Whitsundays sailing: what to pack and what to expect on board

Boarding is at Coral Sea Marina or Port of Airlie in the early afternoon on most overnight listings. Shoes come off at the gangway and go into a basket, which is the first rule of a sailing yacht and the one people forget. The crew shows you your bunk, runs the safety briefing, points out the heads, and the boat motors out of the harbour while everyone finds a spot on deck.

Once the boat is clear of the islands the sails go up, and if the trade wind is blowing, which from May to October it usually is, the yacht heels: leans over, steadily, ten or fifteen degrees. It feels dramatic for a minute and normal after five. The skipper will ask for hands on the winches, and saying yes is the best way to spend the afternoon.

The first anchorage is a sheltered bay on the lee side of an island, a couple of hours out. The anchor goes down, the boat goes still, and the afternoon is a swim off the back and a first snorkel over the fringing reef if the light holds. Dinner is on deck.

Sleeping on a sailing yacht is the part of a Whitsundays boat tour that people worry about most and mention least afterwards. The bunks are narrow, the cabins are small, and several are shared. The bedding is clean and supplied. At anchor the boat rocks very slightly and most people sleep well; on warm, still nights half the boat sleeps on deck under the stars, and the crew will hand out mats and blankets for it.

Dinner is cooked on board, usually a barbecue with salads, and the overnight listings here include every meal. Tell the operator about dietary needs when you book, and they will cater for them. Drinks are sold on board on most yachts, beer, wine and soft drinks, and some let you bring your own; the listing says which.

The bathroom is a marine toilet and a freshwater shower. Fresh water on a yacht is a tank, so showers are short and rinse-off rather than long and hot, and the crew will say so on the first afternoon. Nobody minds after a day in salt water. The sea is warm enough to swim in every month of the year, and a dip off the stern at sunrise is the best shower on the boat.

The overnight yachts anchor in Tongue Bay so that the walk to the Hill Inlet lookout happens early, before the day cruises arrive from Airlie Beach. Breakfast is on deck at about seven, the tender runs the group ashore in shifts, and the walk through the forest to the lookout takes twenty minutes. From the top the swirl of sand and water at the mouth of the inlet is below you, and if the tide is out, the sandbars run for a kilometre.

Then down onto Whitehaven itself for the swim and the walk along the sand, and back to the boat by late morning. The afternoon is sailing to Hook Island and a snorkel on the fringing reef at Blue Pearl Bay, Luncheon Bay or Mantaray Bay, where the coral is close to the surface and the fish are used to people. Turtles are common. Lunch is on board between the two.

On a two-night trip like our top pick at $372, the second day repeats the pattern with a different bay and a different reef, and the last morning is a sail home with a landing at Airlie Beach around lunchtime. On a one-night trip like $307 the second afternoon is the sail home.

The Whitsundays are a sheltered group of islands, and most of the sailing happens in channels between them where the water is flat. At anchor the boat barely moves. The times people feel it are under sail in a fresh trade wind, when the yacht heels and pitches, and on the open stretch towards the outer reef on the listings that go there.

Three things help, in order. Take a tablet before departure if you know you are prone to it; every pharmacy in Airlie Beach sells them and the crew have spares. Stay on deck in the fresh air with your eyes on the horizon rather than in a cabin with your eyes on a screen. And say yes when the skipper asks for a hand on a winch, because people with a job forget to feel unwell.

On the day cruises the catamarans are wide and steady, and the fast boats are out and back in an hour or two. If you are choosing a Whitsundays boat tour on this basis alone, the eco-cruise at $178 with 3,185 reviews is the steadiest ride to Whitehaven on the page.

Expect a small, tidy boat with twelve to thirty people, a bunk with clean bedding, a short shower, a barbecue on deck, and a crew that runs the day from a whiteboard each morning. Expect the yacht to lean under sail and to be still at anchor. Expect the Hill Inlet lookout at seven in the morning, Whitehaven by nine and turtles over the reef by the afternoon. Pack a soft bag, a dry bag, a hat with a strap and a jumper. Book our top pick at $372 for two nights or $307 for one, a few weeks ahead, and leave the suitcase at the hotel.