The run north is the one most Gold Coast owners dream about and fewer make than you would think. It is about 650 nautical miles from the Seaway to Hamilton Island by the usual track, with one bar, one tide-gated strait, a string of good marinas fifty to a hundred miles apart, and the best cruising ground in the country at the end of it. A 20-knot motor yacht does it in three or four days. Here is how to plan it, what it costs on the way, and what the Whitsundays expect of you when you arrive.
Key facts
- Distance — about 650 nm via Bundaberg, Rosslyn Bay and Mackay; 520 nm in a straight line
- Time — about 32 hours’ running at 20 knots, 72 at 9 knots; three to four days fast, six to eight slow, a month if you stop everywhere
- The gate — the Wide Bay Bar and the Great Sandy Strait, or go outside Fraser and skip both
- Season — May to October; August to early November is best; cyclone season 1 November to 30 April
- Berths — Hamilton Island publishes rates ($255 a night for 20 m); Coral Sea Marina and Port of Airlie quote on application; both want $10 million liability cover
- Moorings — over 100 free public moorings, colour-banded by size; white pyramid buoys mean no anchoring
The legs
| Leg | Distance | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gold Coast Seaway to Mooloolaba | 82 nm | About 4 hours at 20 knots, 8 at 10; strong cross-currents at the Point Cartwright entrance |
| Mooloolaba to the Wide Bay Bar | about 70 nm | Double Island Point is the only anchorage between, and it is an open roadstead |
| Through the Great Sandy Strait | 36 to 40 nm | Tide-gated at South White Cliffs and Sheridan Flats; fuel at Urangan |
| Mooloolaba to Bundaberg outside Fraser | about 200 nm | Round Breaksea Spit; no bar, no gate, one long night |
| Bundaberg to Pancake Creek | 66 nm | Follow the leads in; sandbanks dry at low water |
| Pancake Creek to Gladstone | about 30 nm | Or straight on past it |
| Gladstone to Great Keppel and Rosslyn Bay | 59 nm plus 10 to 12 | Northern Passage saves 20 nm on the shipping channel |
| Rosslyn Bay to Mackay | about 250 nm | Via the Percy Isles, Pearl Bay or Port Clinton; Middle Percy is the classic stop, 59 nm short of Mackay |
| Mackay to the Whitsundays | 17 nm to St Bees, then island hops | Airlie Beach to Hamilton Island is 15 to 17 nm |
The classic plan runs Gold Coast, Mooloolaba, the bar and the Strait, Bundaberg, Pancake Creek, then north in 50 to 60 nm hops. A fast motor yacht leaves the Seaway at first light, fuels at Mooloolaba, takes the bar on the afternoon flood or runs outside overnight, and is at Bundaberg or Pancake Creek on day two, Rosslyn Bay on day three, Mackay or the islands on day four.
The Wide Bay Bar and the Strait
If you go inside Fraser Island you cross the Wide Bay Bar and then work the tides through the Great Sandy Strait. It is the part of the trip that needs the most planning and the part that goes wrong most often.
- The bar moves. The waypoints shift tens of metres in a season and are reset after every big swell. The last public figure is from 2017, when the Hook Point light was realigned and the seaward mark moved half a mile north. Since 2022 Maritime Safety Queensland has run virtual AIS buoys on the bar that show on an AIS-equipped plotter and are moved to the deepest water. That alone is a reason to fit AIS before this trip.
- Ask before you cross. Coast Guard Tin Can Bay, 07 5486 4290 or VHF 16, 67, 80 and 82, six in the morning to six at night, will give you the current marks and tell you what the bar is doing. Log on with them before you go over.
- Time it. Cross in daylight, in the last two hours of the flood, ideally at high water. On the ebb against a south-easterly swell the bar goes from flat to steep, confused and breaking in minutes. Avoid crossing from seaward in the afternoon with the sun on the leads. The tidal jet off Inskip Point sets you across the line near the inner mark. If in doubt, do not cross.
