We arrived at our Jervis Bay anchorage just as the sun was setting. We looked for the free moorings as listed in Adam Lucas’ guide to NSW but they turned out to be too shallow for us. We anchored further out from them and had a good holding.
We both enjoy fishing, I have to admit that Ken is more skilled than I am (he has had more practice). We were really spoilt for choice when sailing up from Bermagui to Jervis Bay. So much so we actually threw back ones that were the same as we had already eaten and caught a different species instead. Things have changed greatly as we get more north along the Australian coast.
On our trip up from Bermagui we had a little rain, however this did not prevent us enjoying the spectacle of birds feeding. These were adult gannets showing their young how to fish.
We often see dolphin; they love to ride our bow wave. However this time they were only interested in feeding. There were also thousands of them in every direction, we travelled for hours between them as the fed and never showed the slightest bit of interest in ‘playing’ with us.
On the other side of the wooded area is a firing range for the military – we didn’t venture there…
Whenever we stop for a bit of R ‘n R, we catch up on any maintenance jobs as well as replenishing supplies.
Top of the list is often fuel. Some places it is luxurious to be able to just sail up to a fuel pump and refuel, however in Jervis Bay we used Google Maps to locate a service station for us (Vincentia), anchored as close in as we could and used the dinghy to get ashore.
We filled up our fuel containers and then used an abandoned and battered shopping trolly to get them from the fuel station onto the beach and into the dinghy.
We walked the trolly back to the nearest shopping centre only to notice that this trolly was from their opposition…
We put the clothes out to dry on the hot stones – went for a swim and came back and folded them. Beautiful, sweet smelling, sun kissed washing.
As we approached Jervis Bay the VMR (Voluntary Marine Rescue) were issuing warnings about war games and live ammunition being set off in the area. Fortunately they missed us, or we missed them!
The next day we were entertained by ‘war games’ as helicopters flew overhead, boarding craft came out from the huge craft in the middle of the bay, deploying vehicles ashore and then returning afterwards to the ‘mother ship’.
We had a lovely time snorkelling along this shore. The water temperature was wonderful compared to Tasmania. We were surprised by how few yachts were sailing in the bay. One of the locals told us that it was still ‘too cold for the locals’!
