Hi All,
I'm just about to fly the family over to Queensland for a holiday. Planned on taking a cruise round the Whitsundays with Sunsail. I have 7 and 9 year old children.
We will be there in December.
The main thing I do not want to do is scare them off sailing by wild wind and waves.
I sail an S&S 39 so am not to concerned about the sailing side of things, but more so the weather. Things can turn nasty over here pretty quickly.

Does the forum think this is a good entry level destination for a reasonably experienced skipper but a young family. Its looks almost idiot proof online but looks can be deceiving and hence the post.

Do these charters come with all the gear, can anyone think of anything I need to bring or request on arrival make sure things run smoothly.

Sunseeker39 said...

Hi All,
I'm just about to fly the family over to Queensland for a holiday. Planned on taking a cruise round the Whitsundays with Sunsail. I have 7 and 9 year old children.
We will be there in December.
The main thing I do not want to do is scare them off sailing by wild wind and waves.
I sail an S&S 39 so am not to concerned about the sailing side of things, but more so the weather. Things can turn nasty over here pretty quickly.

Does the forum think this is a good entry level destination for a reasonably experienced skipper but a young family. Its looks almost idiot proof online but looks can be deceiving and hence the post.

Do these charters come with all the gear, can anyone think of anything I need to bring or request on arrival make sure things run smoothly.

G'day mate,

I have just spent past few years skippering a comercial yacht around the whitsundays, if you are going over the next few months make sure you take your wet weather gear as it is now the start of the wet season and can be a hit or miss if you get sunshine or rain.Also with the wet comes the stingers (jellyfish) so make sure sun sail supply stingers suits if not you will need to hire some.

CID harbour and Narra inlet will be your best all round anchorage if the weather is crappy.
Some great snorkelling can be found on Border island, luncheon bay on hook island and blue pearl bay at hayman island. Also turtles are almost always to be found at Langford sand spit.

I do hear sunsail boats often with breakdowns so it maybe worth checking all when you arrive as a call out could be painful.i remember one couple could not start the outboard I tried to help but there was just no spark. So they had to wait four hours and by Then it was to late to visit the Whitehaven beach that day.

Depending on how long your stay will be, the best shopping is to be had at Coles which is 14 Nm across the passage at Airlie beach. The Coles is actually at cannonvale and its possible to anchor near the VMR and run the tender to shore and then a short walk.

I'm happy to answer any other questions you might have.

Cheers

There are public moorings in most of the anchorages. If there is one available you can grab it after 4pm for a overnight stay other than that they have a 2 hour limit. The bible (100 magic miles) will show you how many are located in each bay. Personally I prefer not to sit on moorings overnight as they often bang on the hull when tide and winds change and there is always a race/fight to grab a morning. Best is to find less than 15 mtrs depth and lay all your chain for overnight sleep.

Blue pearl bay is at Hayman island, it is 15 Nm from Hamilton island. It's not really worth paying to go into Hayman resort as its a private resort and they are not really that friendly unless you have boat loads of money. However you can hike over the hill from blue pearl to the resort, but make sure you ignore the trespass signs. Blue pearl has the most fish life and very nice coral,it can get very busy with other boats and with the 7 moorings taken it can be tricky to anchor as depth is around 18mtrs in the anchoring zone. Another note is that there is a tide around the islands. Best to remember is if the tide is going up head down(south) tide going down head up (north) and for the best snorkelling try 1hour before and after slack tides.

I am a professional commercial unemployed skipper which could decently show you all the best spots in a week but really if your a yachtie I would not worry...a lot worse charter these boats believe me!

The best sleeps I had on the trip was when we were berthed at Hamo......maybe because of the bevs consumed, and Long Island (I think that's what it was called). We were berthed stern in and tied to the beach after passing through a narrow gap in the reef by the locals. Not sure if this spot is still there but it was certainly a standout.
I was amazed by the amount of fish life and coral available just from snorkeling.
In Nara Inlet there are some indigenous rock art to look at if your up for a little hike.
Beware of some of the more vocal charter boats which can go deep into the evening if parked nearby.

Yes I got 50knts in may at butterfly and 62 knts the year before in the middle of the night when a cold front came through, my tender and outboard capsized! This usally happens when the wind is N then goes W and then followed by a strong SW to SE change . The weather will start to get unpredictible when the trade winds die next month and sometimes Northerllys or no wind will preveal.

Oh and yes in places such as butterfly and blue pearl it's advisable to pick a morning overnight.
Best thing if you need to anchor is check the charts for depth and sand as you don't want to anchor in coral neither do you want to anchor too deep. Usually 5 to 10 Mtrs is a good range with most of your chain out for overnight.

Main thing is to relax,enjoy this great cruising ground.

