Bye Bye Jervis Bay…

Well, after 31 days floating around Jervis Bay, we definitely have a love / hate relationship with the place. As mentioned previously, when the sun is shining and the water is calm and flat, then it really is an idyllic place to be on a yacht. But when it is raining, windy and/or the swell picks up, being on a boat is not a particularly nice experience. So it was without reservation and a slight sense of relief that we motored out of the bay and headed north for Wollongong.

We decided to move on after talking to several other yachties and reading Government guidance for live-aboards. The advice was all that it is safe and legal to move about within New South Wales. The restrictions here in NSW are not as strict as they appear to be in Victoria and Queensland, and people are still taking boats out fishing, going surfing, swimming and stand-up paddle boarding. All whilst keeping appropriate social distancing of course!

Jervis Bay is not even halfway up the NSW coast, so there is still plenty of sailing to be done and towns to visit before we reach the Queensland border. We decided it was ok to resume our trip and keep on heading north; to warmer weather, to new places to explore and hopefully to more sheltered anchorages. When we get to Queensland we will just have to see what the state of affairs are at that time. Currently the border is closed, and we believe we would be required to quarantine for two weeks on our boat if we were allowed to cross. However, there is still a long ways to go and the situation is changing all the time, so we will just keep on moving north slowly and see what happens.

I thought I’d just do a little summary of our time in the Bay and then add a few favourite or random photos. Cool Change was moored at a public (or very occasionally, a private) mooring almost every night, except for 3 nights when we dropped the anchor. We spent 13 nights at Hole in the Wall, 5 nights at Huskisson, 2 nights at Callala Bay, 11 nights at Vincentia (3 of these on anchor) and 1 night at Cave Beach campsite. Thankfully, all the moorings were free, so the most expensive accommodation cost was the $28 campsite.

We ran the generator once to charge the batteries, and ran the watermaker twice to fill our tanks with drinking water. I did laundry twice at the laundromat in Vincentia and I had two proper hot showers off the boat (unlimited water, so total luxury!). We hiked or biked on seven days and I took the stand-up paddle board out three times. We emptied the holding tank on three occasions, and my diary notes that ten days were ‘slow, quiet, stayed on boat.’ Although we did get take-away occasionally, we mostly cooked on the boat, so the closure of pubs, restaurants and cafes has probably saved us a fair bit of money.

Our downtime on the boat has been spent reading, studying, working on photos and blogs, listening to 3AW, and to Spotify. Matt has developed his own playlist and it really has become the soundtrack to our trip. If you’re after an awesome playlist, look up ‘Matt’s on vacation far away’ on Spotify. Check it out and let us know what you think.

And probably my two favourite things were regularly seeing the large pod of resident dolphins and the beautiful sunsets. Approximately every second or third day we would see the dolphins. They often swam right past the boat, and although Matt jumped in to swim with them on many occasions, he never really got more than a quick glimpse. These dolphins didn’t want to play with us, I think they were probably hunting for food.

People who know me well, will know that I love a good sunset, and here in Jervis Bay we sure were treated to a heap of gorgeous sunsets. The sky turned it on for us regularly in all the different locations. I can’t think of anything much better than sipping a G&T on a yacht while watching the incredible colours of a sunset develop and change (if the water is flat, that is!). Mother Nature is an amazing thing!

One afternoon in Vincentia, we watched a storm front cross the bay, and then the most incredible rainbow emerged:

When we first arrived in Huskisson, Matt made friends with the pretty tame kookaburras:

On a walk to Hare Bay, we discovered these cute little sand crabs all over the beach:

This was Matt’s favourite position on the boat; in his beloved hammock, with a bevvie, listening to the radio:

(Sadly the hammock is no more.)

Fresh trevally for dinner at Hole in the Wall:

Spectacular Sunsets:

And so we say farewell to Jervis Bay. Onwards and upwards! Next stop…… Wollongong!