Hong Kong to Whitsundays, Australia

Published 16 years ago, updated 5 years ago

Currently living in Hong Kong and planning to take our 39′ foot sailing yacht to Australia in the next 12 to 18 months. Just like to get some ideas as to the route via Philipines, Palau and then not sure which part of PNG would be the safest and also the easiest to provision with food and fuel, if needed. Planning to sail from HKG about April and take 2 to 3 months to reach Australia.

There are two route options to reach Eastern Australia from SE Asia. The first is to sail south via Indonesia, east through the Torres Strait and continue south inside the Great Barrier Reef. The most favorable conditions may be found at the change of seasons (April or October) but such a route should not be attempted during the cyclone season.

The other alternative is to strike out SE from Hong Kong going via the Philippines and perhaps calling at Palau and possibly the north coast of Papua New Guinea. The route should stay in low latitudes and cross the equator far enough to the east so as to ensure a better angle across the prevailing SE winds once the South Pacific had been reached. The route continues south past the Outer Solomon then to Vanuatu from where you can alter course for the Whitsundays. This route is best sailed during the safer North Pacific season (December to March), and May to October south of the Line.

I would prefer option 2. If you need to stop in PNG, Rabaul is perhaps your safest bet.

Look up some of the other suggested routes on the Noonsite General/ Routing page…. and try to get a copy of my World Cruising Routes (new edition out in March). You can order it via our website.

Jimmy Cornell

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  1. January 25, 2018 at 10:33 AM
    Data Entry5 says:

    Hi Donia, how did your voyage go? I’m planning a route from HK to Cairns, Australia and studying Jimmy Cornell’s WCR (latest edition). I was thinking: HK-Palau-Rabaul PNG-Honiara Solomons-Cairns Oz.

    Not sure if that is far enough East before turning west to Cairns, or as Jimmy mentioned cross the equator at 155deg E?

    Check out the route: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1e_pnl4d2p-fQDYX-izwZ8DBPr5jUscTt&usp=sharing

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