Hi Sailors,
I am planning to have a bare boat rental tour within the Whitsunday area during early FEB 2014, some concerns I am not quite clear with, would anyone can give me some advice?

We are a group of 3 couples without kids and try to rent motor boat to visit around those islands for about 5-7 nights.

1 What is the weather condition during this time of year? Seems it is the most wettest season thru the year...............and sea/wind condition during this period?

2 is it good to stay overnight by just anchoring at anchorage spots indicated by map? or shall we use those fee paying resort mooring for safer/comfortable and with power supply as well?

3 we would like to do some fishing around here, is it a good place for this?

I am new to boating and not sure of so many things, that's why i need some opinion from someone here with valuable ideas!

Thanks!

Hi.
I am currently sailing round the whitsundays. There are many good anchorages in the whitsundays and these will be covered in your charter companys breifing. At the end of the day the weather on the day will determin exactly what you do and where you overnight.
We have had good oysters, mud crabs and fish in Marcona inlet. This is a link to us sailing in the whitsundays a week or so ago.

Hi Ivan,
Yes we are still in the Whitsundays and will still be in the area for another couple of weeks after which we will start making our way home to Brisbane. There are a lot of charter companies up here and it would be hard to say who is better than another. The boats from Cumberland charter yachts look in pretty good condition and you don't seam to hear to many problems on the radio with their boats.
www.ccy.com.au/fleet/
There are a lot of great places to visit though as I said weather will dictate which are the best on the day.
For snorkelling: Lankford Reef, Blue Pearl bay, Border Island, Dumbbell Island.
Anchorages are many and also depend on the weather. Cid Harbour is good in most conditions and you can hike to Whitsunday Peak from there. The walk takes about 3 hours and has a lot of steps, but a great view from the top. Tongue Bay is another good anchorage with a short walk up to a look out which over looks Whitehaven. Other good anchorages (weather dependant) Stone Haven, Butterfly Bay, Macona Inlet, Nara Inlet, Boarder Island, White Haven, Chance Bay to name a few. I would get hold of the book " 100 Magical Miles" as this is the bible of the area and will answer all you questions.
Today we dived on Langford Reef and feed the Bat fish by hand at Blue Pearl Bay.

Hi,
You can anchor anywhere in the Whitsundays except for inside the white markers which you would not want to go inside of any way. If the wind is blowing you should tie to the blue moorings, but if it is calm ( especially in Stone Haven) you are better off dropping anchor as the mooring buoy bumping on the side of the boat will give you the ****s. There are no moorings in the major anchorages (Cid Harbour, Nara Inlet or Marcona Inlet) There are buoys in Butterfly Bay ( this is not a good place to anchor) , Thong Bay, Border Island, Langford Reef and Blue Pearl Bay. These are all lovely spots but wind direction will determine weather you will want to stay there over night.


Feeding Bat fish in Blue pearl bay






Mad crabs in Marcona Inlet

We chartered the Dehler 39 (monohull sail) with Cumberland over 10 years ago. We were a very young family (baby boy, 4 YO girl, wife and I). I had limited sailing experience (dinghy's, catamaran, windsurfing) and motor boat experience. The decision was made early to go sailing as it offered a new experience, and also the motor launches they offered had a strict speed limit! I can't remember what it was, but it could be 8 or 12 knots - and I know I'd rather be travelling at 5 knots in a sailboat than 8 knots in a big motor boat! If you decide to go for sail instead, I would say go for the cameraman (much more space and flat sailing instead of keeled over). I'm sure its an isolated thing, but we did hear on the radio another yacht taking in water during the trip.

5-7 nights does not allow very much time to see all of the beautiful area, so pick and choose carefully. Don't try to move around too much as travelling time can be long (as you are speed limited and only during sunlight hours). Definitely get the 100 Magic Miles book in advance (get a few copies) and get everyone to read it thoroughly. Then plan your itinerary but allow for plenty of scope for changes.

10+ years ago, tourism Queensland's motto was that the weather was "Beautiful one day, Perfect the next". This was nearly the OPPOSITE of what we experienced (though I can't remember which month we were there. The day we sailed off, was dead calm, then we had a couple cloudy days, a couple light rain days, on the last day coming back to Airlie, we had a storm gusting 30 knots with 3m swells. I actually enjoyed the ride back with the bow of the yacht washed over. Although the rest of the family were seasick.

As for the fishing, I'm still a useless fisherman (despite having my own boat and going fishing every couple weeks). I trolled a couple lure pretty much everytime we cruised around, and spent a half day on a fishing charter out of Hamilton island. All I managed was a nice coral trout at the charter. There were plenty of good fish in many of the anchorages, but most of these areas are protected.

I would certainly break up the trip by doing a variety of mooring / anchoring / marina. If you are not used to sleeping on boats for days on end, and especially with 6 adults in 30-40' confined space, you'd definitely appreciate some time off the boat. What's more, after a couple days (especially with non-boaties), you will find that you need to pump out waste / throw garbage / refill water / recharge batteries.

Another advise is work out who is the most capable to be the "captain" of the boat. I found that navigation (especially the huge tides movement there compared with Perth waters) to require thinking and planning. 10 years ago, the chart plotter on the yacht was not exactly easy to use, and reading nautical charts required careful planning also. If you can, try and get a portable large screen chartplotter of some sort as backup and visual aid. Look up Navionics for iPad / Android - dirt cheap and a great backup!

Enjoy the trip! We will plan to go back as soon as we can!