Location: Hamilton Island, Whitsundays

Weather: Cool start, scattered clouds, clearing to blue skies and light wind. 25°c

That was the worst night’s sleep I’ve had in months. Went to bed feeling like my world was trying to destroy me – I mean come on I’ve got the best day ahead of me tomorrow of the adventure so far and I’m feeling truly grot. Swirling headache, aching joints and a churning stomach are not the best ingredients and preparation for three days on the ocean.

Crawled out of bed feeling exhausted after waking every hour through the night and dragged myself into the shower, wow that’s the sort of wake up I needed. A cold blast of water in the face washing away the cobwebs of my broken sleep.

Bre drove me down to the marina where I met the Fantasea launch and headed across to Shute Harbour, Airlie Beach through the cool morning air, light clouds topping the hills in the distance mimicking the South African Cape Doctor of Cape Town. Arriving at the offices of Explore Whitsundays, Jess was there to sort out the paperwork in an office which resonated with ringing phones (good to see they’re busy!).

Down at Gloria’s cafe the group had started to gather and mill around, by 9am 20 people were waiting, surely this many people aren’t going on my yacht – at least I hope not, I wanted a personal sailing experience not a tour boat!

Then, Matt, our skipper and teacher for the three day course rocked up, happy and confident. He pulled four of us aside telling us we were the chosen ones for an aquatic adventure on his vessel, Another Fiasco – with all of the others cramming onto a larger yacht thankfully.

Ian (Kiwi), Anthony and Nick (brothers from Sydney) and I formed the students for the next few days. After an extensive safety briefing we boarded our Jutson 43’ - a previous class winner of the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, dropped into the cabin and grabbed our bunks where we’d rest our weary heads. No hammocks and cramped conditions here, a full fore cabin to try and recover from last nights crap sleep.

Another Fiasco our Jutson design yacht

I’m here to study for my Introduction to Yachting, the first stepping stone in my nautical life, something which I really need in order to sail anything during Hamilton Island Race Week at the end of August. By the time I hit 40 I want to have sailed across an ocean if not around the world and this throws me straight in at the deep end, perfect.

By the time we steered out of the harbour the weather was almost ideal, we could have a little more wind but the sun and the blue of the sky were picture perfect. First thing to learn – steering this puppy, taking the huge helm in my hands I felt a rush of happiness flood through me, the aches and pains of the night had drained from my body leaving me with a euphoric, totally happy feeling.

This thing turns on a dime and is so stable and maneuverable, we practiced handling the boat as it’d be us steering and navigating, using the compass and following a heading using our eyesight and the instruments. Loads of new terminologies to learn as well - halyard, sheet, leech, foot, shackle, tack, jibe. I’d definitely heard of them but couldn’t ever tell you what they meant until today!

Once away from the harbour it was time to get some sail up, the main being the first to attack. Attach the halyard, bring in the sheet and grind until its up and tight – the breeze building filling the Kevlar triangle forcing the boat forwards lifting the bow of the tender and the speed to 7 knots – WAHOOO WE’RE SAILING!!

Learning the skills essential to sailing our new found means of transport was both fun and fairly easy. Matt’s a great teacher and very soon we’d all had a chance to bounce, feed and grind our sails into position, through a couple of tacks and towards our destination for the night, Tongue Bay – just off Whitehaven Beach.

We moored up, watched the last part of the day’s light fade to the horizon, packed the sails away and finally enjoyed a beef curry sat under the stars whilst relaxing in the warm night air punctuated only by the loud cacophony coming from one of our fellow moored yachts full of enthusiastically merry backpackers. Good luck to them, but it did rather spoil the ambiance of the place!

There’s nothing quite as hypnotic and almost maternal as the sound of the waves lapping against the hull and it has to be one of the best ways to fall asleep…

As the morning light flooded through the fore hatch I hauled myself from my bed and up onto the deck, tasting a whiff of the salty air. Sitting in the chilled light seagulls flew past skimming the surface, a turtle surfaced just off the bow, alternating his head and shell before diving below for another mouthful of sea-grass and bodies started to appear on the other craft moored around. The bright light slowly warming me as the wind speed increased….great conditions for day 2.

Leaving the crowds to take the early hike across the peninsula to Betty’s Bay, there were more important things to be getting on with – learning some of the essentials for my International Crew Certificate. The course covers a number of modules all of which touch on important areas of sailing and for the first time in ages I felt as though I was in for some serious learning. Topics such as Boat Handling, Weather, Man Overboard, Rope work, Sail Handling and Navigation all coming on board, so to speak.

