An excellent experience, thank you to Mike for the great briefing and assisting us on the leg to Hamilton Island. The boat set up and advice on where to visit on our sailing adventure was excellent. We started out as six novices and after just five days on the water we are feeling pretty confident with basic sailing and would love to do it again. I’d highly recommend a sailing holiday on Portland Roads for a group of six to eight people. A basic knowledge of sailing would be an advantage. Thanks again, we’ll be back. BZ, 👍👍

Ruby Sunday and Skipper John gave us a trip of a lifetime. Our week onboard was filled with adventure, sunshine, snorkelling, sailing and bloody great fun. We can't express enough gratitude to John and his constant professionalism, supportive guidance, daily feasts, humour and confidence in our new boating skills. He is a total legend and we can't wait to get our sea-legs back again and return to the beautiful Whitsundays with Portland Roads.

The experience of bareboat charter has offered my wife and I the closest feeling to owning our very own Luxury 42 foot Catamaran. With a fraction of the investment, compared to buying one of these expensive yachts, we were rewarded with the freedom of choosing where to sail, and the sense of accomplishment of getting to our destination for the night and anchor in a picturesque inlet surrounded by nature. This is by far the highest return you can have with that amount of $$. As The ‘Captain’, as I was referred to during the three night sail around the Whitsundays, I had the assigned responsibility to lead a small group of four people and ensure everyone and the boat was safe. I spent a few hours, I must admit in the weeks that anticipate our most anticipated adventure, googling ‘how to sail’ and watching tutorials online to ensure a high level of confidence that must accompany the ‘Captain’ when the time to untie the lines would finally come. Also, I wanted to look good and have a bit of fun with the powers allocated to get people to scrub the deck, tell them to batten down the hatches and saying one does not simply call me without saying Captain first!We followed the tips from John (Portland Roads) and pre ordered all our provisioning from online Coles and picked everything on the way from the Airport to the Marina. Thanks for the valuable tip, the time we saved shopping were spend actually on the boat and getting straight into business as we arrived. The Marina, Abel Point is well appointed with clean and well look after facilities and super easy to navigate through. Portland Roads have their own trolley next to the drop off zone where we loaded our gear, food and drinks and headed to the boat for the start of our sailing adventure. The Portland Roads is by far the best yacht in the charter business, the size of the boat and the luxury details were impressive and we were stunned by the high standards of interior finishes and the quality and comprehensive list of technology of navigation equipment, entertainment options and comfort provided. Huge water tank with fresh water, power on demand, hot water, air conditioning, Bluetooth connection, satellite phone… Honestly I was gobsmacked with the list of things this Thing had, and it felt like holidaying in a self contained luxury apartment with all services you can imagine.A little studying prior to getting there was enough to help me absorb all the information given during the briefing with Mike. The GPS, and the autopilot made my life as a Captain very enjoyable and gave me more time to tell people what to do! Nah, just kidding, everyone felt safe and we all took turns behind the helm and nobody felt intimidated, even with no previous sailing experience. We had support from Mike, twice a day calling us to check that we were having fun and the boat was still floating… We would talk about the weather and the places we could go based on the conditions. We learnt that we cannot have a set plan, that the weather would dictate where we could go. We managed to spend the night in the Nara Inlet, Butterfly Bay and Stonehaven Bay and what a pleasant experience to wake up and see the sunrise and enjoy the tranquility of these paradisiac settings. There are no favorites, they all have a special place in my memory and each and every one of them will bring different sensations when I start to recall the slow-paced act of getting up, make a coffee, jump in the water for a morning swim, we even saw turtles checking on us right next to the boat and a pod of dolphins hanging around for quite some time before the sun came up. Overall, highly recommend! Connect with nature, feel the freedom of sailing, disconnect from our fast paced routine and observe the beautiful things we take for granted everyday…I’m saving for another sailing trip, there are many other places to visit as the name suggests – 74 islands – and there is only one boat – Portland Roads. Thank you so, so much for enabling this magical experience I had with people close to me. Never will be forgotten!!