Magnetic Island Sunset Times by Month

At Nelly Bay on Magnetic Island the sun sets between about 5:40 pm and 7:00 pm, Queensland time: earliest at 5:41 pm in early June and latest at 6:56 pm in mid-January. Queensland keeps Australian Eastern Standard Time all year, with no daylight saving, so the times move only with the seasons. Pilgrim Sailing starts the Sip and Sail between 4:30 and 5:45 pm so the 90-minute sail spans the sunset.

Check Sip and Sail start times

Sunset by month

Month	Sunset on the 1st	Sunset on the 15th	Last light on the 15th
January	6:53 pm	6:56 pm	7:20 pm
February	6:54 pm	6:49 pm	7:11 pm
March	6:40 pm	6:29 pm	6:51 pm
April	6:14 pm	6:03 pm	6:25 pm
May	5:52 pm	5:45 pm	6:08 pm
June	5:42 pm	5:42 pm	6:06 pm
July	5:46 pm	5:51 pm	6:14 pm
August	5:57 pm	6:01 pm	6:23 pm
September	6:05 pm	6:07 pm	6:29 pm
October	6:10 pm	6:13 pm	6:36 pm
November	6:20 pm	6:28 pm	6:51 pm
December	6:38 pm	6:46 pm	7:10 pm

Computed for Nelly Bay (19.17 S, 146.85 E) with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s solar-position equations, for 2027; other years differ by a minute or so. “Last light” is the end of civil twilight, when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. The figures agree within a minute with published sunset tables for Townsville, 10 km south.

How the start time follows the sunset

The exact start for each day is on the booking calendar; it falls between 4:30 and 5:45 pm by season; Viator’s listing offers starts of 4:30, 4:45, 5:00, 5:15 and 5:30 pm (checked October 2026). With a 90-minute sail, a 4:30 start in June is back around 6:00 pm, just after the 5:42 pm sunset, and a 5:30 start in January sails until about 7:00 pm, as the sun goes down at 6:56. Either way the sunset falls in the last part of the sail, and the run back into Nelly Bay is in the afterglow.

Where the sun goes down

Where the sun goes down moves with the season. Seen from Cleveland Bay off Nelly Bay, the June sunset sits at a bearing of about 295 degrees, behind the island’s own hills to the west-north-west; the December sunset swings round to about 245 degrees, over the mainland shore north-west of central Townsville. Pilgrim’s skippers line the boat up for the view as the wind allows.

From the island itself, West Point on the west coast looks over open water to the sunset; MI Ride’s West Point Sunset Safari drives there by bus with a drink and a platter, from US$88 (checked October 2026). The sunset cruises compared guide maps the options.

Full-moon sails

Once a month the Sip and Sail coincides with the full moon and runs up to 30 minutes longer, so you sail back after dark with the moon rising over the water. A full-moon sail carries Pilgrim’s AUD 6 supplement.

	Full-moon Sip and Sail
2026	Tuesday 24 November, Thursday 24 December
2027	Friday 22 January, Sunday 21 February, Monday 22 March, Wednesday 21 April, Thursday 20 May, Saturday 19 June, Sunday 18 July, Tuesday 17 August, Thursday 16 September, Friday 15 October, Sunday 14 November, Tuesday 14 December

Pilgrim Sailing’s published full-moon dates, checked October 2026. Pilgrim’s list prints 20 February and 13 December; the moon is full on the 21st and 14th, so take the date from its booking calendar.

Check a full-moon date

Sunset today

For a given evening, the table above is within a few minutes: take the row for the month and the nearer of the 1st or the 15th. In June the sunset barely moves for three weeks, and from late December to late January it sits within a few minutes of 6:55 pm.