Charter Chatter

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia launches its annual Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Trusts Raffle with the major prize of a cruise for two onboard the Queen Victoria, sailing from Sydney to Fremantle, departing on 20 February 2010. The package also includes one night post cruise accommodation in Perth and airfares from Perth to Sydney, supplied by EseaCruising.com. More here

Crew members on Sunsail Yacht Charter's single-place training yacht last year raced on an Oceanis 361 yacht in Audi Hamilton Island Race Week under the supervision of Sunsail's expert skippers. This year four of the five crew have joined forces again and have chartered a boat for the event. More here.

To celebrate the dry docking of Spirit of Tasmania, day tickets from Devonport to Melbourne are available for $49 for travel between 21 July and 7 August 2009, (conditions apply).

Connection Cruises operates a fleet of SCUBA diving yachts, which sail the Red Sea, exploring the dive sites from South Sinai to the Egyptian-Sudanese borders. Or sail the River Nile, from Luxor to Aswan. Details here.

Winter has hit southern Australia and smart boaties are heading north to the Whitsundays to escape the cold. Sailing, fishing, diving and sight seeing day trips can be booked upon arrival in Airlie Beach or on the islands but overnight crewed or skipper yourself charters are usually booked in advance.

The third annual Seawind Whitsunday Rally set sail from Shute Harbour on Saturday 20 June for a week of racing and partying around the Whitsunday Islands onboard 14 luxurious Seawind catamarans. Seawind catamarans are available for charter next year from event sponsors Whitsunday Private Yacht Charters and Whitsunday Rent A Yacht. More here.

Each year pods of the humpback whales make the 5000km migration from the Antarctic to the warm waters off the Queensland coast. The calm, protected waters of Hervey Bay are a favourite resting spot for the whales. The humpbacks can weigh up to 40 tonnes and reach 19 metres in length. They are also one of the more active of the species and love to show off with a range of activities ranging from a 'blow' to tail slapping, pectoral fin waving, and breaching.

Whale season in Hervey Bay officially starts on 1 August with the blessing of the Whale Watching Fleet, and is followed on 8 August with the Hervey Bay Whale Festival. The range of whale watching tours includes dawn trips, morning and afternoon half-day journeys and full day cruises for the real enthusiast.

Sunsail has a few catamarans available for charter during Audi Hamilton Island Race Week in August at a 15 percent discount for all new bookings.
Non-racers are beginning to realise that it is just as much fun to watch this regatta from the sidelines as it is being in the thick of it. Imagine watching the spectacle of over 200 yachts with spinnakers flying as they sail past you in the Whitsunday Passage. Details here.

The Kimberley Coast in the north-west of Australia is widely regarded as one of the most spectacular cruising destinations in the world, and those that know will tell you that July to September is the best time of the year to experience the area. More here.

Jim and Jo Wallace, the Cairns-based owners and operators of Big Cat Green Island Reef Cruises, are celebrating 30 years of cruising to the Great Barrier Reef. The couple recognised the importance of the Great Barrier Reef long before it was inscribed on the World Heritage List, first sharing it with visitors on June 9, 1979 when they started daily cruises to Low Isles, off Port Douglas, on the Martin Cash. More here.

Photograph: Queen Victoria courtesy of Cunard/EseaCruising.com