There is more to Australia than just the beauty of its wildlife and landscape though; the land that has a rich cultural history boasts an even richer present for those who want a taste of life here. The people are friendly and energetic, and the world of sports is regularly rattled by their characteristic gritty and aggressive sportsmen; Ian Thorpe, and Leyton Hewitt, are just two examples of the Aussie sportsmen but we can not forget their team sports either. Top of the line, is what sums up the land and its people.

Here you will find two great articles celebrating the diverse nature and adventurous opportunities Australian's enjoy everyday.

Queensland Bareboat Excitement and Adventure

For the adventurous it is the remoteness, for the romantic it is a private beach, for the exhausted sitting by the pool with a good book and their favourite drink. Holidays represent so many different things to a world of different people. Rarely is there a holiday experience that satisfies the myriad of the human senses than “bareboat charter” in the Whitsunday Islands situated off the north east coast of Queensland Australia.

"Bareboat Charter" is a somewhat confusing term. Simply put it is the hiring of a boat with no crew, that's right, your it.

In times past this style of holiday experience appealed most to the amateur yachtsman who longed for the wind in his hair and the spray in his face harnessing the power of nature to reach his destination. Conditions were sparse and cramped just the way he liked it.

The advent of the modern day power yachts or "motor cruiser" has changed all that to the point where a complete novice with little to no experience may also treat himself to this unique holiday. Our adventure began with the hire of a Coastal46 Cruiser from Anchors Away Bareboat Charters who work out of Abel Point Marina at Airlie Beach North Queensland.

Sydney Harbour Joys and Touring Tips

Aside from the thrill of going out to see the Sydney Harbour, from a Sydney local's point of view, there are actually 4 top practical and sure-fire ways to enjoy Sydney Harbour. The first way to enjoy Sydney Harbour is to just walk around it. To do this, one has to get down to a train session called Circular Quay which is right in the CBD on the edge of the water.

10 Amazing Landmarks in Australia

Bareboat Adventuring on the Barrier Reef

For the adventurous it is the remoteness, for the romantic it is a private beach, for the exhausted sitting by the pool with a good book and their favourite drink. Holidays represent so many different things to a world of different people. Rarely is there a holiday experience that satisfies the myriad of the human senses than “bareboat charter” in the Whitsunday Islands situated off the north east coast of Queensland Australia.

"Bareboat Charter" is a somewhat confusing term. Simply put it is the hiring of a boat with no crew, that's right, your it.

In times past this style of holiday experience appealed most to the amateur yachtsman who longed for the wind in his hair and the spray in his face harnessing the power of nature to reach his destination. Conditions were sparse and cramped just the way he liked it.

The advent of the modern day power yachts or "motor cruiser" has changed all that to the point where a complete novice with little to no experience may also treat himself to this unique holiday. Our adventure began with the hire of a Coastal46 Cruiser from Anchors Away Bareboat Charters who work out of Abel Point Marina at Airlie Beach North Queensland.

The Location

The Whitsundays is home to the largest bareboat charter fleet in the southern hemisphere and has been a favourite for bare boaters for decades. There are a total of 74 islands in the group and along with the secluded beaches and anchorages it is also home to several Island resorts ranging from your "Contiki Tour" under 35s club types up to full 5 star, most of which are accessible to bare boaters for day trips and overnight anchorages. In fact you could spend your complete holiday, island hopping from resort to resort but in my opinion to do this would really be selling yourself short.

The real appeal of this holiday is to visit some of the dozens of coves and beaches most of which are accessible only by water. There are the more "Touristy" places such as "Whitehaven Beach" and Hill Inlet which are great for a stroll and a picnic lunch but I preferred anchorages like "Butterfly Bay", "Border Island" and "Manta Ray Bay"

The bigger the better, as the old saying goes, there is no substitute for size and such is the way in the Bareboat Charter world. The only stipulation I would make on this criteria is that it must be "usable space". Some boats are large in dimensions but still remain cramp and claustrophobic. Power Cats are a reasonably good choice but some only have a single deck and essential services such as fresh water and refrigeration capacity can be limited and the areas in the hulls are a bit closed in. Our choice was a mono hull Coastal46 Cruiser.

The Coastal46 is a new concept in cruiser design in that it was particularly built for bareboat charter, where as most other vessels are designed with the private user in mind and then brought into service as a bareboat. The easiest way to describe it would be to say it is a hybrid between a cruiser and (dare I say it) a houseboat. From a luxury aspect it had all the mod cons. A full galley with stone bench tops, wide screen LCD TVs, DVD players, a great sound system, leather lounges and 360' views from inside the saloon and dining area. Not to mention the upper deck. This is accessible from internal stairs and boasts an alfresco dining area with a full size BBQ.

Most bare boats have plenty of "wow factor" and look great in a brochure but they fall down in the boring essential services which many new to this type of holiday take for granted not realising the limitation of the vessel they have hired till they live on board.

