Tropical Cyclone Ului

On Sunday 21st March at 1.30am, Tropical Cyclone Ului crossed the Queensland coast here at Airlie Beach. The tropical revolving storm re-intensified to a Category 3 system before making landfall. The following images (courtesy Australian Bureau of Meteorology and Sea Breeze) show the accompanying rainfall and live weather readings from Hamilton Island during the event. (Click to enlarge.)

For several days prior to the cyclone's landfall, we nervously watched the weather reports and formed our cyclone plan. We decided that in the event of a direct hit (of Category 2 or more), we would get off the boat and stay on land. By saturday afternoon we had prepared Brilliant II for the inevitable. Items that could possibly become airborne were either lashed down or removed. Our floating home was secured to her marina berth with no less than eleven mooring lines. We disembarked, leaving our beloved boat to her fate.

We arrived at a friend's flat in Cannonvale with our eight week old baby and two cats. We all went to bed quite early in an attempt to get some sleep.

I woke up about half an hour before the cyclone struck. We lost power and it was stiflingly hot without the ceiling fan. The next thing I remember was the noise - the hissing rain and roaring wind, then deathly quiet as the eye of the storm passed right overhead. In the strongest gusts the building shook, but none of this woke baby Joshua who slept peacefully through the carnage.

It was a tense few hours while we waited for the dawn, worrying now about our boat. We were just about to head to Abel Point Marina when a text message came through from our neighbours. Brilliant II was alright.

Breathing huge sighs of relief we drove home via the foreshore of Airlie Beach. Here we saw that other boats had not been so lucky. The charter yacht Anaconda II lay on the rocks beside the Whitsunday Sailing Club. At Shute Harbour (where we previously moored) the anchorage was devastated. Here Whitsunday Rent-A-Yacht were among the worst affected, suffering substantial damage to their fleet. It was very distressing to see so many boats wrecked, beached and half-sunk. To me they represented shattered dreams.

I felt extremely fortunate to step back aboard our own boat later that day. Although there was no power to the docks, we were in a much better situation than most, thanks to our fully charged battery bank and solar panels. Cyclone Ului left 60,000 homes across the region without electricity and gave Ergon Energy a round-the-clock job for some time.

I am pleased to report that five days later, power has largely been restored and our resilient community is moving on.

To see video footage of before and after Ului struck, click on the play button below.

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!!

Last Day at the Office

I'm actually not hungover today, although that's not through lack of trying! Last night we celebrated my final day of full-time work with Coastline Newspapers. I started work with this newspaper group in February 2008. It's been an interesting year-and-a-bit, full of the highs and lows common to jobs in media and advertising, where there are always deadlines looming and not enough hours in the day.

On Monday morning I won't have to don my smart clothes and totter up the gang-plank in high heels. I won't have to drive at 110km/p/h through the sugarcane fields to make it to my desk by 8.30.

Despite this it's not really goodbye. I will still be writing the odd feature for Coastline's publications, just working from my floating home instead. So if you're heading to Bundaberg pick up a copy of the Bundy Book. If you're on the road in Queensland look out for the Tourist Queensland. Or if you live in one of Queensland's mining towns pick up the next Coalfields Express.