We had to be out of the Shoalwater area by 23:00 hours on the 22nd of June as the military were closing the area for live firing exercises and the weather later on in the week was not looking good.

Rather that complete the 109 nautical mile journey to Mackay in one very long day we decided to break it into three legs.

We departed Island Head Creek at 7:30 am and had a great sail up to Hunter Island.

 

 

Our plan was to anchor on the north western side of the island as it was recommended as a good anchorage. But after dropping anchor we realised that it was going to be a very unpleasant night with the wind and the swell so we raised our anchor and went around to the north side of Marble Island which was a much more comfortable anchorage.

Marble Islands is part of the Duke Islands group which is a cattle and deer farm so you can only walk along the beach. The sign made it very clear "Trespassing and Shooting not allowed". Note the deer bones to re-inforce the message.

The tides in this area are significant (more than 2 metres) so by the time we had gone for a walk along the beach the dinghy's were high and dry. Luckily we had some friends on hand to carry the dinghy back to the water.