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Mittwoch, 22. März 2017
Another uninhabited tropical paradise all to ourselves Hexham Island
13 October - 2015
We awoke shortly after sunrise to the sound of chicks squawking loudly in their nest high on a rock outcrop directly behind Our Dreamtime’s stern. The brood was raucously letting their mother know they were hungry and ready for more food. What we hadn’t heard was every other boat in the anchorage upping anchor in the pre-dawn and beginning their run south over the waters we’d covered the previous day. We were alone at Hexham Island. Once more we had a private tropical paradise all to ourselves and we were going to make the most of it. The coffee was soon brewing and a quick breakfast prepared and enjoyed in the sunshine on the stern as we planned our day in paradise.
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| This bird was very busy keeping the food up to her brood of hungry chicks in her nest high above the anchorage |
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| Karen was quick to sketch the high rock outcrops and nest behind our stern in Hexham Island. |
We were then soon on our way into Hexham’s golden sand beach in the dinghy. Karen set up camp under a shady tree ready for a morning of sketching while Rob donned his hiking boots for a walk to the top of the island to see the views. Most of the island is covered in forest with lots of pine trees. There are no trails. It would be very tough going in any of the treed areas of the island due to the thick underbrush but the western end is far more open with a covering of half metre high grass. Like its neighbours we passed the day before, Hexham Island shows the scars inflicted by Cyclone Marcia nine months previous. There are many broken and downed pine trees still evident and greenery is a bit sparse on those standing . As nature does though, the foliage is recovering and the cyclone will be a dim memory in the island’s long history before long.
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| It was fantastic to have a tropical paradise all to ourselves at Hexham Island. |
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| Karen doing a bit of beach combing. |
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| Settled into to her sketching spot for the morning. |
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| For more of Karen's art have a look at her Facebook page Karen Oberg - Artist |
The walk up the rocky, grassed slopes required a fair bit of care with every step placement. It was reasonably slow going but the views over the bay and surrounding islands were magnificent.
It was fantastic just sitting on a large rock at the top for half an hour and soaking it all in before commencing the tricky descent. Next a shorter but equally scrambling climb at the eastern end beckoned for some photos from the other angle. Once more the view made the effort well worthwhile.
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| Our Dreamtime in paradise at Hexham Island |
On returning to the beach all the hiking gear was quickly shed for a refreshing soak in the bay’s crystal waters. We then dried off in the shade of our little campsite with a nice bottle of bubbles and some appropriate snacks. This private island business has a lot going for it.
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| Time to cool off |
Mid afternoon sails began appearing of boats headed for the bay to anchor for the night so we made our way back to the boat after some exploring of the island’s coastline in the dinghy.
By the time we were treated to another spectacular sunset there were four other boats anchored peacefully around us. Our magical day had firmly put Hexham Island well up our favourite places list.
PET PEEVE:
We try to be fairly easy going cruisers. Naturally some things other boaties do can be irritating but there’s a very good reason to keep those irritations to yourself. Out on the water, you never know if that skipper you just gave a mouthful about anchoring to close to you with his noisy generator today may just be the person you need to help save your skin in an emergency tomorrow.One thing really does get up our nose though. Many of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Islands are protected National Parks. They are places of great natural beauty with wildlife insulated from many dangers including the threat of physical harm or disease from domestic pets. By law dogs are not permitted on these islands.
Despite this, we see many sailors who cruise with dogs on board dinghy them to the beach to do their business. Most are very responsible, keep their dogs below the high water mark then bag and remove their droppings thereby minimising any risk to the environment or native fauna. We have been dog owners all our lives and, for a period of time, showed and bred thoroughbred Airedale Terriers, so we are far from pet haters.
Unfortunately some boating pet owners are a long way from being either responsible or considerate. The powerboat that interrupted our morning at Hexham Island stopped for one reason only. They eased in close to the beach then let their two dogs loose before backing off into better depth. The dogs both took dumps then raced around the beach barking up a storm chasing birds for about twenty minutes while their owners drifted in the bay. They then took their boat back in close and called the dogs out into the water, hauled them aboard and high tailed out of there to continue on their day trip. WHY THE HELL take dogs on a day trip to National Park areas and, if you have to take a dog ashore, how hard is it to take any mess with you and dump it offshore later. Rant over.
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| Not what you want to find on the beach of a protected national park. |
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| Good night from Hexham Island! |
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If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway. We hope you enjoy reading the previous posts to catch up on our story.
Mittwoch, 15. März 2017
Materials sent to Reunion Island are now a boat
We have sent various boat building materials to many islands in the world, the latest one was to Reunion Island and in the Indian Ocean,
HELLO ROY,
this joins two picture of my project.
Thanks
Alexandre
The design is by Mark Bowdidge Marine from Australia, we can offer their plans and the materials to build with on request.
This order included the WBP hardwood exterior plywood, epoxy and the glass cloth to cover the boat with.
