We departed the Cronulla Marina after lunch, waiving goodbye to our friends on Onora who had the inconvenience of a refrigeration issue. Being a significantly larger vessel, they’d catch us up as soon as they could further down the track. Just to reinstate equilibrium, we only motored up to the end of Gunnamatta Bay and took up our station on the courtesy mooring again. We quite like the chance to clear off from a busy jetty-visit and sit quietly somewhere overnight to 'set our heads' for the next trip.
Evening settling in at over Gunnamatta Bay
Once off again in the morning, we committed to motor-sailing which lasted for 5 hours until the wind arrived. It was a little longer than we'd expected from the predictions but by now we we'd consigned the forecasters to the 'lying-bastards.com' bin anyway. A head-start was needed to get to our destination before dark. What a contrast to our last aborted trip! By the time we were abeam of Port Kembla/Woollongong, the wind although light, was filling the sails enough to sail. Engine off. Hooray. We enjoyed the afternoon's sailing until the arrival of the second swell which occasionally had the boat almost stopping. Since neither wind nor swell was coming from the South we were at least able to take a shortcut just north of Point Perpendicular and pass through the Sir John banks which would otherwise cause breaking seas and a detour to seaward. Not withstanding, the Bloke needed to hand steer to hold a course.
Point Perpendicular, the imposing northern headland at the entrance to Jervis Bay.
Having visited Jervis Bay on our way north 3 1/2 years ago, we had a mental image of how it looked and where to find the public moorings at The Hole In The Wall anchorage. You can anchor there but it's in a National Park and anchoring inside of 10m of water depth is prohibited in order to preserve the sea grass. Since the weather was once again predicted to get wild, being well tucked in was preferable. Fortunately, the National Park courtesy moorings had recently been serviced. Even though it's an anchorage for Southerly or Easterly winds, predicted northerlies would last only 1/2 a day and to get the appropriate shelter would require sailing 6nm across to the other side of the bay. We couldn't be bothered with the to-ing and fro-ing. We decided we could hang on the mooring even if it would be a lee shore and a little uncomfortable.
Sea grass below the boat looking like a shag pile carpet
As so often happens, the wind died off completely overnight, allowing 20/20 vision through the water. By morning Hurtle Turtle (another cruising catamaran we know) had arrived after an overnighter from Sydney and ahead of the change. Their destination was also Hobart and meant we'd have company later during our southward passage as well as when the barometer dipped announcing the arrival of yet more strong wind, albeit for just half a day.
Hurtle Turtle riding it out along side.
At 995hPa, strong wind is never far away.
An artist's impression of the Hole In The Wall anchorage in the early 1800's.
The headland in now somewhat collapsed leaving a 'U' shape gap. The Bay is also considerably wider
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