- The Strait has two gates. The southern entrance carries 2 to 3 m at low water, South White Cliffs and Ungowa about 1.8 to 2 m, and Sheridan Flats 1.8 to 2.2 m in the marked channel, where the flood tides from north and south meet. A boat drawing 2 m wants half-tide rising at South White Cliffs and mid-tide or better at Sheridan Flats, ideally at slack. Garry’s Anchorage is where you wait. Plan the Strait around neap tides if you can.
- Or go outside. Run north from Mooloolaba, pass Waddy Point about halfway, round Breaksea Spit and turn for Bundaberg. About 200 nm and a night at sea, no bar, no gate, and a fast motor yacht does it in ten hours.
Worth knowing
Every July in odd-numbered years, Exercise Talisman Sabre closes about 100 nm of coast from Yeppoon north to the Percy group. In 2025 there was no safe anchorage in that stretch until 17 July, with fines for coming within 500 m of exercise vessels. Talisman Sabre 2027 is being planned now; check the dates before you fix a July departure.
Season and weather
The Whitsundays run on the trade winds. They re-establish in April and May, the weather settles after June, and the winds ease from mid-September, which makes August to early November the best cruising, with September the month most people name. The dry season, May to October, sits between 20 and 27 degrees.
Cyclone season is 1 November to 30 April, and it is not theoretical. Cyclone Koji came ashore between Ayr and Bowen as a category two on 11 January 2026, dropped more than 700 mm on Mackay in 48 hours, and destroyed about 25 boats, most of them on the Airlie Beach moorings against the rock wall. Owners who stayed uninsured were quoted around $8,000 a year for cyclone cover afterwards. Most Gold Coast yachts go north in winter and come home in October or November on the northerlies.
Forecast zones north to south: Gold Coast Waters, Sunshine Coast Waters, Hervey Bay Waters, Capricornia Coast and Mackay Coast.
Fuel on the way
No marina on the route publishes a diesel price online; ring ahead the day before for the price and the wharf hours. Where the fuel is:
| Stop | Diesel | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mooloolaba | Rockliff’s, Mooloolah River Fisheries, Chippo’s | The marina takes vessels to 18 m; rates from 1 July 2026 are $99 a night for 15 m and $118 for 18 m |
| Urangan (Hervey Bay) | sheltered diesel wharf | The northbound fuelling point after the Strait |
| Bundaberg Port Marina | 24/7 self-serve low-flow, high-flow at the commercial wharf | 180 berths to 45 m, 3 m at low water, a port of entry |
| Gladstone Marina | fuel dock, diesel and petrol | 320 vessels; rates from 1 July 2026: 15 m $84 a night, 20 m $108, 27 m $153, first three hours free |
| Keppel Bay Marina, Rosslyn Bay | 7am to 5pm weekdays, 9 to 4 weekends | 500 berths to 45 m |
| Mackay Marina | 24/7 card dock, high-flow 350 to 400 L/min, bulk rates | 435 berths including superyacht berths |
| Coral Sea Marina, Airlie | booked between 8am and 4.30pm; 24-hour card bowser after hours | Commercial traffic has priority at the fuel wharf |
| Hamilton Island | 24/7 wharf between F and G arms, low and high flow | Vessels to 30 m; call the office first |
A boat burning 180 litres an hour at cruise uses somewhere around 6,000 litres on the way up. Check the range on the longest leg you intend to run, Rosslyn Bay to Mackay if you do it in one, with a third in reserve.
