This site is all 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 Thailand on the yacht "Stormvogel" in 1987. The famous racer / cruiser was used in the Nicole Kidman movie "Dead Calm" filmed on Hamilton Island on Queensland's east coast - where Bill was working as a skipper driving tourist boats.

He met and fell in love with Carolyn Hewitt from Grafton in NSW; who was working as a hotelier for Keith William's on Hamilton Island.
After courting for 7 years, in a moment of insanity and weakness Carolyn eventually agreed to marry him.



Bill and Carolyn back in 1986



They married on 9th of May 1992

And now they look like this...



Sheesh... Check out what 24 years, gravity, free radicals and 4 kids has done!!

 
Bill and Carolyn began working in Phuket for Amanpuri and Amanresorts in 1988 as founding managers of their luxury boat cruising division - Amancruises.

Carolyn worked several years at Amanpuri before taking up senior management positions at The Sheraton Grande Laguna and The Yacht Haven Marina Condo Project. She then took on the position of General Manager of Kamala Beach Resort until she had too many kids to look after.
Now she 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 finished with Amanresorts in 2009 - after completing 20 enjoyable and memorable years at the helm of Amancruises.


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



Amanpuri Pool and Lobby


Over the past 2 decades Bill's been very active in promoting Phuket and the Andaman Sea region as Asia's new yachting playground.


Amanpuri Bay Phuket
The most spectacular private beach on Phuket

THE BOATING PAGES



These pages are all 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 in detail.
Boat building is one of Bill's passions and he's been involved in the construction of over 70 charter vessels over the past 2 decades.
Most of these have been fiberglass work-boats built in Phuket by STEPPA BOATS with his friends and business partners Tony Green and Suda Promdem.



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 17, Bronty 15, Meg 11 and Mia 7 - all born in Bangkok and raised in the Land of Smiles.
All 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 the pre-requisites for Thai Nationality - including singing in public the Thai National Anthem and the Royal King's Anthem.
Carolyn and the three girls are Thai residents and will apply for citizenship once Bill and Tim have acquired the honor.

Interview on Phuket TV about this and other stuff.
 

 
THE O'LEARY CHILDREN


Tim 17, Bronty 15, Meg 11 and Mia 7 at Tim's musical 'Honk' in Bangkok 2009
 
 
 
Tim and Bronty, both living and studying away from home, Scuba diving at Koh Bon this year - amazing young adults.
 
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 Andaman Sea Pilot.
The 2009-10 3rd edition has a new name
THE SOUTHEAST ASIA PILOT
to incorporate all the countries in S-E Asia.
It was launched at the Phuket Race Week Regatta and it's on sale now. There's been lots of buzz and writings that this edition is the best cruising guide yet! 
 
Here is veteran journalist Alan Parkhouse's Bangkok Post article weekend magazine August 23rd.
 
 
Bill did a lot more photography for this edition thanks to his friend Douglas Myer's helicopter.
This front page of Phi Phi Lei where the movie the beach was shot is amazing
 


 

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 they collected donations and produced 10,000 copies for local outlets. The proceeds and donations from this publication went to helping educate and care for 13 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 it click here "THE FLYING DOCTOR SCREENPLAY" 

He's recently completed his second screenplay 'Tsunami Stories Thailand' adapting his book of the same name into an amazing movie script.
 
To read 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

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...

COMMUNITY AND CHARITY WORK

Bill is the long-standing Master of Ceremonies ( and organizing committee member ) at the famous yearly Kings Cup Regatta from its inception. He also occassionally fronts up for the same job at the Phuket Race Week, The Top of the Gulf Regatta in Pattaya and lately - The new Koh Samui Regatta.


Bill has been MC and live auctioneer at many of Phuket's fund-raising charity events. He has supported and continues to favor 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 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 - :)
 
STOP PRESS - Bill, Tim and Bronty O'Leary recently returned from one of the most amazing places on the planet.
The remotest parts of Papua (Irian Jaya) check out their adventure with the natives at
 
STOP PRESS - Bill was recently diagnosed with a nasty bleeding Basal Cell Carcinoma Skin Cancer right on the tip of his nose.
To see how he successfully dealt with this cancer problem without surgery - check out
 
Here's the new Video called "Diving with Billo" for the Thailand's Treasures Show done by Justin Weily and Ant's Media. A bit of fun...