There is nothing so disheartening than to embark on the trip of a lifetime with another family or 7 of you closest friends to find out during the pre charter briefing that four of you have to sleep on a pullout bed under the sink. There is no hot water but that doesn't matter much because your only rationed to 1 litre a day, the only way to use the single toilet on the boat is to back into it, you have a fridge as small as a medium size picnic cooler to store food for your party of 8 for 10 days and the 2 lights on the boat ran out of power around 7:30pm.

What ever vessel you choose take a few minutes to research the capacity of your essential services. The Coastal46 has 2 bathrooms with instantaneous gas hot water and normal size electric flush toilets with an extra rear deck shower. It also had sleeping for 8 in permanent beds, 2500 litres of fresh water, 500Litres of refrigeration and a backup diesel generator supplying a battery bank of 1400amp/hrs.

Safety

One thing that remains paramount in the priorities of good Bareboat Charter companies is the safety of their charterers. An important step in achieving this goal is to make sure the charterer is well acquainted with the boats systems and can always find help if they need it.

Although some companies chartering more conventional sailing yachts require at least one of the charterers to have completed a pre charter "learn to sail" type course, in Queensland it is still possible to charter a motor cruiser without having any previous experience or even a boat licence. This situation exists mainly because the vessels are governed to a speed no more than 10 knots.

Prior to leaving the marina the whole charter party partakes in a 3 hour briefing or longer if needs be. During this time they are familiarised with the vessel and the charter area. The briefing is usually concluded with the briefer navigating the vessel out of the marina to where a practical anchoring demonstration takes place then he leaves the vessel and the group is sent on their way. The briefer's job does not end there, each morning and evening the vessel contacts the charter company to log in the schedule. Morning "scheds" are where the charter logs in their intended itinerary for the day, where as the evening scheds are usually conducted when the charterer is moored or anchored up for the night. The better charter companies ensure there are several means of communication on the vessel. The Coastal46 we were on had the standard VHS radio but was also fitted with a mobile phone and a satellite phone.

Navigation and Anchoring

I thought it important to quickly mention these two items mainly because they are the most daunting to the elected or self proclaimed skipper. Navigating a Whitsundays bareboat around these islands is basically an easy task and achieved by sight using the charts and books on board for a guide. Even better than that the better charter companies have their vessels fitted with GPS chart plotters. The Coastal46 we were on was fitted with a Matrix97 colour sounder/chart plotter which was a snap to use. At a glance the screen showed you a map of the area with a little icon of a boat showing your exact location. It even had a highway mode where after you had marked on the screen where you wanted to go it superimposed a road over the map and all you had to do was stay between the lines.

I have always found anchoring to be the most difficult part of a bareboat charter, even though if you follow a few standard rules it is quite simple. Well thanks to The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) they have made this task extremely easy by installing permanent mooring buoys in many of the secluded bays and coves bare boaters like to stay. It is now only a matter of motoring up to the buoy grabbing the rope with the boat hook and hooking it onto the bow of the boat. On our trip I only had to anchor once and for a bit of "sleep at night factor" I left the chart plotter on as it had a drift alarm facility where it draws an imaginary circle around your position via the GPS and signals if you move outside the boundary. How good is that!

Home ~ About Our Cruiser ~ Charter Rates & Bookings ~ The Whitsundays ~ Contact Us ~ Site Map
Anchors Away Bareboat Charters ~ Ph: 1300 556 990/61 2 4658 0521

Our Charter
To finish this article I thought it would be a good idea to briefly describe our 7 day charter with a few pictures and descriptions of our experience.

Day 1
Shoved off from Airlie Beach around 1pm on our way to Nara Inlet. The trip across the Whitsunday Passage is probably the roughest part of the journey, predominantly because you are going east and the wind and chop are coming from the north or south. Having said that the members of the crew that were prone to sea sickness did not even change colour and the kids thought it was great fun.
Nara is a fiord type inlet which extends deep into the southern end of Hook Island and is a common first night anchorage for bare boaters. We anchored up in Refuge Bay which is about half way down. This is one of the few places we did have to anchor the cruiser which was quite easy. That night while wetting a line we were treated to a breath taking display of millions of bioluminescent algae which were not visible until the water was disturbed by throwing in a fishing line or rope. They followed the path of the line like a florescent green tracer, even the fish that darted by seemed to give off a luminescent exhaust like an aquatic shooting star.

Day 2
Hoisted the anchor early and made our way out of Nara then headed North along the east side of Hook Island we past Stone Haven Anchorage where we intended to stay that night and headed up to the Blue Pearl Bay on the east side of Hayman Island home of the first five star island resort in Australia. We hooked up to one of the moorings and immediately about a dozen batfish swam under boat. These blokes were about half a metre long and just about as tall and loved bread so much that they would come half way out of the water and eat out of your hand. After breakfast we donned on our snorkelling gear and treated ourselves to a first hand look at the coral and tropical fish. We left Hayman around noon and made our way to Stonehaven where we grabbed a mooring. The kids went for a putt around in the tender and we decided to wet a line resulting in BBQ Coral Trout and Sweet Lip for dinner.

