 Pilgrim Magnetic Island has been sharing the joys of sailing and the beautiful nature of Australia’s Magnetic Island as a prominent local luxury tour operator for years, and this month the founders, Clare & Paul are celebrating its 14-year anniversary. The 58-foot blue yacht sailed its first charter in July 2010 in the Sydney Harbour, a few months after Paul and Clare Ley got married and two years since the happy couple first met at a sailing school in Sydney. By 2009, the couple had got together and would go away for weekends on Paul’s little boat Leydy. One weekend Paul spotted Pilgrim for sale in a marina. “He said ‘Come and have a look at this boat that I’ve seen and I would love. It’s a dream.’” Clare recalls. There was Pilgrim waiting for them in the marina. The yacht had been up for sale for a few years by that point, and while it cost a lot of money that the couple couldn’t afford, the salesman who was also a friend of theirs encouraged them to put in an offer. “I was thinking that they’d laugh at me,” says Paul of that monumental moment. “But he rang us the next day and said ‘You just bought yourself a boat’. We couldn’t believe it.” That was the start of Pilgrim.  The Start of Pilgrim After purchasing Pilgrim, it took 18 months before the boat could operate as a commercial vessel and, finally, Pilgrim sailed her first ever charter in July 2010. Over the next five years to follow, Pilgrim did private charters, corporate team-building charters, and racing experiences. The popular Sip and Sail Sunset Cruise with Tamburlaine Organic Wines that Pilgrim is most known for on Magnetic Island also originated in Sydney Harbour. While Pilgrim’s racing days concluded with winning Magnetic Island Race Week in 2018, the yacht used to race in Sydney’s summer Twilight Series – a weekly regatta where races would start at 6 p.m. and finish just before 8 p.m. and were almost always followed by merry mingling at the yacht club. Paul and Clare wanted to share the thrill of racing with those who were curious but had little to no sailing experience. “We’d have four or five crew and then we’d take four or five guests who had no idea [how to sail] and they would pair up,” explains Paul. “We had one hour from when we got the guests on to when the race started.”  Pilgrim's race crew in Sydney Harbour Expanding to Magnetic Island Then, in 2015 during Sydney’s quiet winter months, Pilgrim left Sydney Harbour to sail up the coast in search of a new stomping ground. “We initially thought we were going to sail around the world,” says Clare. Instead, they found themselves in the Whitsundays where they met a couple who told them to keep sailing up to Magnetic Island. “We couldn't believe how beautiful it was and how untouched it was compared with the Whitsundays, which is quite busy,” shares Clare of the first time they arrived at the island paradise. “You come up here and there's nobody in any of the bays. You've got the beaches to yourselves. And coming from Sydney and the Whitsundays, it was just such a contrast.” Paul and Clare knew right then and there that they had found the spot to be, and every year when Sydney’s summer sailing season died down for the winter they operated on the island.  A barren Whitehaven beach in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic Moving To An Island Paradise The couple decided to permanently relocate to Magnetic Island in 2019. With tables, chairs, and nearly all of Paul and Clare’s other belongings packed into every crevice of the boat, all that was left was one bunk for the couple and one bunk for Clem, their first employee on Magnetic Island who joined them for the trip north. The trio sailed out of Sydney Harbour just as Ruby Princess sailed in. Pilgrim was in transit as COVID-19 began to wreak havoc across the country. Just as they crossed into Queensland, the borders closed. They kept sailing. “We hardly saw anybody else. And we didn't get much reception so we didn't really know what was happening,” recalls Paul. “We were at Whitehaven and we were the only three people on Whitehaven Beach. It's the [place] everyone in the world comes to. It was phenomenal.” When they finally docked at the Magnetic Island Marina, the team of three got straight to work to bring Pilgrim back into shape, and Clare made hundreds of jars of pumpkin chutney. Their small sailing business kept on growing. Pilgrim Today Since relocating to Queensland, Pilgrim Magnetic Island has evolved into a premium tour operator and received a number of awards, recognitions, and nominations over the years, including being a recipient of the Best of Queensland Experience for four years in a row as well as TripAdvisor’s Traveller’s Choice 2024. The crew introduced a range of unique new ideas, from launching the Beach Club in 2021 (which rebranded as Pilgrim Adventures in 2023 and subsequently won Best New Product at the North Queensland Tourism Awards) to the addition of the heli-sailing package and the full moon cruise to trialing a women’s wellness retreat. Pilgrim’s crew of Paul and Clare, also grew into a little family, welcoming Clayton and Siobhan and some others along the way too including Poppy - Pilgrim’s furry mascot, aboard.  Pilgrim wins Magnetic Island Race Week in 2018 A Walk Down Memory Lane
Reflecting on the past 14 years, Paul and Clare describe their journey with the words: satisfaction, pride, fun, and evolution. These words also encompass some of their favorite memories on board Pilgrim, from their start in Sydney to special milestones on Magnetic Island. For Paul, winning Magnetic Island Race Week, after several years of competing, is one of his proudest moments. Similarly, Clare will never forget the satisfaction of taking people racing in Sydney Harbour. “It’s sharing [sailing] with anybody that appreciates it. It’s passing on a bit of knowledge to somebody who'd have no idea, no concept of sailing, and watching them walk away knowing that you've pretty well changed their life in some little way,” Clare says. Paul still remembers the day they got Pilgrim, saying that “Pilgrim was like a dream.” While many things have changed for Pilgrim, some things remain reminiscent of the sailboat’s Sydney beginnings, like the acclaimed Sunset Sip and Sail Cruise and Clare’s famous pumpkin chutney. *14th Anniversary Promotion Offer Terms and Conditions:
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