hurtled to the surface behaving much like a
breaching humpback whale.
The borrowed dinghy and outboard survived.
All our shoes, which had been stored in the
dinghy, disappeared. These days we remove the
outboard, keep the dinghy on a much shorter
leash and shoes live in the back of the cockpit.
One of the things that I enjoy about sailing is
that you can participate in the sport your whole
life, the sport crosses many boundaries: age,
gender, etc. When you own the same boat for 14
years it almost becomes part of the family, from
12 years of age our eldest daughter always did
the foredeck on Small Hotel. Then later on, as she
became confident with the boat, she would take
it out day sailing with her friends.
Our younger daughter while maybe not quite
as keen on sailing as her older sister still enjoyed
the family trips on the Hotel and it has created
many great family memories.
A change in jobs bought us to Townsville six
years ago and both our daughters have now left
home. Cath and I now have the boat to ourselves,
plus we have a whole new set of cruising grounds
to explore.
Magnetic Island and the Palm group are our
backyard. ‘Maggie’ is our weekend destination it
has great secluded beaches, seasonal waterfalls
national parks, good anchorages, restaurants
and bars. It also moves at a slower pace to
Townsville, which it could be argued moves
at a pretty slow pace anyway.
Herald and Rattlesnake Islands are nearby;
these islands are both worth visiting but check
with the coast guard beforehand as the armed
forces use the islands a few times a year for live
firing exercises.We have noticed these days our cruising trips
are getting longer and we are spoiled for choice
in regards to destinations. One of our first longer
cruising trips was sailing to Hinchinbrook
Island from Townsville.
We took seven days visited Havannah Island,
Orpheus Island then pulled up the keel to get
the Hotel into South Zoe Creek on Hinchinbrook
Island. Here we were able to wash off the salt
under the waterfall that tumbles down into a
picture postcard swimming hole.
Due to the predominance of the south east
winds that time of year we decided to make this18
Cruising Helmsman July 2018MYBOAT
SMALL HOTEL
TOP LEFT: Cath and Freya.
TOP RIGHT: Back from
whale watching out of the
Tamar River.
RIGHT: Hill Inlet
Whitsundays, where
trailer sailers excel.