Cyclones!! How to Weather Australia's Storm Season on a Boat
As we seem to be having quite an active cyclone season so far (despite this southern hemisphere summer falling on an 'El Niño', when the chance of cyclones crossing Australia's east coast is supposedly reduced), we decided to share some insights into what it's like to live with this weather phenomenon when you have a boat.
Since basing ourselves and our Kelly Peterson 44 'Brilliant II' in Queensland's Whitsundays in 2009, we've been through no less than four direct hits and felt the impacts from a further three cyclones.
This video includes a walk-through of the lead-up to last week's Cyclone Kirrily (if you don't know what's involved in packing a yacht down, this is it), which although somewhat of a fizzer for much of the Whitsundays, still created some casualties, both here and further to our north where it crossed the Queensland coast.
There's also footage from our first cyclone 'Ului', which was a direct hit for Airlie Beach on March 21, 2010, as a Category 3 system (check out how baby-faced we were - Josh was an actual baby - and even the cats!), as well as footage from Cyclone Debbie, our 'mother of all storms', which on March 28, 2017, knocked us all sideways with a high Category 4 punch.
The key message we hope we convey is that sailors in particular should always "prepare for the worst but hope for the best" and that if Debbie taught us anything, it was to have utmost respect for the unpredictability and sheer power of nature. Given the minimal impacts from Kirrily and the tendency for human memories to be short, we hope this is a lesson not lost any time soon.
Safe Sailing ⛵️ and Fair Winds 🌬️
Additional Resources
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Bureau of Meteorology - http://www.bom.gov.au
Windy - https://www.windy.com/
Predict Wind - https://www.predictwind.com/
Joint Typhoon Warning Centre - https://www.metoc.navy.mil/jtwc/jtwc.html
Higgins Storm Chasing - https://www.facebook.com/HigginsStormChasing
Weather IQ OCC - https://www.facebook.com/weatheriqoz
L&K Mackay Severe Weather - https://www.facebook.com/LKMackaySevereWeather
Whitsunday Cyclones -
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2008266152751462
Willy Weather - https://www.willyweather.com.au
7 News Mackay - https://www.facebook.com/7NEWSMackay
BoM Facebook Clips - https://www.facebook.com/bureauofmeteorology
Whitsundays Noticeboard - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1460853791028778
Mackay and Whitsunday Life - https://www.facebook.com/mackayandwhitsundaylife
ABC Tropical North - https://www.facebook.com/ABCtropic
Additional Clips sourced from YouTube
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https://youtu.be/akIOcRQSYO0?si=n64CKIFF-Domss3O Cyclone Debbie smashes into Queensland coast (ABC)
Music via www.storyblocks.com
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Media Music Group / Suspenseful Mystery Fantasy Drama Strings
Humans Win (formerly Lance Conrad) / Explorer
Volodymyr Piddubnyk / Comedy Background Quirky Jazz
Enzo Orefice / Intermezzo
We20fifty / Muse Clean
Media Music Group / Motivational Background Explainer Piano
We20fifty / Searching
The Sailing Adventures of Brilliant II
Join the Smallwoods - Sharon, Julian, Josh, and Pepe (the Blue Burmese) - aboard Sailing Vessel Brilliant II. Brilliant II is a Kelly Peterson 44, built in 1978. Julian and Sharon bought the boat in Phuket, Thailand, in 2005, and sailed her slowly back to Sydney, Australia. Over the next five years they lived aboard and sailed the coasts of New South Wales and Queensland. They are currently based in the Whitsundays, Queensland, where Josh was born in 2010. In 2021 they began a refit of the water-damaged interior (which had needed doing since the start!), while continuing to sail on mini-adventures north and south of their home port. Sharon is a photojournalist by trade, but realising YouTube is a thing has started creating videos too. You can also follow their adventures on Instagram at @shazatsea.
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Cyclones!! How to Weather Australia's Storm Season on a Boat Locations
- Whitsundays (-20.0596009,148.8809873)
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