The trip to Jervis Bay is just a short hop of 25 nautical miles, and it was just like all the other coastal hops in that we had following winds from the South West and a lumpy swell from the south-east – all of which made some uncomfortable but not difficult sailing.

We were looking forward to enjoying the beaches Jervis Bay and finding a quiet anchorage after the busy noise of the Ulladulla wharf. It was a delight to turn in between the heads and pick up a mooring at the Hole in the Wall just off the beach at Boodooree National Park where we settled down to watch the sunset.

The next day was just as we had hoped – blue skies, lots of sunshine and a chance to walk on the beach. We inflated the dingy and headed for the beach to soak up the sunshine.

Unfortunately we were not able to stay at all that long as the predicted northerly wind was starting to pick up speed and the short sharp waves made our trip back to the boat a bit wet at times. We decided to head to the northern end of the bay to spend the night in the shelter of Callala Bay. When we got there we found the north-easterly was blowing fairly hard into the bay and it didnt look like the comfortable anchorage we were hoping for. We dropped anchor in the designated area off Montague point, north-eastern side of the bay and settled down to watch the comings and goings of the charter boats with tourists gathered on the decks hoping to spot a dolphin. Again it was an idyllic evening as we enjoyed a glass of wine and fish from the barbecue as the sun set.

The only concern we had was that there was another southerly change predicted to come through at 5 or 6 the following morning, so we were expecting to be up and on the move early. Just in case, we set the anchor alarm to go off if we moved north of our anchor position. In this way we had an early warning system should the change come through before it was predicted. Of course it did! And at 0217 the alarm woke us and we found the southerly had arrived and was building. By 0245 we had the anchor up and we were navigating back to the mooring at the National Park in the endless game of weather ping-pong. We arrived with enough light at 0500 to find the mooring, secure the boat and get back to bed.

When the storm came through the beautiful white beach we had walked on just some 18 hours before it was dark and blustery and hissed with the sound of rain splashing down hard. As the weather didn’t improve much over the next day or so we spent 2 days tucked up away from the rain, reading, cooking and planning our last leg before heading for Sydney.