Info needed on Camping at The Witsundays

[marlinj]

Im looking for some information on good spots to camp at the Whitsundays.
Me and the misses are going to be towing the boat up to the Whitsundays in a few weeks and will probally spend a night or two on the water.

We were was woundering are there any good Islands that we are able to camp on with boat access either putting the boat up on sand or tying of to pontoons.

If pulling up to Islands with sand access does the big tides affect leaving your boat over night.
Any feedback would be great...Thanks

[skippa]

G'Day MJW,

Best bet is get ahold of the book '100 Magic Miles', sort of the bible of Island touring up there.

We camped up there a couple of months back, based ourselves at Airlie Beach and day tripped around. Best ramp to use is the one at Abel Point Marina, easy access at all tides and not effected by currents, as most of the other ramps are.

You'll have a great time, plenty of Islands to visit within easy reach in a decent size trailer boat. We fished the drop offs around the Islands and had a blast. If you get the book above it will give you details on where to camp etc.


Cheers,
Tony

[marlinj]

thanks mate thats a big help...
Regards Jim

[backhoe]

There's quite a few moorings around the Whitsundays but the chance of getting one to stay on overnight is pretty limited. They have rules attached to them, I think a limit of 2hours but you can stay on them overnight if you get there after 3 or 4pm (i think). The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any policing of this as we saw the same boats tied up to these for days. We never had any problem with anchoring up at night, just have a good anchor, lots of chain and let heaps of rope out and you shouldn't have any dramas. Just commonsense really.
The main problem we encountered was finding a good spot well away from everyone else and then some tosser coming and anchoring right on top of you. A couple of times we ended up having to move to avoid any mishaps through the night, but we'd always make sure we passed on some advice to them about courtesy, etc. when we went past them so that they might think next time before dropping their pick.
Hope yo have a good trip. It's a great part of the world.

[backhoe]

Jim
Can't send you a pm back as I haven't got enough posts.
Best bet is to anchor on the mud with a plough. I wouldn't attempt to anchor up on the fringing reefs overnight. You'll see why when you get there.
As far as showers go I've got no idea as we didn't need them as they were on the boat. 100 Magic Miles probably has them in, I can't remember, but the National Parks mob should be able to help out.
There are heaps of anchorages. Listen to the daily morning skeds from the rent a yacht companies and you'll hear where they are all headed and you can get an idea of where a quieter anchorage might be for the night and plan your day around that. We stayed at Tongue Bay, Stonehaven, Nara, another one I can't recall and Hamo for one night.
Cost about 70 bucks to stay at the marina in Hamo for the night but the hot unlimited showers are worth it after a couple of days of salt and you can stock up on other stuff you need too.
Would highly recomend getting a chart and 100 Magic Miles early on and studying them well.
Didn't do much fishing up there but the area around Solway Passage and the Passage between Hook and Whitsunday Islands would have to produce a few mackeral, queenies, etc. this time of year.
Have a good trip

[marlinj]

Thnx Backhoe it should be a great weekend hopefully if the wind and bad weather goes back far down south where it belongs