Roy
Montag, 13. Februar 2017
Ideas Sea island one design sailboat
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Samstag, 14. Januar 2017
Reluctantly back to Oz Herald Cays to Fitzroy Island
23-24 August 2016
We had a fairly relaxed start to our passage back to the mainland for a change and didn’t get underway from North East Herald Cay until 7.30am. We knew we were not going to be able to cover the 190 nautical mile distance quickly enough to ensure a daylight arrival the following afternoon so didn’t see much point in setting sail until both the sun and wind had got up at least a little.
We had decided to make our way to Fitzroy Island near Cairns rather than heading straight into port. This would shorten our trip by a few miles but also more importantly, Fitzroy has a nice open well protected anchorage more suitable for arriving at night. Our plan was to make our way there and have a rest before moving into Cairns to organise our engine repairs.
Leaving the atolls behind, the contrast to our rough upwind passage out from Townsville could not have been greater. Today the sea was totally calm and we were sailing wing on wing almost dead downwind with just 8 knots of easterly breeze pushing us gently along. It wasn’t fast but it was certainly very enjoyable.
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| Sailing wing on wing over smooth seas from Herald Cays |
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| Karen hard at work on the morning watch. |
The wind turned north east mid morning as predicted and we initially ran with it well to the south of our set course. A couple of hours on this tack gained us a good enough wind angle to gybe the main and mizzen sails over and replace the genoa with our asymmetric spinnaker. We then spent the rest of the day ghosting along nicely. It still wasn’t fast but it was absolutely very pleasant. It’s always good when the conditions let you do a nice BBQ lunch underway in the sunshine.
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| We love our kite. |
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| Clear skies, light winds and smooth seas. |
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| It's BBQ time. |
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| Karen decided with the spinnaker up it was the appropriate time to chomp the Our Dreamtime cookie her friend Gaylene had made for her. |
As sunset approached we doused the spinnaker and reset the genoa for the night watches. This is the tropics and squalls can appear out of the darkness at anytime so risking our favourite sail is never on the cards. We normally also reef at night but given the very light conditions we elected to continue under full sail as progress was slow enough already.
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| Literally sailing into the sunset. |
The wind slowly eased through the evening until just short of midnight on Karen’s watch when it disappeared entirely. Sitting stationary in the water with 0.0 knots showing on the wind gauge, we decided to motor slowly for a while keeping a close eye on the oil pressure all the time hoping the wind would return.
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| Our track shows where we turned south with the wind then gybed to fly the asymmetric spinnaker. The turn to the north west was when Karen was trying to milk the last of the wind before we turned the engine on and headed west. |
It didn’t. The rest of the night remained dead calm and at dawn we found ourselves still chugging across the Coral Sea in its most benign form.
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| You won't find the Coral Sea calmer than this. |
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| Anthony bored but with delusions of grandeur |
We did discover however that while motoring along at 1600rpm over smooth seas the engine was losing very little oil. Yes it was good news but it also threw our diagnosis of a leaking rear main seal out the window – or porthole in our case.
If it was the rear seal the engine would leak the same as soon as oil pressure was up regardless of engine rpms or sea state. We accepted what good fortune was on offer and continued to motor all through the windless day while tossing around other possible causes for our rapid oil loss on the passage to Herald Cays. We regularly stopped the motor to check the dip stick level but at our reduced revs oil loss remained very low. Another thorough inspection of things was put on the agenda for when we reached Fitzroy Island.
Karen finds a windless day of motoring extremely boring which is not all bad for the rest of the crew. To break the monotony she often gets inspired in the galley and on this occasion we were treated to some outstanding chicken and salad fococia breads for lunch followed by fresh baked banana, raspberry, chocolate cake.
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| Lynda caught enjoying lunch on the Coral Sea. |
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| Fresh baked cake time. |
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| Boring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
The sun had already set by the time we approached the passage through the Great Barrier Reef off Fitzroy Island and with no moon and a largely overcast sky things were about as black as they get. The wind finally did spring up though with 12 knots blowing from the north east allowing us to sail and give the motor a well earned rest for a couple of hours.
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| We were able to sail most of the last leg through the reefs to Fitzroy Island. |
The last part of a long trip always seems to drag and it was almost midnight before we turned to wind off Fitzroy Island and furled all sail away. We were still under a moonless sky as we approached the anchorage to discover the bay awash with anchor lights. Unbeknown to us the annual Cairns Game Fishing Tournament was on based at the island’s resort and the bay was packed with game boats of all sizes and budgets.
With Rob on the bow with a spotlight and radio and Karen on the helm we began very carefully edging our way through the anchorage from the southern side looking for somewhere to drop. A number of boats were on moorings, some had rafted up together while others were totally unlit and all of them seemed to hang in different directions making our movement through extremely stressful. Rob was calling directions to Karen while Anthony was relaying her replies on the radio so she had both hands free for the helm. After making it right through the packed bay without finding a perfect spot to anchor Rob called back to the wheel house to swing back to port into clear water and we’d circle back around and try again.
