Whitsunday cruising

The week’s cruising has come to an end and we have reluctantly handed back the keys to “No Ties”. This was probably my ninth or tenth charter holiday and one could not fail to be impressed by all aspects of the service provided by Charter Yachts Australia. From the moment we were met and brought to our boat, to the excellent and very thorough briefing to the test sail before departure (that was a new one on us), everything had been thought of. We had ordered a provisioning package for the entire week and this had been delivered to the boat, unpacked and put on board an hour or so before we arrived - even down to the cockpit fridge having been well stocked with beer and Coke !

The cruising area covered by the charter is relatively small in terms of miles from north to south but almost unlimited in the number of anchorages, beaches, bays and sailing possibilities it offers. We spent most of our time circumnavigating Whitsunday Island and covering some of Hook Island and spent one night moored at the luxurious Palm Bay Resort on Long Island, where we had dinner ashore. The weather was consistently good, with winds ranging from 10 to 20 knots between NE and SE. Temperatures were just over 30° every day with some days being just a little too humid for comfort.

The snorkelling was of mixed quality (some days the wind was a little too strong which made underwater visibility rather limited) but we lost count of the number of turtles we spotted (almost impossible to photograph though), especially in some of the shallower anchorages.



Sailing a cruising catamaran was a new experience and certainly makes for comfortable sailing (no need to be too careful stowing everything away before setting sail) and good off-wind performance. Tacking, however, was another story and was best achieved with a little engine help. Having two engines with individual controls makes for really amazing manoeuvrability and it was very easy to spin the boat on her own axis. The boat was very well equipped and onboard kit included a chart plotter and autohelm along with all the usual stuff.




Although we started our charter at Airlie Beach, we finished at the marina on Hamilton Island, an island resort just south of Whitsunday Island, from where we flew to Melbourne for a five day stay. This whole small island is basically a holiday resort with its own airport, a 210 berth marina, about 1000 regular residents, 1500 staff and goodness knows how many holidaymakers all in full swing. Our three hour flight to Melbourne (with another hour added on for Daylight Saving Time) saw us arrive at about 4pm and we then had to face the navigational challenges involved in getting to our hosts in south east Melbourne, our home for the next five days.