Palm Bay Resort Moorings

About the marina

Palm Bay Resort occupies a private cove in the narrow neck of Long Island, the closest of the Whitsunday islands to the mainland and a 20-minute ferry or about an hour's cruise from Shute Harbour. The island itself is nine kilometres long and barely 400 metres across at its widest, almost entirely national park, with thirteen kilometres of walking trails, fringing coral reef and a string of secluded bays. The resort is a small, deliberately unplugged operation: Balinese-inspired villas around the cove, no wifi or television in the rooms, and since April 2022 an adults-only policy that excludes children under sixteen. For visiting yachts it offers something rare in the Whitsundays, a staffed mooring field with resort privileges in a bay where anchoring is not permitted. Just four moorings lie in the cove, the outer pair set for catamarans and the inner pair for monohulls, and they are pre-booked rather than picked up on spec, which keeps the bay quiet even in peak season. The clientele is a blend of bareboat charterers on their first or last night out of Shute Harbour, private cruisers working the island group, and resort guests who arrive by ferry and never touch a boat. Its appeal is the combination of a safe, serviced overnight stop with a restaurant, bar, pool and beach within a dinghy ride of the mooring, plus immediate access to the national park trails, all within easy striking distance of the mainland for boats needing to make a morning return deadline.

Berthing & shoreside services

The marine offering is four swing moorings and nothing more, and that simplicity is the point. Moorings are hired by the night on a pre-booked basis through the resort or through the bareboat companies' reservations desks; published fees sit at $100 per vessel plus a resort access fee per person, with pickup from midday and drop by 10am, and the mooring fee bundles access to the resort facilities. The outer moorings carry catamarans and the inner pair monohull yachts, and anchoring in the cove is not permitted, so when the moorings are taken, boats move on to the public anchorage at Happy Bay at the island's northern end. There are no berths, no fuel, no water or power at the moorings, no pump-out and no showers for boat crews; services are the resort's own, reached by dinghy. Ashore, the restaurant is open seven nights, the beachfront bar does sunset drinks, and guests on moorings can use the pool, the tennis court, toilets, and the kayaks and stand-up paddleboards the resort keeps for visitors. Independent tours to Whitehaven Beach and the outer reef can be arranged on request. Smart casual dress is expected ashore, and the resort asks visitors to respect its philosophy of privacy and intimacy, which in practice means small groups, low noise and no beach parties. Bookings go through the resort office by phone or via VHF channels 11 or 16 through the charter bases. Provisioning is essentially nil beyond the restaurant and bar, so crews arrive stocked from Airlie Beach or Shute Harbour. The adults-only rule applies to mooring guests as strictly as to villa guests.

Local context in YouSail

This is directory context, not navigation advice. Check current charts, notices and official boating resources before passage.

Palm Bay sits on the western side of Long Island's narrow middle, facing the mainland, and the approach from Shute Harbour is a straightforward short hop in sheltered water, which is why charter fleets treat it as the classic first-night or last-night stop. Shelter is best in the prevailing south-easterlies that dominate the Whitsunday winter; the cove is more open to the north-west, so in summer northerlies crews check the forecast before committing, and tidal and draft considerations apply close in toward the lagoon edge. Happy Bay at the island's northern tip, under an hour from Shute Harbour, is the free alternative anchorage, with a long shallow beach that demands care with the dinghy at low water and a walking loop linking both sides of the island. The walking is the highlight ashore: the Round Hill Circuit, a 1.5-kilometre return climb starting at the resort, takes about thirty minutes for views over the channel, and longer national park trails run the island's length through grass trees and hoop pine. Snorkelling the fringing reef off the beach is best at mid to high tide. The whole island holds national park status, so take rubbish out and keep to the tracks. For a last-night stop before a 10am charter handback at Shute Harbour, the location is close to unbeatable, close enough to sleep in and still make the dock. The nearest provisioning, fuel and marine services are all back on the mainland at Airlie Beach, roughly ten kilometres from Shute Harbour by road. In an archipelago of 74 islands, most of them uninhabited, Palm Bay's little mooring field offers one of the easiest resort nights a cruising boat can buy.