Dedicated boaties Kev Bourke and Jenny Bankier have certainly made a splash since anchoring themselves at Vision by Halcyon earlier this year. Eager to be as close to deep water as possible, the seafaring couple moved to the waterfront community at Hope Island from a large beachside home at Kingscliff.
“It gave us the opportunity to buy a power boat and get back on the water,” Jenny said.
“This is the only place we found with close, deep water access to the Broadwater, so we can be out there very quickly.
“We’re going to be spending quite a bit of time on the water.” Both have sailed for decades: South Africa-born Jenny across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and Kevin - who learned to sail on Lake Burley Griffin - around the south-west Pacific.
Kevin went on to become the charter skipper of former Sydney to Hobart racing yacht Solo on Moreton Bay for many years. During one of those charters he met Jenny, and they married in 2000 before cruising extensively on her yacht.
Now, with their new boat undergoing a lengthy re-fit, Jenny and Kevin are making the most of Vision’s marina and on-water facilities. They regularly use the community’s pontoon boat, runabout and kayaks to do what they do best: getting out and exploring the waterways.
Kevin said they have already discovered the Tipplers anchorage on South Stradbroke Island.
“We’ve been blown away by Tipplers,” Kevin said. “In an hour you can get up to this to this magnificent, protected deep water anchorage with a lovely sandy beach.
“Then it’s a 10-minute walk through the bush and you’re on the Pacific Ocean. It’s virtually a private beach and you can see Surfers Paradise in the distance. “We thought we’d miss our beach at Kingscliff and to discover this, well we’ve found a replacement. “And with our boat we’ll be able to go up to Tipplers and stay there for two or three nights, it’s just idyllic.”
Jenny said the community kayaks are a great way to be active while exploring the surrounding neighbourhood via Hope Island Canal. “We’ve circumnavigated our island a couple of times and been a bit further north,” she said. “It’s just lovely to be on the water.”
Word of Kevin’s charter boating background has got around and he’s been asked to take a group of home owners upriver to Sanctuary Cove for lunch. “I enjoy taking people out and I’m thinking of organising a full moon trip to the Broadwater, so we can watch the moon come up. “I’ve always dreamt of having a boat in my backyard, which this is essentially.”
As much as they love the water, these boaties also find plenty to do on shore. Kevin has already organised a home owner outing to a food festival at the Scenic Rim Brewery near Boonah.
“I put it out there via the community grapevine and I had such a great response that we hired a 25-seater bus and went out for the day,” he said. Jenny and Kevin also eat out with Vision’s Fine Dining Group and they joined Team Halcyon to walk the 5.7km event in the Gold Coast Marathon in July.
And while Kevin takes off with the community’s Walking Group, gets stuck into a project in the workshop, or joins a Vision men’s brekkie, Jenny loves hitting the Leisure Club’s heated pool for an aqua class.
“There’s such a happy vibe, so even if you’re feeling a bit down when you start the class, you feel really great by the time you walk out because everyone’s joking and laughing,” she said. “There are just so many lovely things on offer here and we still have a lot of exploring to do.”