Day 3
Bacon and eggs for breakfast then we head north around the top of Hook Island to Butterfly Bay. We pick up one of the 12 mooring scattered around the bay and had a day reading and lazing around the sundeck. The kids jumped off the boat and went for a dive and a swim. We spent the afternoon devouring a cheese plater and sipping wine with the evening spent relaxing and watching one of my favourite DVDs.

Day 4
Off to Manta Ray Bay on the north east corner of Hook Island. The bay is not designated as an overnight anchorage and there are only 2 moorings for larger boats and both with a 2 hour time limit to cater for peak times.

A dive charter boat comes in from Airlie most days as this is a much-loved spot for "bubblies" and for good reason as I was about to find out by having one the best wildlife interactions of my life.

As soon as we moored the Coastal46 a multitude of fish were around and under the boat. I decided to throw in a few pilchards we had on board for bait, all of a sudden the fish parted and this big green and blue mouth inhaled one of the pillies and then proceeded to swim right up to the platform at the rear of the boat looking for more. It was a huge Maori Wrasse over a metre long and completely unperturbed by our presence. Although he was not menacing he seemed intent on us paying the "pilly toll" before we entered his backyard. At his invitation we jumped in the water with a few more offerings. The big fella glided right up to me and took the full pilchard out of my hand, as he did so he allowed me to gently stroke him as he passed. I know this fish has no eyelids but I swear he winked at me in approval as he went on his way.

We had a warm shower and a cup of filtered coffee on the fly bridge while we dried off then we cast off the mooring line and head around the north east corner of Hook Is and headed south to Tongue Bay which is situated a little over half way down the east side of Whitsunday Is.

That afternoon we climbed aboard the tender and motored over to the shore to search for the track leading to the Hill Inlet look out. After seeing professional photographs that have been shot through coloured filters and manipulated by computers it is some times disappointing to see a well known site for real. The shifting sands in Hill Inlet are not in this category. It was just an ordinary day with no one around but us and the view was spectacular. With every turn of the suns head the sand changed colour, no shade of blue or gold was spared. Truly one of the most impressive natural sights I have seen.

Day 5
After breakfast we cast off and headed down to Whitehaven Beach, one of the best known destinations of the Whitsundays. A pod of dolphins keep us company for a short time as they played in the wake of the cruiser. We reach Whitehaven in time to have a picnic lunch on the beach then leave the kids to play in the shore break and go for a private stroll along some of the whitest silica sand in the world. That afternoon we cruise south through Solway passage then head east to Gulnare Inlet which is another well protected fiord on the south side of Whitsunday Is north of Hamilton Is. Gulnare is renowned for good fishing and crabbing.

Day 6
A short cruise to Hamilton Island to spend the day there. Our charter company, Anchors Away, have organised an overnight berth for us. A guide boat from the marina office meets us at the entrance of the marina and guides us to our berth. We hire a couple of golf buggies and spend the day exploring the and experiencing the many facilities the Hamilton has to offer. The girl buy a few souvenirs and we treat ourself to cappuccinos and cake in the coffee shop we eat out at one of the many restaurants and finish the night with a gelato from the ice creamery.

Day 7
We set out from Hamilton the next day to Cid Harbour on the west coast of Whitsunday as we approach reef point we treated to another sensation wide life display of a mother Humpback whale swimming with her calf a ridicules legal minimum safe distance applies to ensure vessels keep a safe distance but this does not apply to the whale if they want to get close to you. Many times if you throttle off and drift they will come an check you out. At one stage the calf approached very close to the cruiser and mum was nowhere to be seen All of a sudden she popped up from underneath and nudged the calf away. It was almost like she was giving him a better look at things he could expect to see in the future.

The Whitsunday Islands and Hervey Bay are the 2 best places on the east coast to see whale as these are the 2 places the stop and hang around most other places they are usually on the move.
We made our way through the currents of Hunts Channel and anchored in Cid harbour off Sawmill Beach we went ashore an found a walking tack to Dugong Beach and stayed there awhile before retuning to the for a dinner of BBQ Beer Can Chicken salad and slice fried potatoe.

Day 8
After a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast we once again weighed anchor and headed west back over the channel to Airlie Beach where we were greeted by our briefer from anchors away who took charge of the helm and guided the Coastal46 to its berth. A de-brief and a quick tidy up and it was all over too soon but we will be back, The Whitsunday bareboat charter has too much to offer to only go once.

Home ~ About Our Cruiser ~ Charter Rates & Bookings ~ The Whitsundays ~ Contact Us ~ Site Map
Anchors Away Bareboat Charters ~ Ph: 1300 556 990/61 2 4658 0521

The Author of This Liberated Article Is: Garry Searle

ARTICLE SUMMARY: Sydney Harbour is one of those tourist icons that embody what Sydney is. So in every trip to Sydney, going out to see and visit Sydney Harbour is one of the first things you would want to do.

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Article Republished From: Liberated Press Releases a web site that ONLY uses Google Adsense text links in the footer of article content.

Author Resource:- Garry Searle has lived in Sydney for 15 years. His podcast, The Sydney Visitor is the free authoritative guide to experiencing the sights and sound of Sydney, Australia. To instantly hear more inside information on visiting Sydney, Australia go to the www.sydneyvisitor.com .

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