Magnetic Island and the Palm Isles

Magnetic Island, or Maggie Island, as the locals call her, is about 140 nautical miles north of Airlie Beach. We decided to do the trip over four days, stopping each night at an open roadstead anchorage. We had a range of sailing conditions over the four days, so we went from motor sailing in light winds, to having two reefs in the main with gusts over 25 knots, and then pottering along at four knots with just the headsail out and ten to fifteen knots behind. None of the anchorages (Gloucester Island, Upstart Bay, Cape Bowling Green) were overly comfortable or anything to write home about. I was definitely looking forward to finally arriving at the protection of Magnetic Island!

Just north of Magnetic Island, as we prepared to turn into Horseshoe Bay, the lure we’d been dragging went Zing! We’d been dragging a lure most of the time we were sailing and apart from a couple of undersize mackerel, we’d had no luck. But it looked like that was about to change.

Whatever it was, it was big. And it put up a good fight. When Matt finally brought it to the boat we could see that it was a longtail tuna, beautifully coloured and patterned. Matt killed and gutted it, disposing of the guts back into the ocean, before we headed into the anchorage. It was calm and protected in Horseshoe Bay and we feasted on fresh tuna steaks for dinner.

We spent five nights anchored in Horseshoe Bay and explored the island from there. We wandered through the cute little main street in Horseshoe Bay, hiked over to the neighbouring beaches of Balding Bay and Radical Bay, and swam regularly in the stinger enclosure off the beach. We had at first assumed that it was a shark net, but chatting to the lifeguard on duty, discovered that it was in actual fact a stinger net, mostly for bluebottles, and it had only been installed several days earlier. Stinger season has begun!

On the walk over to Balding Bay, we spotted a koala in a tree, quite low down and he let us get up really close. A wild koala, it was pretty awesome!

We also ventured south along the beach from Horseshoe Bay to find the estuary and lagoon that were supposed to be there. Unfortunately, it was pretty much all dried up, but we did spot some birdlife in the small bit of water remaining.

Birds of the lagoon:

It was very windy throughout our time at Magnetic Island, and after our initial calm night in Horseshoe Bay, the anchorage became very rolly with big waves rolling through the bay. We had a couple of sleepless nights, and even had to get up at 2.30am one night to reset the anchor as it was dragging.

One day we caught the bus down to the other end of the island to Nelly Bay and Picnic Bay. We checked out the marina and shops at Nelly Bay and wandered along the pier and swam in the stinger net at Picnic Bay. The anchorage in Picnic Bay was wonderfully protected and calm, with the boats there hardly moving. Cool Change was definitely in the wrong spot! Unfortunately, by the time we made it back to Horseshoe Bay, it was too close to dark to move our boat. There was also a wind change predicted for the following day, which would mean that Horseshoe Bay would then be better protected, so we sat it out for one more night.

We did move around to the Maggie Island marina for our last two nights on the island. We needed to top up the diesel and also do a big grocery shop. There were two days of very strong winds predicted, so we planned our marina visit to coincide with these. There is nothing like the relief of escaping strong winds and big, lumpy seas and pulling into a marina, tying securely up to a dock and easily jumping off the boat.

We spent two quiet days here; I shopped for groceries and restocked, while Matt did runs of diesel with the jerry cans. We walked into the nearby village of Arcadia for dinner one night. Matt had seen a sign for parma night at the Arcadia Village Hotel, obviously not be missed! It was a nice treat to be eating out and we enjoyed the atmosphere in the pub. We decided to grab a bus back instead of walking. As we were waiting for the bus, it began to rain. A sudden heavy downpour. I felt cold for the first time in ages. The rain absolutely pelted down and I was so thankful we’d decided to take the bus. It would have been a wet, wet walk home. Welcome to the tropics! Better get used to this, I guess.

We’d really enjoyed Maggie Island and it was one of the places where we could see ourselves living one day. Who knows? The wind had been pretty constant while we were here, and there was a bit of respite predicted so it was time to move on to islands further north. We sailed the whole nine hour passage to the Palm Isles. It was a long day, and I felt ill off and on. Still haven’t quite got those sea legs!

The Palm Isles or Palm Island Group is a group of 16 islands, the biggest of which, Greater Palm Island, houses an Aboriginal settlement. Due to covid, visitors were not welcome on the island so the smaller islands of Fantome and Orpheus were our destinations.

Anchoring at Fantome Island took us several attempts as a rocky bottom extended a long way off shore and we caught the anchor in rocks a few times before finding a nice sandy patch. After a good night’s sleep in the calm and flat anchorage, we spent the following day exploring both Fantome Island and the south beach of Orpheus Island.

Only as recently as 1971, Fantome Island was used as a place to house and treat people with leprosy. We discovered the remains of the leper colony; some foundations and piles and piles of rusty junk. I found a huge intact clam shell on the beach here, well, I thought it was huge, until we discovered the giant clam garden at Orpheus Island later!

On our way back to the boat, out in the deeper water, we were going pretty fast, when I saw a big round shape loom up right in front of the tinny. ‘Stop, stop!!’ I managed to shout out to Matt, but too late, and we sped right over the top of a turtle. ‘That was a turtle!’ My heart was pounding as Matt turned the tinny around, and went back to have a look. We couldn’t have hit it, he assured me, we’d have felt something. There was no sign of the turtle, and Matt was right, we’d have definitely felt it if we’d made contact. He must have been just below the surface, as the super clear water can make depths deceiving! Phew!

No wonder turtles take off whenever they see a boat. Any time we had managed to spot a turtle in the water, as soon as it popped it’s head up for a breath and realised that we there, then it was gone. I completely understood why now! We spell danger to them and turtles aren’t stupid!

Motoring around the corner to Orpheus Island, we picked up a mooring in Little Pioneer Bay. This is where the giant clam garden was purported to be and I was pretty keen to check it out. I had found some co-ordinates on another yachtie’s blog (thank you seawindow.wordpress.com!) and we typed them into our chart plotter to get an idea of where the garden started (18°36.407S 146°29.353E).

Pulling on our brand new stinger suits (very sexy full body lycra numbers), we ventured out in the tinny to find the clam garden. Bingo! We sure did find it and a heap of interesting coral and fish too. The water visibility was great, and as the tide was quite low, I was only just on top of the clams and the coral. It was our best snorkelling experience yet. The giant clams were, well, giant!! There were hundreds of these massive clam shells, all different colours and patterns, and we spent ages just exploring. It was really quite incredible, I’d never seen anything like it. I took some video footage and will attempt to make a little movie later, but here are some of the best photos.

We also walked the track up to the top of Orpheus Island for lovely views over Pioneer Bay and the other side of Orpheus Island.

The Palm Isles was a really lovely area, and I would highly recommend stopping in to check out the clam gardens if you’re passing. For us, this was one of the last stops on our journey up the east coast for 2020. We were aiming to be in Cairns on the 1st December, leaving us just over two weeks to get there.

Next blog I’ll take you on our final leg of the trip for 2020, cruising to Cairns via the Hinchinbrook Channel, Dunk Island, Beaver Reef and Fitzroy Island.

Not all those who wander are lost.

J R R Tolkien