This site is about Bill and Carolyn O'Leary and their family who live in Phuket Thailand.

 

Bill O'Leary ( AKA Billo' ) is an Australian professional mariner who sailed to Phuket Thailand on the yacht "Stormvogel" in 1987. The famous racer / cruiser was the yacht in the Nicole Kidman movie "Dead Calm" filmed on Hamilton Island on Queensland's east coast - where Bill was working as a skipper.

He met and fell in lust with Carolyn Hewitt from Grafton in NSW; who was working as a hotelier for Keith Williams on Hamilton Island. She wandered onto "Banjo Patterson" one fine day when Bill was the skipper to Whitehaven beach - and it changed both their lives. Fate is like that.

After courting for 7 wild and tumultuous years across oceans and continents with more epic twists and turns than a Mills and Boon paperback romance  - in a moment of insanity and weakness Carolyn eventually agreed to marry him. Then the fun really started...



Bill and Carolyn in 1986



They got married on 9th of May 1992

And now they look like this...



 
Bill and Carolyn worked in Phuket for Amanpuri and Amanresorts starting in 1988 as founding managers of the luxury yacht brand - Amancruises.

Carolyn worked several years at Amanpuri before taking up senior management positions at The Sheraton Grande Laguna (now the Angsana) and The Yacht Haven Marina Condo Project.
 
Then General Manager of Kamala Beach Resort - until there were too many kids to look after.
Carolyn currently consults part-time for a select group of international investors on real estate, villa and luxury yacht projects within the Kingdom.
Carolyn speaks Thai.

Bill left Amanresorts in 2009 -  completing 20+ years as manager of Amancruises.


THE BOATING PAGES ON THIS SITE HIGHLIGHT BILL'S LOVE OF ALL THINGS NAUTICAL



Amanpuri Pool and Lobby


Over the past 2 decades Bill's been obsessed with promoting Sout East Asia, Phuket and the Andaman Sea region as the world's new super yachting playground.


Amanpuri Bay Phuket
Undoubtedly, the most spectacular private beach on Phuket

THE BOATING PAGES



These pages are about Bill's journey as a professional mariner from Australia to Thailand and beyond.
The history of Phuket's marine tourism industry and a few of its early players are mentioned.
Boat building is one of Bill's passions and he's been involved in the construction of over 70 charter and ferry vessels over the past 2 decades.
Most have been fiberglass work-boats built in Phuket by STEPPA BOATS with his friend and business partner Tony Green.



THE FAMILY PAGES



As far as they know, the O'Leary family are the longest-staying foreign expatriate family living and working in Phuket.
Bill and Carolyn are blessed with 4 uniquely gifted third-culture-kids - Timothy 18, Bronty 17, Meg 13 and Mia 9 - all born in Bangkok and raised in the Land of Smiles.
The O'Leary kids speak, read and write Thai language and the local southern dialect Pak Dtai.

Bill and Timothy have applied for and passed all their pre-requisites for Thai Nationality - including singing in public the Thai National Anthem and the Royal King's Anthem.


Interview on Phuket TV about how lucky he's been.
 

 
THE O'LEARY CHILDREN


Tim 18, Bronty 17, Meg 13 and Mia 9 at Tim's musical 'Honk' in Bangkok in 2009
 
 
 
Tim and Bronty, both living and studyiny abroad, Scuba diving at Koh Bon last year.
 
Read all about them on the
 
Family Pages
 
 
THE WRITING PAGES

 Billo has a inexplicable and insatiable creative bent. He works on many projects at the same time; and occasionally he'll even finish one - well, more like he abandons it - rather than actually completing it...

A passion for yachting has him surveying Asia's Oceans with long-time friends Andy Dowden and Grenville Fordham. Together they compile mountains of data, detailing nautical info and drawing charts to update new editions of their co-authored local sailing guide
THE SOUTHEAST ASIA PILOT
to incorporate all the countries in S-E Asia. August 23rd.
 
More info at www.southeastasiapilot.com

 

Surviving the 2004 Tsunami helped him create the charity book Tsunami Stories Thailand.




With the help of long time friend, editor and publisher Grenville Fordham of Image Asia Bill compiled 16 friends stories and printed 15,000 small book copies for local outlets.
 
All these copies sold within 2 years of the event.
 
100% of the time, effort, sales and direct donation proceeds went to helping house, clothe, feed, educate and care for 13 Thai orphans in Khao Lak.

SCREENPLAYS

 I lover of movies and stage plays that explore the flawed human condition; Bill completed his first screenplay -- 'The Flying Doctor' in 2008.  It's a tale portraying the paradoxical life and high-flying adventures of his late father, Dr. Timothy O'Leary.
 
To read or print it - click here "THE FLYING DOCTOR SCREENPLAY" 

His second screenplay 'Tsunami Stories Thailand' is an adaptation of the book of the same name into a movie script.
 
To read or print it - click here " TSUNAMI STORIES THAILAND SCREENPLAY"

ARTWORK PAGES
PAINTING

The O'Leary's love painting!
Plenty of Bill's art on the Artwork page on this site -
Or

You can easily check out Billo's complete visual art portfolio of over 250 works at
http://www.artbreak.com/Billo/works


MUSIC PAGES

 MUSIC, M.C. AND AUCTIONEER, STAGEWORK AND BAD ACTING

Bill loves music and entertaining although he's never been any good. He was lead vocals and rhythm guitarist in far too many lousy bands in his youth. 
The Free Beer Band in Phuket was legendary playing charity gigs with visiting rock-stars staying at Amanpuri - but unfortunately Bill can't remember much of those years.
Of course - The older he gets - the better he was.
He still enjoys playing guitar with Tim , screaming into a microphone, acting and writing songs.

He played a minor role of Tom ( angry engineer brother of Sam played by Anthony Gould ) in the Thai Language Foreign Academy Award-Nominated; 'The Tin Mine University' - in 2005.



ACTING ON THE SET OF "MAHA RAI MUANG RAE" ( "TIN MINE UNIVERSITY" ) 2005
It wasn't a big part - if you sneeze - you might miss it... Much ended on the editing room floor! Argh... the angst of the actor...

COMMUNITY AND CHARITY WORK

Bill was the long-standing Master of Ceremonies ( and organizing committee member ) at the famous yearly Kings Cup Regatta from its inception.
After 20 years - he's decided to let someone else have a go at it.


Bill has been MC and live auctioneer at many of Phuket's fund-raising charity events. He has supported and continues to favor his friend the late Tom McNamara's "Phuket's been good to us" education foundation, The Life Home Project ( HIV mother's with kids ), Childwatch - helping get Thai kids off the streets, Phuket International Women's Club sponsoring many local young girls' further education.
Carolyn personally sponsors the education of many challenged young Thai girls each year to further their educations and life experiences.




Billo's creative bent remains a complete mystery - mostly to his family - and himself...


This website was set up by close family friend Ian Hewitt and is a continuing work in progress.

It's part fun experiment, part entertainment, part 'wait and see what pops up' and part showcase for the O'Leary's and Bill's many projects. Check out the writings, art, boats and music pages.

If you would like to get to know Phuket or any of the O'Leary's - drop Bill or Carolyn a line at the contact us link above.

Hope you enjoy the site!



or not; either way we don't give a fiddler's fart - :)