Australia - Sailing

Just after the new year, we hopped a plane out of frigid Anchorage for the southern hemisphere. After a brief (12 hour) stop in LA to visit family and cruise Venice beach, we were off for Sydney. Several days of travel and five flights later, we were in the Whitsunday Islands, Australia - met there by Andi's sister Ashlee. These are a group of islands off of the northwest coast of Australia, inside of the Great Barrier Reef.
Using our sailing experience from last winter we chartered a nice 39 foot sailboat - The Dehler Magic. We spent seven days sailing it around the Whitsundays.
The weather was a little stormy - gusty winds and rail squalls. This made it just a bit challenging, but fun nonetheless.

Check out the map of the route using the Google Earth Plug-In on the previous post.

The days were spent on the water, the afternoons enjoying snorkling, reading, sunning ourselves, etc... anchored up in small coves. We cooked on board most nights and docked twice at Hamilton Island. The whole island is served by electric golf carts and no regular cars. An hour of buggy rental lets you see the whole island.
There was one long night - we just couldn't get the anchor to set and had to sit lookout all night. Other than that it was pretty smooth sailing.
Recommendations: Cumberland Charter Yachts for bareboat charters, order fewer days of provisioning than you plan to spend on the boat, bring lots of sunscreen, don't go during the rainy season, visit Hamilton island for the beach / resort, Manta Ray Cafe has good pizza, boats with the traveler in the cockpit are kind of awkward. Skip the smaller resorts - South Molle, Daydream Island, Happy Bay. Don't pull you dingy too far up on the beach during a falling tide. Bring plenty of books.

We would highly reccomend this to anyone contemplating this kind of trip.

A few photos posted here.

Next..... Sydney