December 2009 - January 2010

Happy New Year. It was a busy end to 2009 despite the fact that I'm now so pregnant I can barely move! We set sail from Shute Harbour (as seen above) for a trip to Hamilton Island or 'Hamo' as it's often known. Once inside the marina we were given a berth on E arm next to the recently opened Yacht Club.
Our neighbours had just taken delivery of their brand-new custom-built Riviera 70 and we were lucky enough to be invited aboard for the guided tour. The interior finish was impressive to say the least and the fishing gear - well that's another story.
Our main reason for being on Hamilton Island was work. Julian had a shipwright job on the luxury charter boat Zanzibar II, as pictured below.
"If only Brilliant II had a saloon this big", I thought when I dropped by!
Julian spent the best part of a week repairing exterior gelcoat on Zanzibar II so she would look her best for the festive season and beyond.
Meanwhile I made some work-related visits to some of Hamilton Island's more recent additions. These included the Great Barrier Reef Yacht Club, Hamilton Island Golf Club and 'qualia', a 6-star luxury resort. Below are a couple of shots of the Yacht Club and Golf Course.



The Hamilton Island Golf Club (located on neighbouring Dent Island) was particularly spectacular (if a little dry at the moment due to the lack of rain). To read my write-up on the Golf Club please follow this link to Suite 101.

All too soon our five days on Hamo came to an end and it was back to Airlie Beach for Julian to continue renovating our v-berth. No rest for the wicked, or so they say.
Our working Christmas was held in Abel Point Marina. Here we made friends with a new set of neighbours - the crew of a catamaran named Nirvana Seafari. Carlos was fascinated by their dog Lulu, although he disgraced himself by stealing her food.
On Boxing Day we took off for a couple of days r&r to Stonehaven Bay on Hook Island. Here Julian was especially pleased to catch a coral trout.
I took up residence under our Bedouin tent-style awning on the foredeck. Stonehaven is a hilly anchorage where the wind funnels down from the peaks. In tradewind season we tend to avoid it because of these 'bullets' but in the summer heat we're now experiencing it's one of the more comfortably exposed spots.
It was back to Airlie Beach for a tropical New Years Eve complete with fireworks under the palm trees on the beach - a great start to 2010 with lots of excitement ahead.

Shute Harbour - A New Home Base

View across Shute Harbour

Shute Harbour is a little oasis just south of Airlie Beach where we are currently holed up on a rented mooring. Our journey is at a temporary halt while we embark on our latest project - preparing for a family. Our new crew member is due in January 2010. When he is strong enough to set sail we will continue on our travels but for now the best place for him is inside his Mum, although he's starting to get noticed as you can see!

For the next few months the Whitsundays will be our home and right now Shute Harbour is an excellent base. Sheltered from the winds that plague the anchorage at Airlie Beach, Shute Harbour is calm and secure. Moorings are available through Whitsunday-Rent-A-Yacht, one of the longest-running charter companies around.

Other than its stunning scenery some of the great things about stopping in the Whitsundays are the opportunities here. We are currently celebrating the issue of Julian's Coxswain's licence. This allows him to work for the resident bareboat companies in the capacity of a briefer. Briefers instruct the holidaymakers who come here to charter a yacht, catamaran or power cruiser. A good briefer will talk the charterers through all the elements of sailing in the Whitsundays, with particular reference to the type of vessel they have chosen.

Lately Julian's also been doing quite a few de-briefs which involve meeting the charterers on Hamilton Island at the end of their trip and returning the boat to base. This is good fun and a great chance to try out a wide variety of boats. The boat in the photo below is a Perry 43 catamaran - an interesting ride for a die-hard monohull sailor!

I have been busy as usual with various writing and photography projects. My latest assignment is a series of articles for an on-line magazine called Suite 101. Hot off the press are travel pieces about the Whitsundays and Hamilton Island, full of information for prospective visitors on where to stay and what to do. Also just published are articles on sailing Hamilton Island Race Week, visiting Hamilton Island by boat and hiring Whitsunday charter boats and bareboats; essential reading for skippers planning on sailing these seas.

A Race Week Extravaganza

What a week! The 26th annual Audi Hamilton Island Race Week was a windless event; frustrating for the racing crews but fabulous for photographers like myself, who had a great opportunity to capture the scene.

The festivities began on Friday August 21st with the official opening of the Hamilton Island Yacht Club. In actual fact, this new building (dubbed the "Opera House of the north", by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh), won't be properly open to the public until November 2009. Construction was rushed to a reasonable conclusion purely for the start of Race Week, after which it returned to its previous state.

