Gypsy Cruising

Welcome to this new blog.

The site will eventually document my cruise from Sydney to North Queensland aboard my sailing boat, Gypsy Princess. Since I’m not due to depart until May next year, the blog will serve as an interesting place to record my preparations, which have now really been in full swing for over a year. After that, the blog will let me record all of my cruising exploits and let family and friends keep track of where I am and what I’m doing.

Gypsy Princess is a Catalina 400 production boat, built in 2004 and really very spacious and comfortable for a boat just over 40 feet in length. I'll have a whole lot of information in future posts about the boat and what I've done to prepare her for the cruise.

I expect to leave Sydney in late May next year, probably with a total of three crew on board. We’ll have about two weeks to make it as far as Bundaberg, which means we’ll have time to either ride out bad weather or take it easy in the few all-weather ports up the NSW and southern Queensland coasts.

Mooloolaba should be where I change to a long term cruising team of two. First thing after that will be traversing the Great Sandy Straight between the mainland and Fraser Island, before we make it out into the waters of the Great Barrier Reef and head for the port of Bundaberg.

Thereafter will be four months of cruising paradise.

There’s lots to be done between now and next May. I hope you enjoy the journey.