From about 1981 until some time in 2011 I was able to spend a lot of time sailing the Whitsundays on five of my small yachts
based at Shute harbour. I lived aboard each of them at various times, often for weeks at a time, sometimes for months..
Unfortunately for much of the time I only had either a Kodak Instamatic pocket type film camera that took
physically tiny (a little over a square centimetre) images, and my only larger camera was a fairly expensive
Minolta that I could not afford to expose to the on-board environment.
So I should apologise for the low quality of many of the images that will appear on this site.
Eventually some time around 2001 I got hold of one of the first Digital Cameras in this part of Queensland,
and I was expected to test it so I could sell them.
So the photographs that will be added to this site are a mix
of scanned slides, negatives and prints from 1981 when I was sailing 'Storm Season', my Windrush 16 surf cat (with a Tent on it)
and 1984 after I got a Hartley TS18 'Leisurely'to about 2001 when I bought Enya, an Embassy 18 Trailer Sailer.
In 2005 I bought and repaired a Seaway 25 that had been raced extensively, 'Volcano' and repaired her. By 2008
she was a regular visitor to most of the islands, and sadly I lost her to cyclone Ului in March 2010.
A couple of months later I found a rather beat up Cavalier 26 parked beside mangroves up a creek in Mackay. I bought her.
A haulout, a survey and some paperwork and I sailed her up through the islands and put 'Shepherd Moons' on Volcano's old mooring.
Nth Queensland cyclone season is not a friend to me. I lost Sheppy in Cyclone Debbie in 2017. I had a backup boat in
Mackay just in case, an RL24 with a pop top cabin roof. But a life threatening health incident put paid to any future sailing.
Since I sold Pacemaker, I have only set foot on yachts half a dozen times, each time, alongside a pontoon berth . .
