Journal Entries

April 2006

April 12- You may recall from my previous journal entries that I bought some new AGM batteries for El Viajero. I had been wanting to replace the 4 existing trojan wet cell deep cycles batteries for some time as I didn't like the idea of wet cell batteries in the boat and they were poorly fitted in the engine room. Heat shortens the life of batteries significantly and an engine bay is not the most logical place to put batteries. They also gas when heated which contributes to the corrosion of metals. So today I removed the old wet cells and installed the new sealed glass mat batteries in a perfectly sized locker on the starboard side of the boat away from the engine heat. Below is a picture of the engine bay after I had removed 2 of the 4 trojan batteries.

and here is a photo of the engine bay with batteries removed.

I am a big believer in having things done properly and while I could have had a shot at doing the rewiring myself I thought it best to have a marine electrician do the work. I had him relocate the battery charger and starter battery which were located on the port side to the starboard. This removed all the wiring you can see below the old battery shelf. The wiring on El Viajero has been modified over the years and there were many wires left over from old electronics since removed. When finished I had 2 garbage bags full of old redundant wiring. I am so happy with the end result as it has tidied up the engine room dramatically and and I'm considering installing an additional water tank where the starter battery and charger was previously located.

Below is a photo of the new AGM batteries installed. They fit perfectly into a small unused locker under the navigation table on the starboard side and I have effectively doubled my battery capacity to 300 amp hours.

While I had the marine electrician there I also had the shore power replaced. Below is a photo of the new 15amp shore power fitting.

April 13 - Finally the Easter long weekend has arrived. I have been working furiously to get things finished to get out for a sail. I left the marina at around 10pm tonight and sailed straight to Moreton Island. Unfortunately there wasn't much wind and I was forced to motorsail most of the way. About 5 hours later I arrived at the island and found a nice spot to anchor just off the beach and had a restful night.

April 15 - What a day! The last 2 days have been so beautiful. The water is like a lake and the temperature is just right. I spent the last 2 days snorkeling the wrecks off the island, cleaning the hull and just lazing around. There are many other boats in the anchorage which makes for interesting sights. Here is a photo of where I am anchored.

I was keen to try out my new boom tent and it certainly did the job. Thanks to the genius of Brian who made the boom tent I was sitting in shade all day and really felt like I was staying in a 5 star resort. Here I am relaxing on the aft deck in the afternoon with a fresh espresso. It doesn't get much better than this.

and the view from the hotel room.

and the obligatory sunset shot.

April 16 - There had been some predictions for strong winds on Saturday night, but they didn't eventuate. I took my boom tent down just in case and by this morning the winds had picked up considerably. As the anchorage was pretty crowded by now I decided to get out and make my way to a more protected anchorage on the other side of the bay. I hauled anchor at 6am and proceeded east toward mud island. By the time I got out into open water the bay was really messy. It was blowing 20-25 knots and small waves were breaking everywhere.

These photos don't really show the worst of the weather, but you can see from how wet the decks are that plenty of spray was coming over the rails.

I decided to head to Manly, which is several miles south of my last anchorage at Moreton Island. I had a fantastic sail and after 2 tacks across the bay I was in Manly.

Since the weather was getting pretty foul and I couldn't find a protected anchorage I called the local marina at Manly to get a berth for the night. As I motored down to the dock I was directed to a berth. I needed to turn around to get back to the berth and as I did so I came to a sudden stop. I had run aground. It was about an hour from low tide and I still had plenty of room in the channel. What had I hit? Here is a photo at dead low tide about 45 minutes after I had run aground.

As soon as I realised I wasn't going to get off and was stuck there, I ran a halyard from the top of the mast over to the marina dock and ran my anchor out. I was concerned that if the tide did go out much further the strong wind might push the boat over onto the rocks. I was feeling pretty stupid but also a little angry that there was no marker in the channel warning of the obstruction. I was informed later from others in the marina that it was not totally uncommon and that I had hit a large flat rock which was left there since the dredging of the channel. I was told that I wasn't the first and "won't be the last." I was feeling a little better now and since I only hit the rock at very low speed I think the only damage was to my ego. About an hour and a half later I floated off and tied up to the dock where I spent a restful night.

April 17 - The wind was still blowing around 15-20 knots today but the water was not as rough as yesterday. After a hot shower and a beautiful breakfast of eggs, tomato and mushrooms, I left the marina at 2.15pm and hoisted the main and jib. I decided to sail up the inside of the islands and up to the main channel of the Brisbane river. The charts indicated some shallow areas but most of the time I was in 3-5 metres of water. I am so glad I decided to leave Moreton Island as it gave me some time to explore some other parts of the bay. I sailed past St Helena island which was a penal settlement in the early 19th century and the ruins of which can be seen when sailing past. Unfortunately I didn't have time to stop in but will make a point of visiting very soon as there was a beautiful shallow water anchorage with a sandy beach on the western side which would make a great anchorage. Here is an interesting link with information on the island. www.sthelenaisland.com.au

Below is a satellite photo of my trip with the red marker showing my course. The top right of the red marker shows the anchorage at Moreton Island and at the bottom left the marina at Manly. St Helena Island is the middle of the three small islands in the middle.

I often hear people say that Westsails are slow. I clocked 7.2knots on the GPS today and sailed consistently at 6.8knots. My main sail is old, stretched with a few rips in it and of an old unbattened, hollow leach design. I only just cleaned to about 1 foot below the waterline and below that there is over a years worth of barnacles and growth. I also have a huge non folding propeller to drag, over sized anchors, chain lockers full of anchor chain and a boat full of belongings. The only explanation I can come up with is that these people have never been on a Westsail. Today was one of the best sailing days I have had. It only took me 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach the entrance of the river. I love this slow old boat!