Sunny with a chance of smoke

We should have suspected something when we heard the helicopter go over.
But it wasn't until we saw the first wisps of smoke appearing from the craggy peaks of Hinchinbrook Island that we twigged that Queensland National Parks were setting the place alight.
It was an awesome sight at night with the flames creeping down the mountain sides.
In the morning, the low-hanging smoke gave the surroundings a mystical effect but, ewww, it stank and those clean crisp photos of the previous days were no longer possible.
At least we could understand a controlled burn-off in an area the size of Hinchinbrook (Australia's largest National Park island), unlike some of the tiny Whitsunday islands that were fire-bombed from a helicopter last month.

Soon after the helicopter's visit the smoke tendrils appeared from the mountain tops.

The next morning - looks like fog, smells like smoke.

The weather has been, and still is, glorious and I was tempted to take a photo of the Seabreeze 7-day forecast which shows the current pattern continuing for at least another week, something we have never seen in the three years we've had Sea Piper.
Fingers crossed for a similar weather pattern for Cristy and Johnno's visit at the end of next week.

Before leaving the channel, another nice bream made itself available for dinner.

We've now left the channel and headed back into the Cardwell mooring for Royden's upcoming flight south.