It's about now that Queensland courts the wayfaring sailor with weeks of perfect weather hatched by lazy high-pressure systems that hover overhead like the halos of a hundred angels. Those big isobars mean sailing under boundless blue skies, with light winds and languid swells that barely rock your boat. Yet according to the locals, this is winter and too cold for boating. And without them hurtling about the waterways, you can enjoy the postcard settings all to your self. Well, almost.

Although high fuel costs are set to trim the sails of the long-range cruiser fleet, a glance east reveals a steady stream of white triangles already advancing north. Besides the cloth of the cruising kind, some 70 yachts are expected to compete in this month's Sydney to Gold Coast Race. Then the focus switches to that famous winter sailing soiree, Hamilton Island Race Week in August, where organisers hope for a record fleet of more than 216 yachts.

But we're heading for the Gold Coast for three days of boat testing. There's the Grand Banks Aleutian 65 making its world release, Riviera's 38 Open Flybridge, the Hampton 68, Maritimo 60 Cabriolet and 500 Flybridge Convertible, Aquabay 70 and Sea Ray Amberjack 325. Roughly, $20m worth of boats.

Of course, boating goes hand in hand on the Gold Coast, the hub of our boat-building industry, where Queensland registrations bucked the national trend and grew five per cent last year and usurped NSW for the first time. In fact, there are now almost 30,000 registered boats on the Gold Coast alone.

As with all waterways, the boats are getting bigger, marina berths are in short supply, and that's driving up annual price rises by about 10 per cent. A 12-metre berth at Hope Island costs $6000 a year or upwards of $250,000 on a long-term lease, but a 12-year sub-lease of a 35m superyacht pen at Southport Yacht Club will set you back more than $700,000.

But the visiting boatie will find plenty of casual berths on the Gold Coast and oodles of places to drop anchor. The inshore channels weave for 260 kilometres, and there are more canals here than Venice. However, not all that glitters is gold. Those with deep draft boats and keel yachts will doubtless hit the bricks north of Wavebreak Island. As locals say, there only two kinds of skippers on the Gold Coast: those who have run aground and those who won't admit to running aground.

Here's a tip to avoid disaster: abide by the navigation marks, go slow in the narrows, watch your depth sounder and only travel north of Wavebreak Island during the last few hours of the flood tide. At least that's how I have avoiding running aground.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the voyage from Sydney. After miles of wide blue yonder and unspoilt coastline, your world morphs into a metropolis once you pass Point Danger. Just like Miami, whose namesake suburb exists to the west, there is kitsch high-rise that assaults the eye. Look closer and cappuccinos have been replaced by stubby coolers, Toohey's beer by XXXX, long sleeves by t-shirts, trousers by shorts and shoes by thongs.

At night, you need to avoid the trawlers that light up the waters off the Gold Coast. But do follow the rhumb line from Tweed Heads. Travel too far inshore and you might foul the shark nets and baited lines set year-round off the local beaches. Just as importantly, avoid the water off the northern side of the Seaway where sandbanks stretch for almost a mile offshore and waves break out of nowhere. Once inside the Seaway, you need to switch to surfer alert. Scores of suited-up young locals paddle across the Seaway entrance to catch waves at South Stradbroke Island and they're not easy to see.

Immediately ahead is Wavebreak Island, a giant manmade structure that attracts Gold Coast boaties like moths to the flame. Dive operators and anglers in tinnies are to be avoided, but the deep gutters to the northeast are a terrific anchorage. Tuck in close enough to shore to block out most of the aforesaid highrise. Launch the tender and raid Charis Seafoods at Labrador across the not-so-accommodating Broadwater. But skidoo from the beaches before sunset when the midges take a liking to sweet white flesh.

Officially, living aboard a boat in all Gold Coast waters is not permitted for more than seven consecutive days in any 60-day period at or within three nautical miles of one place. But many local and visiting boaties appear to be hunkered down in Bum's Bay, the cove behind The Spit. Thanks to a nearby boat ramp, jet-ski tours and amphibious tourist craft, it's hardly peaceful. Some cruising sailors weathered in here have deemed it their worst nightmare.

Next icon is Sea World, but it's the 10-hectare stretch of foreshore south from here to Palazzo Versace that has developers dancing a jig. The state government is reviewing tenders for a new marine precinct, tourism and commercial development that will include a 350-berth marina with an additional 30 superyacht slots.

Meantime, the jackhammers have been out at adjoining Marina Mirage, which is undergoing a multimillion dollar renovation, and Mariners Cove alongside has big plans afoot. But the friendliest place to lob is the 300-berth Southport Yacht Club, which does honest club grub and remains a walk away from Tedder Avenue.

What's more, gold members ($852 a year) get access to an exclusive club retreat on South Stradbroke Island. It's at South Stradbroke Island, starting around Tipplers Passage and ending at the Northern Bedrooms tucked just inside Jumpinpin that you will find some of the Gold Coast's best anchorages. There are clean beaches and dunes with wallabies bounding about, warm water full of flathead and blue-swimmer crabs, sea eagles that soar above and sunsets that linger. No white suits, no gold shoes or no glitz. But still very Gold Coast.