What a beautiful sunny morning, its hard to believe that bad weather is on its way. We were here at Jervis Bay on Day 2 of our adventure and that seems such a long time ago.
Happy to have a mooring for the upcoming weather we lazily got out of bed after a huge sleep-in, ate breakfast and decided to go for a hike. The weather forecast for today is SUNSHINE and warm all day. A northerly wind will come in at mid-day and is forecast to reach 20 knots at its peak. Armed with this knowledge we pack our backpack with water, snacks and camera and we jump in the dinghy.
Once ashore we start up a trail that we assume takes us to the road. Its kind of strange doing trails backwards. I mean here we are officially at the end of the trail working our way back to civilisation. A different perspective.
Sure enough we hiked back up to a small car park for ‘Hole-in-the-Wall’. Walked east down the road until we stumble upon a trail head sign for Murrays Beach. Lets go check it out. About .5 of a km down a wooded, cool track is a beautiful beach. There are a lot of tourists here, people with cameras and people playing on the beach. Perfect day for it.
Young Endeavor has followed us to Jervis Bay.
Beyond the beach another track to Governor Head, Lets go!
[left: Bowen Island home to little penguins]
The Northerly winds started to blow just after arriving at Governor Head. The breeze feels great, walking is hot work. We walked leisurely back to the dinghy and made our way back to Nashira. During the afternoon we did odds and ends around Nashira and for a treat downloaded the movie Dr. Strange to watch before sleep. Its been a nice, warm satisfying day.
xoxo
DAY 56 – Southerly front hits
I woke up at 12:30 hearing yelling outside and seeing a sky filled with lightening! The wind is swinging around and the Southerly is upon us. I got up and saw another yacht pulling up to a mooring next to us. Geez it is ‘Blue Lady’ they must have been battling the Northerly wind up the coast getting here in the nick of time before the Southerly front hits. Evan got up and we ‘battened down the hatches’ Lol 😀 who ever thought I would get to say that and actually mean it in the correct context!
We had just read an article about people living aboard boats and how even though weather can be predicted more accurately than ever before, lightening is not so predictable. The article suggested putting phones, radios, laptops into the oven to act as a Faraday cage in case of lightening strike, it also suggested that you turn on your engine. Apparently if you are hit and the engine is running then at least you know the engine is running and not damaged even if wires are fried. lol hmmm….
Anyway we put our small electronics in the oven and started the engine and watched the lightening show. After half an hour things calmed down, we shut off the engine and went back to bed.
In the morning the weather is totally different. It is grey, windy and then the rain starts. The wind is blowing from the South strongly. Today is going to be very different from yesterday and we don’t leave Nashira at all. We set up office and work in the dining area and check weather periodically. The wind is supposed to increase steadily all day and not abate until tomorrow morning. Holy cow.
We are thinking of heading to Sydney tomorrow if the winds reduce enough. We have had a few friends ring us today, bless them, making sure we are okay and making us promise to be patient and not leave until the weather is in a better state. Cyclone Debbie, in the north, is on peoples minds as well.
DAY 57 – Do we head to Sydney today?
Overnight it was hard to get a good sleep. We were being tossed around right and left on our mooring and we are in a protected area! Imagine being out in the bay un-sheltered. It became a reassuring feeling to feel Nashira pulling on the mooring and swinging the other way. This meant we were still attached and this is definitely a positive. Sometime early in the morning we felt and heard the wind ease off, gusts still coming but much quieter in between. Sleep came.
When we finally woke up the sun is shining again! The winds are steady from the South but definitely less than yesterday. Predictwind indicates the wind at 19 to 21 knots plus gusts.
Having a little cabin fever from being stuck inside all day yesterday Evan takes to bailing out the dinghy from the rain it collected.
Afterwards we grab our backpack, jump in the dinghy and head over to our neighbors to say hello and chat about their trip. They are looking at leaving for Port Hacking early tomorrow morning while we are still leaning toward leaving later this evening.
We went ashore and spent a couple hours walking the beach and checking out a local camp ground. It is really nice to get outside again and to feel solid ground underfoot.
[Young Endeavor has tucked in near Hole-in-the-Wall as well]
[Up in the Masts repacking the sails and getting ready to leave today]
Back on-board and brunch in our bellies we hit the sack for an afternoon snooze to catch up on some sleep.
Right now its 4:30pm. Awake and somewhat refreshed we download the latest PredictWind forecasts and it looks like the wind is going to continue to decrease over the next 12 hours. If we leave Jervis Bay about 6:30pm it should be 15 to 20 knots with 2 mtr swell reducing to 5 knots by next morning. This should give us enough wind to sail for the first half of the journey before we have to resort to motoring. Once in Sydney it should be very quiet for the day before the next weather front hits. This sounds like the window we need.
Evan is industriously getting ready in the background and I am feeling a bit guilty sitting here typing. We will talk again soon, hopefully in Sydney. Oh before I go I am going to post an article that Evan wrote yesterday on why we picked the sails we did for Nashira and our adventure.
Have a wonderful day!
Lots of Love
Kelly & Evan