The journey south to the Duke Isles took us closer to Shoalwater Bay and Broad Sound – where there are the largest tides on Australia’s East Coast. We have observed them increasing daily as we travel back south along the coast. The geography and the moon’s gravitational pool here create massive amounts of moving water with swift currents - and the swell gets angry when the current is against the wind. The strong currents also carry swell around corners into anchorages – making for funny (weird?) moments of relative calm for 6 hours and then rocking wildly for the next 6 hours – not discriminating on the time of night! The wind or current can also hold boats side on to the waves, exacerbating the rolling. So understanding and anticipating all this is a challenge and influences the decisions you make. Well - it's just the way it is in this area - and if you think about this stuff too much, then you don’t go anywhere or do anything. We have learnt to accept it as all part of the experience!
Our intrigue to visit the Dukes was fuelled by a ‘Cruising Helmsman’ article ‘For the brave of heart’ written by Jill Knight who has been cruising the oceans for 25 years. While describing the various anchorage options and swift tidal passages that surround it, she also shares the story of a private leaseholder on the island that ran cattle and deer there. Apparently this leaseholder was unlucky with wives – or perhaps not. When the first wife died in a horse-riding accident, he advertised for a replacement, a housekeeper whom he soon married. Then his second wife disappeared in suspicious circumstances – apparently he waited several days before lighting an SOS fire on the highest hill. An inquest determined she was missing, presumed drowned. When the man then advertised once more for a housekeeper-cum-wife, the police stepped in and stopped the successful ‘applicant’ from taking up residence on the Island!. The island was apparently also visited in WWII by a Japanese submarine crew coming ashore here looking for food surprising the leaseholder at the time. The marble of Marble Island here has been supplying the headstones for Rockhampton’s funeral parlours for a very long time! So - an assorted history and bunch of tales, on a group of secluded islands, sounded like an interesting and different place to go!
We set course for an anchorage on the south of Hunter Island in the Duke Isles - we still had northerly winds and this one sounded and looked great with a nice sandy beach. The anchorage is seemingly easy to reach if you take the quick path between Marble Island and Hunter Island – however this passage is known as the Lola Mantes Passage. We can only assume Lola was a spirited soul as the Guide says the currents in this pass can be up to 5 knots (Echo Beach does 7 knots) – so 2 knots headway can make it a very long Passage... and inevitably in those places you can have swirling waters, even whirlpools that will spin a boat 360 degrees or at angles. The alternative was to go either end of the Dukes – much longer, still strong currents on the falling tide and it was getting to late afternoon.
Anyway, it was beautiful weather so we decided to give Lola a go! There were the impressive rocky outcrops of various colours of marble to look at on the way which took the mind off the strong currents – peaking around 3 knots – but the journey was, after all the talk and reading, a piece of cake! We arrived at the anchorage safely but unfortunately a group of boaties had arrived earlier and the small bay was now full of power launches and a few other yachts. It was well sheltered, calm and peaceful so we found a spot on the bay’s outer in about 9 metres of water - this was low tide – it would be 15-16 metres of water at high tide so we put out 58 metres of anchor chain just in case! It was disappointing to see that the beach didn’t look at all like the pictures! Rocky, grey and muddy... but let’s see when the sun comes up and the water is back! We did have prime position though to watch the sun go down that night over the rocky causeway between two islands.
Well we got about 4 hours of sleep in this peaceful anchorage before it turned different – let’s call it ‘Lola’s Rock n Roll Dance’ – yep the tide turned , the wind sprang up stronger from the North West and we had the biggest boat rock happening from about 1am. It was probably our worst night out so far with some amazing boat moves and a few things flying from one end to the other. At times like this, you thank all your lucky stars that we do not get seasick – it would be hell if you did (and frankly I’m not sure how someone could endure these areas if they did). But that’s just the way it is at times – the bright side is we did get some sleep and at least we have visited here (although we may just take an alternative route if we ever decide to do this again!) Sad to say also, with the sun shining and some water back early the next morning, the beach and water still didn’t appeal that much... We were also alone in the anchorage in the morning – every other boat presumably had enough during the night!
Jill Knight rightly makes the observation to treat these Islands with respect. So our next decision was easy – pay our due respects, tick the Duke’s off the list, and continue our journey South! We did so that morning - and on our exit from the anchorage, we got to enjoy a bit more of the ‘wild Lola’ as we rode, surfed and skidded the currents and whirlpools at the end of the pass.