Magnetic Island

[Andrew]

Gidday everyone, Finally went for a mid-week 2 day solo sail, checked out the southern coastline of Magnetic Island.

The weather conditions were Easterly 15-20knots, tropical hot 31C air, and 26C sea temps. Also Super fullmoon and big spring tides (0.6m to 3.9m). It was the first outing in over a year (allot of "land stuff" and boat maintenance)

Launched Ross River boat Park but the afternoons had strong ebb tide against wind/sea was a challenge to deal with, not the usual experience. Also a protective sand bank (for rigging up at anchor, after bridge) was gone, it was washed away by floods and a cyclone last wet season.

Anchored overnight in the "Duckpond" at Townsville port, it's calm for a good sleep (even tho the wind kept going at East 10 kts). Had to remove the transducer from the bow locker in forecabin as the F'finder/depth sounder didn't work. Jury rigger transducer back on transom to get it going again ( vital gear for spring tides!)

Next morning the Easterly increased strength, sailed starboard reach/broad reach at 5knots, 7.5 nautical miles to west point, (along the more sheltered lee coast of Magnetic island.) (West point has a good swimming beach and some off-grid beach houses, 4wd road from Picnic Bay, so a small tourist presence, a couple of "tinnie" fishos' there ) The forest covered steep bouldery hills shelter this side of the Island from tradewinds.

The return trip was on port tack beating into it at 4 knots, spray flying. The sail pro 6 hp has allot of push-power to motor or motor/sail into headwinds and chop when needed. Only ran at about 1/2 -1/3 throttle, to get a sea-kindly hull speed. Burnt about 2 litres 91 petrol on the trip, its so economical/quiet so it's used a bit more than the old 2 stroke.

The tillerpilot did most of the steering in the open areas, great for fatigue management. and for things like dealing with cabin windows mighty leak, onto my bunk, so folded the bunkswab away and bucket on wet rags sorted it out.

Motored back into Ross River at 4 knots, a good dry speed in the ebb tide against wind/sea.

Good thing about mid-week trips with allot of wind up, hardly any boats using the boat ramps. (but drove back thru peak hour 3pm school zone traffic)

[Andrew]

A few pics from trip. Nice sunset, Harvest moon rise and stowaway. Sailing near Magnetic Island.

Cheers

[Andrew]

Pic #2, the 40w moveable solar panel to mppt controller output is 1AmpHour-2AH during sailing hours, seems to keep up with tillerpilots' power draw. The aft roller frame works, and saves time/effort rigging up.

(Motors dynamo also outputs a few AH when running). So battery was still fairly full on return. (Also took the solar blanket along, but it wasn't needed)

Bimini shade up, on a reach - broad reach. Furled it down for return upwind bash.

[Ozzie]

Nice pics and narrative Andrew. Impressed with you neat seamanship with very orderly cord storage on the mast. I fall down often with this.

[Andrew]

Cheers Ozzie, it can get a bit more chaotic than it appears in photos. The recently solidified foredeck and cabin top helped too, spend more time standing on it than before!

Bit more detail and hiRes photos at https://teria563.blogspot.com/2025/10/s ... day-1.html
https://teria563.blogspot.com/2025/10/s ... -day2.html