The race for Day 1 was a 'round Lindeman Island' course, taking the fleet some 12 nautical miles south of Hamo beside a backdrop of spectacular island scenery. Light northerly winds marked the start of the week's events and had us anchored in the perfect spot to await the passing of the carbon fibre Armada. From our position in Plantation Bay, we had front row seats, albeit in our own dinghy. We somehow managed not to get in anyone's way, still scoring 3 seconds of fame on Race Week TV. Go to the media section of the official Race Week website and watch the video highlights from day 1. You'll see us (briefly) about 3/4 of the way through.

With the exception of a couple of lay days, we managed to follow most of the week's events including the final 'Molle Islands Race' on Saturday August 29th. To finish off the extravaganza we anchored two miles away from Hamilton Harbour at Beach 25 on Whitsunday Island and dinghied over to join the celebrations on the main street. We were lucky enough to meet the crew of 'Living Doll' who are walking away with this year's trophies for both Hamilton Island and Meridien Airlie Beach Race Weeks' in the Grand Prix Division 1 category. Some of my photos from the event are now on Flickr and here, for this blog, is a short video.

Shaz Hits Hamo!

Hamilton Island, affectionately known as 'Hamo', is the place to be right now if you're anywhere near the Whitsundays. The island is buzzing with preparations for the annual Audi Hamilton Island Race Week with all the pizzazz this high profile sailing event entails.

Brilliant II arrived on the scene shortly after my last blog post. We were windswept and desperate for shelter. The weather hadn't given us much of a break for our arrival in the Whitsundays. Strong southerlies coupled with a nasty cross-sea from the east made us roll everywhere we tried to stop. "Let's head to Hamo", we agreed.

Brilliant II had a berth in the marina for two nights with mega-yachts and giant powerboats for neighbours. The cost was a whopping $105 per night but it was worth every cent. We scrubbed ourselves, our clothes and our boat and hit the town. Right beside the marina are a selection of restaurants and a lively little pub.

In the morning it was down to the serious business of being tourists on a photographic mission. Here's a snapshot of our surroundings.

During our walk around the marina precinct I spotted what would have been my company car had I scored 'the best job in the world'. Its current driver Ben Southall is away taking care of some of the southernmost islands on the Great Barrier Reef on behalf of Tourism Queensland.

Not to be outdone, Julian and I hired our own golf buggy, which is the standard form of transport on Hamo. I can now confirm it is virtually impossible to break any speed limits in these things. I want one!

We took off over the hills to the main resort area for a peek at how the landlubbers live. Things obviously aren't too tough here, as you can see.

I first came to Hamilton Island 12 years ago as a young backpacker, hitching a ride on a passing yacht. On a particularly alcohol fueled night my fellow crew members and I, visited the resort to race up and down in its external glass elevators. I dragged Julian along to the scene of my previous crimes, only this time in daylight (and sober), I was able to properly appreciate the view.

One of the best viewpoints on Hamilton Island has to be 'One Tree Hill'. From here you can see down over the Fitzalan Passage and over to Whitsunday Island.

When our two days of shoreside luxury were up, we motored out of the marina for a sail around some of the other islands in the Whitsunday group and a trip over to Airlie Beach for reprovisioning. We'll be heading back to these spots in due course and since they are all deserving of posts in their own right I'll save them for later.

Meanwhile race week is about to start and it's all action, action, action. Yesterday some friends from the brokerage Yacht Domain came up to Hamo on a business trip. There were no berths available in the marina any more. The only way we could catch up with them was to anchor off Beach 25 on the south coast of Whitsunday Island and take the dinghy over. (This is a distance of about two nautical miles and takes roughly 15 minutes.) It was a fun trip over and even more fun to see our friends. Needless to say it was a late night!

We are now recovering from the bright lights and loud noise at a serene anchorage off Lindeman Island, some 12 miles to the south. Here tomorrow we hope to watch the first of the week's races, which is a 'round Lindeman Island' course.

To balance out the decadence of our visits to Hamo I've also managed to squeeze in some work over the past couple of weeks. I've written a couple of articles to appear in the Australian magazine 'Cruising Helmsman' and started a blog called 'Sailing with the Smallwoods' for the Yaffa publishing website 'My Sailing'. Just for fun I've also created a blog for one of our cats called 'The Adventures Of Captain Carlos'. Happy reading!!