From the bow he couldn’t make out exactly what Karen’s loud response was back there but did pick up some snippets of her lengthy discourse such as ‘no bloody way’, ’idiot’, ‘thinks we’re doing that’, ‘can steer ………. thing himself.’ Anthony’s calm interpretation of the response delivered over the radio was a dry ‘That would be a negative Rob’.
So – discussion over, we edged back around and anchored well outside all the other boats in over 15 metres of water. Fortunately we have plenty of anchor chain. We would re-anchor in the daylight when we could see what we were doing.
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| The chart doesn't show all the game fishing boats we had to dodge in the anchorage. Herald Cay to Fitzroy Island – 190.5 Nautical Miles – 40 Hours 14 Minutes Average Speed 4.7 Knots – Max Speed 7.7 Knots |
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| Our Predictwind tracker updated every hour to show our meanderings through the Coral Sea. |
Once we were satisfied the boat was all secure the bar opened. Rob and Anthony cracked some beers while Karen and Lynda reached for the red wine. After over 40 hours on passage our tiredness was magically washed away and we sat up until 2.30 in the morning celebrating our successful return from the Coral Sea.
It’s safe to say the sun was high in the sky before we arose from our bunks. All the game boats had disappeared leaving a very spacious looking anchorage behind.
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| Nothing like a cook up to start the day. |
We enjoyed a laid back brunch before hauling up all that chain we dropped a few hours earlier and then moved right into the middle of the bay and re-anchored. When the armada of game boats returned after their day’s fishing they didn’t seem all that pleased to find us grotty yachties sitting in prime position right in the middle of the anchorage during tournament week. Too bad!
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| We re-anchored in a prime spot next morning after the game fishing fleet had left for the day. |
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| Our Dreamtime sitting happily at Fitzroy Island |
We dropped Anthony and Lynda into the beach so they could do some exploring of the island while we began our second round of investigations in the engine room. A complete clean up of the whole motor and engine room surfaces was again the first task. We then ran the motor for about twenty minutes and went looking for evidence of oil leaking. Of course it had to be in the least accessible spot but here it was. A film of oil was weeping from the valve cover gasket at the very back of the engine.
It all made sense now. At normal rpms the leak was reasonably minor. At high revs in rough conditions with the boat heeling under sail a much larger volume of oil would be in the top of the engine rather than down in the sump. More oil on top of the head under the valve cover means more oil to leak from what we suspected we would find to be a broken or incorrectly fitted gasket. The good news was, if we were correct we were facing a much simpler and cheaper repair. The bad news was, to be on the safe side we had paid a professional mechanic to do a full service on the engine, including resetting the valve clearances which involves taking the cover off. Like our tiller arm and rudder angle sensor issues, we now suspected we had once more fallen foul of expensive tradesmen not doing the job properly and creating problems for us.Karen’s brother lives in Cairns so we contacted him to see if he could source a new gasket for us and send it over to the island on the ferry. Next day he got back to us to say that no one in Cairns stocked what we needed so we began chasing one in Brisbane. By now it was Friday afternoon and true to form for Australia we were not going to be able to get one sent until after the weekend. It would arrive in Cairns on Tuesday so we decided we would too. In the meantime we’d stay put and enjoy the delights of Fitzroy Island.
These involved incredibly good walks maintained by the Governments National Parks Department to wonderful places such as the Secret Garden, Nudie Beach, the old lighthouse and the summit.
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| Anthony's panoramic shot from Fitzroy Island's summit. |
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| The Fitzoy Island walks are beautifully maintained. |
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| Fitzroy Island's fantastic rain forest vegetation |
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| Nudie Beach on Fitzroy Island - only by name not by nature anymore. |
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| Fitzroy Island's beaches are a mix of sand and broken coral. |
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| We were able to snorkel over very good reef just meters from the boat’s swim platform. |
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| The resort on the island is private property but the were very welcoming and we did find the bar hard to get away from on the odd occasion. |
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| We went drift fishing from the dinghy over the reef and caught a nice lunch of sweetlip, parrot fish, flowery cod and red throat emperor. |
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| Delicious roast pork and crackling cooked in the BBQ was just one of Karen's great efforts. |
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| Just another breakfast. You may have gathered we enjoy good food on Our Dreamtime. |
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| Our Kayak got put to good use at Fitzroy Island too. |
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| Rob snorkelled under the boat to find the anti-foul and prop speed we applied in Bundaberg are performing well. |
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| It was great to catch up with Matt and Deb on their lovely cat La Jorja who we’d met at Orpheus Island. Sundowners are always a lot of fun. |
If you have to be marooned waiting for parts, Fitzroy Island is a pretty good place to do it.
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To stay right up to date with what we’re up to and see lots more photos check out and 'like' our Dreamtime Sail Facebook page at DreamtimeSail
If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway.
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