First timer
IT has taken thirty years. Thirty years of pleading, begging, throwing my toys around and nagging but, finally, my wife Dianne agreed. We are going bareboating.
First, I need to put things into perspective. I sailed a lot as a kid and always thought I would cruise later in life. That never happened so I settled for fishing from my 6.2 metre centre console.
Dianne also loves fishing … from the beach! Anything that resembles a swell is an immediate turn off and living on the Indian Ocean in Perth, does not leave too many flat water options beyond the Swan River. A very nice river granted, but not great for long distance sailing.
The obvious choice for this adventure was of course a multihull in waters more protected than Perth’s Indian Ocean, so we contacted several of the operators in the Whitsunday region and all were responsive and helpful but we settled on Whitsunday Rent-A-Yacht.
Our chosen vessel was a Seawind 1160 with four berths, although it would just be us on our own for our introduction into bareboat sailing.
Excited as two kids on Christmas morning, we arrived at Shute Harbour to be taken to our vessel for the overnight stay at the dock before the obligatory orientation before departure the next morning. We were advised this would begin at 7am so my little butterfly chose to sleep in while I did the briefing.
6.45am and our trainer, let’s call him Bill to avoid embarrassment on our part, arrives and advises the need for both of us to be in attendance in case of an accident to the other, which makes perfect sense to me; but Dianne is now trying to make herself presentable in record time and without coffee, not a good start.
Four hours later, both of us in brain overload, we begin our
