw another Lagoon, Seabreeze. Later on we went to chat with them, David and Nerida were so nice and helpful. Their home base is Innisfail, not far from here, they assured us we would surely find anything we needed in Innisfail and kindly offer to help. We will definitely contact them on Monday.   In the meantime we are enjoying this beautiful island.

G.

On the move again, slowly going north

Our target date for leaving came and we were more than ready to leave marina life. Well almost, we planned to leave with the high tide at noon, since we needed to get out from a tight, too close to the rocks berth, so we figured we had the whole morning to do last minute things, like get the mail from the post office, get the list of forgotten items from the supermarket, fill the water tanks, store hose, electric cable, etc. etc. etc. Logically, as we are not early morning starters, it was hectic but right at noon we were ready.

Finally, in a windless day, with the high tide and the help from Kerry (marina manager) and our friend Lynn (Time 2) we released dock lines and Zenitude moved smoothly out of the docks and in no time we were out of Nelly Bay. Sailing happily in a gorgeous day we went around to the northern tip of Magnetic Island and just 8 miles away at 1.30PM we were dropping anchor in Horseshoe Bay. After over two months in a marina it felt wonderful to be free at anchor once again.

With the weather forecast showing SE 15 to 20 winds indefinitely we left very early next morning toward Palm Islands. What we got was SW 10 to 12 knots which were ok for us except the seas were confused and uncomfortable. It was good enough to try our reformed main sail. It did quite well, going at 7 kn in the second reef with the wind at 90. Later on the wind started getting very light and backing to the S so we finished the trip motor sailing in very light winds, not exactly as the forecast prediction, but we arrived at Little Pioneer Bay in Orpheus Island at around 3.00 PM. 

We found the bay empty of boats and all 4 public moorings available for us to choose from. At the moment we are planning to stay here for a couple of days to visit the James Cook University research station and the giant clams’ area again. 

Underway again - Around Maggie

At anchor again - Horseshoe Bay

Enjoying gorgeous sunset again - Little Pioneer Bay

G.

Engine working - Getting ready to leave Nelly Bay

After all the pain to undo and redo the engine electric connections, Oscar was rewarded with a working engine! He found 2 suspicious wires after dismounting both the engine and the instrument’s panel, replaced what needed replacement and redid all connections leaving them a lot tidier than before. So far all is working fine, even though we still have our fingers crossed every time we start the engine. It was a very useful learning experience and we thank Mike, our expert adviser that could not actually do the work after his knee operation, but guided Oscar all along.

Instrument Panel connections - in need of some work

With the engine work finished we realized we still had lots to do before leaving the marina and got into a frenzy working mood. Replacing corroded deck locks, re-designing lazy jacks, fixing and re-enforcing the sail bag and of course putting the main sail back in place were long days of hard work. It was a relief to see that the main sail looks quite good now, with the enhancements to fix the leech reef points, can’t wait to give it a try. 

In Nelly Bay, main sail in the bag ....

Main sail, out of the bag, ready to go back in place 

Up the mast, redoing lazy jacks

 Provisioning this time was quite easy with Coles online. Great doing all the shopping with mouse clicks and then having it all delivered to the door, or rather the dock, at the marina. We found it very convenient for all the non-perishables.

Then there is all the organizing, cleaning and last minute little fixes since we don’t plan to stay at a marina so soon again, but we have set a date, we’ll be leaving Tuesday, weather looks right for the trip north. 

G.

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.