Sailing the Whitsundays

The Whitsundays Sailing - Australia
Distance
Varies with your plan. For scale, Whitsunday Islands National Park lies about 25 km east of Airlie Beach, and Whitehaven Beach is about 40 km (21.6 nautical miles) from Shute Harbour by sea.
Country
Australia
Difficulty
Moderate
Type of trip
Sailing route

There’s no set sailing route through the Whitsundays. It’s a cruising area: 74 continental islands off the central Queensland coast, most of them uninhabited national park, inside the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. Most people bareboat, which means hiring a yacht, catamaran or motor cruiser and skippering it yourself. Charter boats leave from the marinas at Airlie Beach (Coral Sea Marina at Abel Point, and Port of Airlie) or from Hamilton Island. Tourism Whitsundays says you don’t need formal qualifications, only some boating experience. The charter company gives you a safety and area briefing before you leave, the marine park permit is included, and there are daily weather updates and radio check-ins. If you’d rather not skipper, crewed trips of one to three nights are the alternative.

The rules are there to protect the coral. The islands are surrounded by marine park zones, and fishing isn’t allowed in green zones, which include Whitehaven Beach, Armit Island, Denman Island and the northern bays of Hook Island. Use the public moorings where you can. They’re blue buoys with a coloured band showing the boat length, time limit and maximum wind for that mooring, and anyone can use one overnight (3 pm to 9 am) on a first-come basis. You may not anchor in no-anchoring areas. Most are marked by white pyramid buoys, but some at Bait Reef and Hook Island are unmarked, so check the maps. Some seabird nesting sites have a 6-knot limit within 200 m, and three rocks have boat-free zones from October to December. Tides range up to 4 m, and the parks service names Cid Harbour as a known site for shark attacks. Don’t throw food scraps over the side.

Highlights along the way

  1. Whitehaven Beach: 7 km of white silica sand on the east coast of Whitsunday Island, about 40 km by boat from Shute Harbour. You can anchor off the beach at any tide. It’s a green zone, so no fishing, and the nearest public mooring is in Tongue Bay.
  2. Tongue Bay and Hill Inlet: public moorings in Tongue Bay, and anchoring is allowed in both. A 1.3 km return track from Tongue Bay climbs to lookouts over Hill Inlet, where the tide moves white sand and blue water through the inlet. Access is from mid to high tide.
  3. Nara Inlet, Hook Island: a long, narrow inlet with an overnight anchorage. A steep 340 m return track leads to the Ngaro Cultural Site, a cave with rock art and middens that’s one of the oldest Indigenous sites on Australia’s east coast. Hammerhead sharks use the inlet to give birth.
  4. Cid Harbour: a sheltered anchorage on the west side of Whitsunday Island. Stay out of the water here.
  5. Hamilton Island: the only island in the group with an airport that takes larger planes, a marina and a yacht club. Some charter companies start trips here.

Distance

Varies with your plan. For scale, Whitsunday Islands National Park lies about 25 km east of Airlie Beach, and Whitehaven Beach is about 40 km (21.6 nautical miles) from Shute Harbour by sea.

Best time to go

April to October. Days are mild (21–26 °C from April to September, says the parks service) and the air is less humid, but this is when the prevailing south-easterly winds blow, so plan each passage and anchorage around the forecast. October to January is hotter, with strong north-easterly sea breezes in the afternoons. January to April are the wettest months, and cyclones are most likely from November to March. Marine stingers can be in the water at any time, with the higher risk from November to May, so wear a full-body stinger suit to swim.

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