Where to berth in the Whitsundays
| Marina | Takes | What is published |
|---|---|---|
| Coral Sea Marina Resort, Airlie Beach | 520 berths, 11 to 80 m, 5 m draft | Rates per metre on application; check-in noon, check-out 11am; $10 million liability required; Superyacht Facility of the Year 2026 |
| Hamilton Island Marina | 301 berths, superyachts to 45 m | Daily monohull: 15 m $180, 18 m $225, 20 m $255, 24 m $325, 27 m $370, 30 m $435; single berth 25% more; day visit 20 to 23 m $175; overnight mooring 15 to 24 m $135; high season June to November; book 24 hours ahead |
| Port of Airlie Marina (d’Albora) | 184 berths, to 40 m | Rates on application |
| Hayman Island | 24 berths to 45 m | $350 a day; overnight needs a room booking |
| Shute Harbour | ferry and tourism terminal | Not a visitor marina; the 395-berth private marina is still “coming soon” |
Hamilton Island Marina has a 4-knot no-wash limit inside, ferries and barges have priority departing, and there is no anchoring in the cable zone. Both Coral Sea and Hamilton Island want comprehensive cover to replacement value including salvage and clean-up, and $10 million public liability, before you tie up.
The Marine Park rules
- No-anchoring areas are marked by white pyramid buoys with a blue label. Anchoring inside them is an offence and the markers will not hold a boat. Bait Reef and Manta Ray Bay at Hook Island have no buoys at all, only chart boundaries.
- Public moorings are free, first come, one vessel each, and colour-banded: green for monohulls to 20 m and cats to 18 m, blue to 25 m and 22 m, red to 35 m and 30 m. Limits are two, four or 24 hours between 7am and 5pm; pick one up at or after 3pm and you can stay until 9am. There are more than 100 across the islands, including 14 at Tongue Bay for the walk to the Hill Inlet lookout.
- Whitehaven Beach sits in a green Marine National Park zone: no personal watercraft, transit at no wake, camping only with a permit.
- Anchor in sand or mud, well clear of coral, at five to one scope. Recreational vessels up to 20 m can anchor in every setting; larger yachts are restricted in the most protected ones.
- Permits and charges. The Marine Park environmental charge applies to commercial operators, not private yachts.
Before you leave the Seaway
- Insurance. Club Marine and Nautilus cover to 250 nm offshore, which is fine; the question is cyclone season. Pantaenius loads Queensland cruising about 10% for named-storm cover and wants a written contingency plan for yachts under 80 ft. Confirm the cruising range and the cyclone clause in writing.
- EPIRB, flares, life raft. A 406 MHz EPIRB registered with AMSA, two orange smoke and two red hand flares in date, and a life raft with a current service.
- AIS. Transmitting Class B with an MMSI. It is how you see the shipping off Gladstone and Mackay, and how you see the virtual buoys on the Wide Bay Bar.
- Fuel range. Longest leg plus a third, with the generator's burn at anchor added in.
- Spares. Impellers, belts, filters, an anode set, and the tools to fit them; the nearest dealer is a long way from Pancake Creek.
- Comms. Coverage is thin between Bundaberg and Mackay. Starlink Roam is $85 a month for 100 GB in Australia and the hardware is $399.
- Watch-keeping. A plan for the overnight legs with two people awake, and the weather window agreed the night before each leg.
- The marinas. Book Coral Sea or Hamilton Island before you leave, with the insurance certificate ready to send.
Send her, or take her
Owners who love the passage make a fortnight of it. Owners who want their boat waiting on a mooring at Hamilton Island send her up. Published Australian delivery rates are $650 a day for preparation plus $5 to $15 a nautical mile with crew travel of $1,500 to $3,500 and fuel on top, or $700 a day plus GST for a skipper and one crew covering 140 to 200 nm a day. The published example is $7,500 excluding fuel for a 15 m yacht over 600 nm in six days.
What we do
Marine HQ prepares yachts for the season north: the pre-departure service and sea trial, insurance and cyclone-clause paperwork, fuel and spares, a passage plan with the bar and the Strait tides worked out, and a delivery skipper and crew when the owner would rather fly. While she is away her position, fuel and log sit in the owner’s MyYacht app, and the post-season haul-out is booked for when she comes home. Call 0439 748 387 or email yachtsupport@marinehq.com.au and tell us which month you want to be at Whitehaven.