I'm so glad I posted my questions, thank you all so much for your great replies. I have now googled and got quotes from the other charter companies you guys mentioned.
I think provisioning the boat initially sounds like a great idea. That way we simply shop for the fun stuff.
Thanks Southace for the chart mooring advice , did not expect anyone to go to that much trouble, I really appreciate the effort.
Am trying to buy 100 magic miles online as we speak.

Its a month before we get there so if anyone thinks of any must do's then I'd love to hear them.

This was our charter in 1985. Bareboating was well established but nowhere as crowded as it is today.

Starting at Shute Harbour we went straight out to Cid Harbour and early the next day headed south stopping at Lindeman for a couple of hours having a shower at the complimentary unit they then kept for visiting yachts. I bet none of the islands do that any more.

We comprised of two couples. We then slipped over to Shaw Island for that night.

The following day we had a run up to Whitehaven Beach where our anchorage fellow was the magnificent "Condor of Bermuda" and we had an unbelievable BBQ with the goannas trying to steal our steak off the hot BBQ plate.

We just spent the rest of the day on the beach where a bit of the old "Purple Haze" set in, no doubt assisted by the herb and ambers we had with lunch.

The track marked on this map is on the inside of the complimentary copy of "The Complete Yachtsman's Handbook to the Whitsunday Passage" (now morphed into The Hundred Magic Miles) supplied by the charter company and was mailed to us when we had paid the deposit.

It was a seven day charter and if you can emulate our track you can well and truly say you have done the Whitsundays.



This map shows the partially smooth water limits for the area which today no longer includes the Smith Group. The Macro on my camera is not that good.



Berthing at Hamilton Island I have heard will cost you around $130 per night. Hayman may be twice that.

The yacht we had was the Naut 33 which was very adequate and I suggest a similar size for your charter for ease of handling. Say a Catalina 34.



We drove up from Brisbane and did some very good grocery shopping at Mackay the day before and we had an Esky. That worked in well with the "Half Provisioning Package".

If you are flying in and won't have a vehicle I would have to say the "Full Provisioning Package" will save you time and money. You are going on "Holiday" and grocery shopping is not really a holiday activity.

This outfit is located at Shute Harbour and grew out of Whitsunday Yachting World I think. Some of their yachts are managed by them only and owned by people who live locally. They employ the owners of those yachts to do the briefings and if required sail guiding for the first day or two. You would be talking to the butcher, not the block.

Local owners tend to look after their yachts better as they take them sailing when not being chartered.

Also being based at Shute rather than Airlie, you will get a head start out to the islands and not have so far to come back. Pioneer Bay can be a pain in the butt.

Their web site is good so click around it some. I would be steering clear of Cumberland and Sunsail.

www.rentayacht.com.au/home/

Hi
We were up there a couple of years ago and chartered a Catalina 350 through Charter Yachts Australia. Can recommend them as very professional with well maintained boats. A friend of ours also owns two of their fleet, a Catalina 320 and a Catalina 375, and he seems to be very happy with them as an owner. We did the full provision and to be honest found it a bit too much for just the twoof us. Next time I would do a partial provision and then top up at the Canonvale supermarkets. One little bay we enjoyed was Mays Bay. Small and relatively quiet compared to Cid.

Hope these are not silly questions, I have 100 magic miles in the post as we speak and my inav-x plotter is missing a few details. Still 4 weeks til the trip.
1) Hooks passage is not labelled on my navionics charts - where is it ?
2) We pick up the yacht in Hamilton Island , should we go to the north of Hamilton Island on the way to Whitehaven beach or the South. I would assume the north due to more protected waters for longer periods.
3) If we leave for Whitehaven at 9am and allow a couple of hours on site should we anchor off the beach at Whitehaven or head back to shelter to the west of the Islands for that nights sleep. Perhaps back to Hamilton for the overnight before heading north the next day.
4) If our next destination after Whitehaven was Cid Harbour , (that looks as safe as it gets) , would you try and get there after visiting Whitehaven as detailed above or its that too much in 1 day.

The trip is about relaxing and enjoying it safely without stress, If the family enjoys it we'll be back next year so I'm deliberately not trying to do too much.

I don't want to be looking for a place to anchor/moor at sunset !

many thanks again for everyone's thoughts.

Craig

Hi All,
Just a post to say thank you for all your comments and thoughts back in November.
We are back from our trip to the Whitsundays and had a great time.
I must say the weather was far from ideal but due to the info I'd received from you
guys I was prepared.
20-30 knots the entire week, I now have an appreciation of what a 40 knot bullet of wind feels like moored stonehaven - the kids slept through it - I didnt unfortunately.
I stayed away from any windward passages so my kids would not be scared and my 7 & 9 year old cried when we left.
Job well done sea-breezers - many thanks
regards Craig

20 to 30 nice for a bare boat sailing!