Currarong, Jervis Bay in NSW

Dave and I had travelled up to Sydney Harbour for New Years Eve of 2006 and on our way up we stopped at this gorgeous town called Currarong. The first time we stayed there the waters were as flat as flat and access to land was good. So, after our second departure from Ulludulla and at the start of our new adventure we opted to stop again at this quite, flat sea anchorage. Everything was going well, we transported ourselves to land via the dinghy and parked it on the beach, walked a small way to local shops, collected our mail from the post office and grabbed some lunch. We returned to our dinghy and the light lapping waters on the beach had changed to 1m breakers. It’s a very interesting challenge trying to launch a dinghy in waters when the waves are breaking around you. To add to our situation, we were still getting to know the outboard motor on the dinghy. The result being the two of us sitting in the boat, three burley guys around us holding the dinghy, Dave revving the motor only to remain stationary. Ah, it needs to be in gear and with that we ploughed into the next incoming wave, I was drenched and the dinghy was half full of water.

Thankfully, we made it back to the boat without taking in too much more water. Once on oboard, we realised we had little option but to sit through the bouncy weather until the wind changed again because even if we were able to up anchor in the rough conditions where were we going to go in such conditions. So, after three days of the wind blowing and blowing, rocking us from side to side all the time we finally got our wind change. We later found that we had chosen to anchor in a spot that whilst southerly winds were blowing it was a haven but there was absolutely no protection from northerly winds – oh, the value of experience.