I’ve often been on other people’s boats and seen things like green and red marker posts, flashing buoys and channel indicators but never really been able to read them but today was the day when it all dawned on me. The last time I had to tie knots was back in cub scouts when I was eight, the years haven’t been kind to my head and all of that vital information has leaked out so it was back to learning from scratch with things such as the Bowline, Figure of Eight and the Half Hitch – my wee brain still struggles to remember them even now!

After we’d swatted up and bulged the brain with now found info we spotted a gap in the departing crews from the other boats and headed ourselves across to Betty’s Bay through the forested track to the magnificent sight of Whitehaven Beach once more and had an hour playing in the foreshore with the rays and fish who’d pulled in to relax in the warm waters. A little snippet of which can be found below:

Our sailing plan for the day was to head north with the wind at our stern beating a broad reach (ooo look the technical terms are coming out now!) downwind between Border and Dumbell Islands before diving west across the northern extremity of Hook Island and finding some overnight shelter at Stonehaven Anchorage.

As the afternoon drew on the predicted wind speed increased with white tops appearing across the open ocean sending the smaller craft racing for cover in the numerous picturesque little bays which appear all around the Whitsundays, the beauty if being an island? Having one side which is always sheltered from the wind!

The gusty 25 knot blasts of the southerly winds were a real wake up call – this was mad sailing with our yacht Another Fiasco healing over until our leeward rail was almost in the water and us racing along at nearly 11 knots sending spray over us. So how the heck do the round-the-world sailors do it? I’ve made it my goal to conquer the Southern Ocean and this is crazy enough…how would it feel to be racing down 20 metre waves with a 50 knot tail wind?!?

The sun dropped away for the day behind Hayman Island as we cleared the channel and found our anchorage for the night along with the yachts we’d been racing for most of the day…..and beaten even though they were bigger with much more sail area! No names here of course to spare their integrity (begins with ‘c’ ends on ‘ondor!)

Food in the system, we bedded down for a night of rocky, splashing sleep…..

Awaking to more gusting wind, Nick and I jumped into the ocean to wash the night’s sleep away, spotted a whale in the distance off the stern and together with the others prepared our ‘reefed’ sails for the day sailing back across the Whitsunday Passage.

With the wind as unpredictable as was predicted we couldn’t afford to have a full mainsail up so instead the ‘reef’ configuration reduced the sail area by raising only 70% of its height giving us much more control in the heavy conditions. As we cleared our moorings it was obvious to see why….heeling straight over even with the reduced setup.

Matt handed me the helm and we were off again, I love this bit although it does get a tad scary when the gusts you can see racing across the ocean towards you finally hit the sail sending the boat into an accelerated surf across the already angry ocean….adrenaline levels high, shoulders working and the love for sailing quickly building.

Heading across the Whitsunday Passage under 25 knots of wind

The day finally came to a close as we neared Airlie Beach harbour taking our final tack across the wind giving us a clean run back into our destination and arriving perfectly on time to be greeted by the Explore Whitsundays team and Nick/Anthony’s parents, Matt bringing our home for the past few days to a comfortable rest alongside the pontoon.

Well that had the perfect effect:

1. Ignited my love for the sport so many people participate in round here
2. Got me out to meet some other holiday makers up for the same thing, and
3. Started the ball rolling finding a boat to help crew during Hamilton Island Race Week

So a few facts and figures for you:

Total distance sailed: 80Nm

Days taken: 3

Qualification gained: Introduction to Yachting

To have a look at the GPS track of the route we took over the three days, please follow the linked image below or in the right hand sidebar of my blog:

Explore Whitsundays are based in Airlie Beach, carry 30,000 passengers every year who have the chance to take on a marine adventure by sailing, snorkeling, swimming or diving around the islands. I can heartily recommend one of the smaller yachts like Another Fiasco if you really want to crew or actually get involved or one of the bigger Maxi’s if you’d rather someone did it for you. Their fleet includes yachts from 15m up to 23m or even a tall ship for something very different.

I’ve returned home tonight feeling like a salty old sea dog, crisp, sun-kissed and extremely happy. Job done.

End of trip location: Airlie Beach harbour

Distance travelled: 80 nautical miles