Arrived Jervis Bay

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Sat 1 Jun 2019 12:01

Position: 35 08.14 S  150 44.63 E
Moored Hole in the Wall, Jervis Bay
Wind: SW, F3 – gentle breeze
Sea: calm. Swell: negligible
Weather: mostly sunny, mild
Day’s run: 83 nm

The wind didn’t really kick in until around 1500 and then it filled in rapidly from the sou’ sou’ east. I had been looking forward to running pretty much square before a south westerly but the wind direction actually proved quite variable and, with a strong south setting current, a short steep sea was soon kicking up astern requiring a cautionary placement of storm-boards in the companionway. The steep seas and fresh variable breeze kept me on my toes for the remainder of the afternoon and night, with quite a number of gybes and much sail trimming and adjusting of the wind vane to keep us heading in the right direction. It proved to be a long day.  I was planning on picking up a public mooring off Hole-in-the-Wall in Jervis Bay on our arrival but as we approached the heads the wind veered into the west, meaning we had to tack our way into the bay and putting our intended anchorage on a lee shore.  Consequently, we adjusted our plans and made for the western side of the bay to anchor off Vincentia instead .  It was a pleasant sail in the cool night air and with a relatively flat sea in the shelter of the bay but I was nonetheless concerned about the possibility of a significant swell making its way through the heads and across the bay. So, as we make our approach to the anchorage, we handed sail and motored slowly in.  We could hear the surf breaking on the beach. I took Sylph’s way off to assess how bad the swell was.  Sylph  rolled a little but it didn’t seem too bad.  Just to be sure I chose to anchor well out from the beach and at 0210 I dropped anchor in seven meters of water. We then cleared up a little and turned in. It only takes a small amount of swell to get Sylph rolling when there isn’t any wind in her sails and the night at anchor was not our most comfortable but, fortunately both Kate and I were too tired to be disturbed excessively by Sylph’s motion.

In the morning I assessed the anchorage again in the light of day.  Looking at a couple of boats on moorings closer in to the beach it was obvious that it was no more comfortable there. With the wind now in the south west we weighed anchor and sailed over to Hole-in-the-Wall as we had intended to do last night.

At 1130 we secured to a nice big red public mooring buoy. A short while later some friends in their lovely big boat, Interlude, picked up another mooring nearby. Thus we have enjoyed a little socialising in their capacious cockpit this evening. And now it is time to catch up on some sleep.

All is well.