E22 – ADOLPHUS ISLAND TO HORN ISLAND
Rolling at Adolphus Island.
The anchorage at Adolphus island offered safe protection from the SE 20-25kt trade winds, but when the tide turned, an uncomfortable and downright annoying swell wrapped into the anchorage causing Starlight to roll. I snuck in as close as was possible to try to avoid it, but it wasn’t to be. Most of the time, it was a perfectly pleasant anchorage though, and I suspect in winds 15kts or less from the SE, it would be nothing but pleasant. The steering had been groaning and making loud noise from about Lizard Island north and was weighing heavily on my mind…The last thing I wanted was to lose steering, running downwind, at night, in 25kt SE trade winds in the narrow reefs approaching Torres Strait. In the end, a spray of WD40 into the top of the rudder bearing seemed to fix the sound…in the anchorage at least! I arranged for a mechanic to dive on the rudder at Horn Island and check it out.
A WD40 rudder fix
It is only a short run 22nm to Horn Island and a suitable 20kt SE trade forecast so, we set the headsail only to keep all pressure up forward as we ran downwind allowing me to nurse and test the rudder. As it turned out, the WD40 spray stopped the sound completely! That was far better than I had hoped for and was greatly relieved but I’m still planning to have it properly checked at Horn Island.
Horn Island
On arrival at Horn Island, we wound our way i through the shifting mud bank channel by following the marks and watching closely the sounder. Once inside, we anchored just a little west of the main jetty where we had just enough room to swing among the moorings.
