Trip To Sydney 5th & 6th July

The morning was cold, clear and still as we pulled the anchor and motored out of Chain Bay. The forecast was for NW going W up to 20-25kn of wind later in the day. This would be on the nose as usual at the start, but sounded OK. For the first 4 hours the wind was very light, but as we headed north it grew in strength, so that by midday we were just south of Jervis Bay in strong winds. Both north and south of Jervis Bay the cliffs are huge, reputed to be highest in Australia. They are certainly impressive. At this stage the wind was coming directly out of the entrance to Jervis Bay and the sea was very lumpy. As we had to motor right across the bay to find any relief from the wind and the anchorages there are still exposed, we decided to go on to Crookhaven River.

Sailing along the cliffs we noticed two whale watching boats sheltering beneath, watching whales. One whale came very close to us. So much for keeping 100m off them. What if they don't keep 100m away from you - lawmakers? Yachts don't travel that fast. We had a false sense of security behind the cliffs and once we left them behind the true strength of the wind became apparent. By now it was gusting well up to 35kn and settled in at 30kn from the west. Of course this made a quick trip, but it was very uncomfortable in short choppy seas. Peter decided to shorten the sails and this meant getting very wet and cold. Once this was done we realised Crookhaven was not an option as the entrance would be untenable. We decided to go on to Sydney.

After we phoned Greg, who told us that the wind there was light, our decision was confirmed. As we got closer to Sydney the wind eased and we coasted through the Heads at 4am. A ship was sailing out at the same time and as we couldn't see it amongst the background lights, the AIS proved its worth. Eventually we could see it against South Head as we cruised past Middle Head into Balmoral Beach. Dropped the anchor at 4.45am and fell into bed at 5am.

 

Cook's Pigeon House (Cook must have been politically correct here. Doesn't look like a pigeon house to me!)