Jervis Bay

Well, we are still here in Jervis Bay …….. and with no plans of moving on at this stage unfortunately. How quickly things are changing at the moment; every day it seems there is a new update, and a new set of guidelines and restrictions. The recent call to stop all non-essential domestic travel, and then the closing of some borders (particularly Queensland) has led us to believe that we are best to stay put for the present time. And let’s face it, Jervis Bay is not the worst place in the world to be temporarily waylaid.

So let me introduce you to Jervis Bay, for those who haven’t been to this beautiful little part of the country. Situated on the south coast of NSW, Jervis Bay is a small bay which has been designated a Marine Park in its entirety. It is also home to HMAS Creswell Naval Base, so there are navy vessels, helicopters and a submarine floating around. The tourist brochures describe Jervis Bay as being world famous for its white-sand beaches, calm turquoise waters and pristine national parks. And on a good day they are right!!

Here are some photos to prove that:

Beautiful beaches and crystal clear water is all very well, I hear you say, but what about food and supplies? How are you going to do your shopping? Luckily, Jervis Bay is surrounded by several different small towns; Jervis Bay Village, Vincentia, Huskisson, Callala Bay and Currarong. Most of the towns have a small supermarket, petrol station, bottle shop and cafes, and there are larger Coles and Woolworths supermarkets in Vincentia. Huskisson is by far the largest town with many cafes, restaurants, a pub, and even a tiny movie theatre. So we have lots of different options for shopping.

We also have lots of different options for mooring or anchoring Cool Change, depending on the weather and wind direction, and which town we intend to visit. Public moorings are available at Callala Bay, Huskisson, Vincentia and Hole in the Wall (beach at the southern end near Scottish Rocks). We are able to anchor at Long Beach and Bindijine Beach. Fortunately, all these options are free, it is just a ‘first in, best dressed’ scenario for the public moorings. We have at times jumped onto a private mooring for a brief period when needed, always leaving one of us on board in case we need to move in a hurry!

As you can see on the map, there are lots of National Parks surrounding the bay, with ample opportunities for us to go hiking, biking, running and even camping. We can swim, snorkel, fish, go stand-up paddle boarding or surfing. We can even attempt to swim with the resident pod of dolphins in the bay. Minimal success so far on that one!

So we feel that if we can’t continue our circumnavigation at this stage, then Jervis Bay is not such a bad place to hang out. Better than the busier cities of Wollongong or Sydney anyway. This is social distancing at its best. We plan to just float around the bay, until we are told we can move on. Whenever that may be…….

However idyllic this all sounds though, our Jervis Bay experiences haven’t all been smooth sailing…..pun intended. When we first arrived in Jervis Bay we made our way to Huskisson and onto one of the public moorings. This was where we were going to catch the bus to Nowra, to the sail repair shop, Revolution Sails. Yep, remember that we ripped our sail, so much has happened since then, it seems so long ago! Anyway, we lugged our sail onto the bus and then up the highway from the bus stop to the shop. Well, I say we, but I must admit Matt did most of the lugging! It was a very hot day and the sail was very heavy, so he got quite a workout. To our relief, Adrian from Revolution Sails kindly offered to drop the sail and new battens back to Huskisson when the repairs were completed. As this was Friday, we had several days to kill in Huskisson until the sail would be ready on Monday or Tuesday.

After missing the early bus from Nowra, and having to kill several hours in a drab, boring industrial area, we were both hot and tired when we finally made it back to Huskisson and out to our yacht. The weather had changed, a storm was brewing and it was a choppy ride in the tender out to Cool Change, who was rolling ominously in the swell. The rolling didn’t ease up, and not feeling all that well, I went straight to bed without dinner.

Well, the rolling still didn’t ease up overnight, not one bit. The boat was rocking and rolling, pitching and heaving, bouncing and banging, all night long. Neither of us got much sleep. In the morning it took several attempts and a seasickness pill for me to be able to stand up. No morning coffee on the boat for us. We prepared ourselves to leave the boat for the day and to wait it out on shore. It was forecast to rain for much of the day, so we decided we’d check out the maritime museum and go to the movies.

Coincidentally, my friends Liz and Bern were competing in a 24 hour multi-sport event in Jervis Bay that weekend. Yep, you heard right, 24 hours, these guys are hardcore. And because of the weather and the state of the bay, their first kayak leg was cancelled. It was lovely to bump into them and be able to wish them luck, if only briefly. I wished them well, not even feeling slightly envious of the challenge ahead of them; I must be getting lazy!

We survived that day, and the next one, filling it in with a long walk along the beaches to Plantation Point and back, and by cooking both brunch and dinner on the BBQs in the nearby park. But after three nights of the non-stop rocking and rolling, pitching and heaving, bouncing and banging, both of us were out of sorts, and we called it a day. We motored out to Vincentia, only to find the swell just as bad, so then continued into the moorings at Hole in the Wall where we found some lovely calm water. Bliss. A good night’s sleep was finally had.

Then the sun came out. And Jervis Bay finally showed us what those brochures were talking about! We ran the watermaker to fill our empty water tanks, re-installed the repaired sail, researched hikes and made plans for the following days. Since then we’ve done a twilight/night hike, overnight hike and bike camping trip, explored many different beaches, been out on the stand-up paddle board, found somewhere to have a free hot shower, and attempted to swim with dolphins. While this all sounds very active, we’ve also had a lot of downtime on the boat; practising yoga (me), reading the news (Matt), listening to the radio, baking and cooking, and working on blogs and photos. There’s been a couple of days when we haven’t even left the boat.

It seems that this may be our home for the foreseeable future… we are now Jervis Bay locals. We are hoping we can continue to have this same amount of freedom to roam about the bay, but who knows what will happen? While the weather is fair and the water is calm and flat, I am quite happy. How we will cope if it is raining and the water is rough and the boat is rocking and rolling, and we have nowhere to escape to, I don’t know. There are no cafes, museums, pubs or movie theatres open for us to get out of the weather and wait it out. It will be interesting.

And while we may wish that we were up in the Whitsundays when all this happened, and were stranded up there instead, we do acknowledge that we are pretty lucky and in quite a fortunate position. Our thoughts are with those who have lost their jobs or had to close their businesses. We hope everyone is coping ok and looking after themselves. Keep up that social distancing, but keep connecting with others. We are here for a chat anytime. Call, email, message. We’d love to hear from you.

I’m going to leave you with some photos of a couple of gorgeous sunsets that we’ve experienced here in Jervis Bay. Stay positive and seek the beautiful in the everyday.

You may not be able to control every situation and its outcome, but you can control your attitude and how you react.