Heading North Part 2 – Eden to Batemans Bay

As mentioned at the end of the last travel log we spent the first four nights in Twofold Bay anchored at Eastern Bay, beside the woodchip wharf and Navy and Customs wharf.  Once the weather cleared we headed out for some exploring/exercise, which as the photos show ended up a naturalist walk also.

We walked out to Boyds Tower and enjoyed the vistas from a land perspective and watched the dolphins playing in the surf crashing around the rocks.



 

 

 

 

On the Friday morning we slowly motored around the bay dipping in as close as possible to shore to see the sights including the impressive Seahorse Inn from the water. The afternoon was spent scouting out Eden including the Laundromat, I-centre and other services available.

Saturday morning saw us up at 5am for the ANZAC Day dawn service, and then we made the most of our early start and took in the Whale Museum, as well as more washing and a top up shop before the weather closed in. We enjoyed the experience of a thunder storm, including hail, passing right over top of us.

Rylee checking out the rigging and view

Old Tom, the local Orca from Twofold Bay

 

A rain day on Sunday saw us catching up on school,  filling up the water tank with our new cover and planning the next part of our journey, which meant another 5am alarm on the Monday morning to get away early to head to Broulee Island.  This was supposed to be an easy day sail from Eden of 70nm with good SW winds. But as always seems to be our luck the wind died away by the middle of the day and we ended up with the kite up and anchoring in the dark.  One plus was a double hook up of tuna about 8am.  Oliver managed to bring his in but mine was a bit bigger and I lost it and the hook on the end of the lure.  Oliver then cleaned up the fish and it went in to the oven and we had a Hobbit like second breakfast of fresh caught tuna with lemon juice and salt and pepper.

 

The next morning after a leisurely start we set up for the kite again and had an easy sail the next 10nm to Batemans Bay.  Once there we phoned up the bridge operators and found out they have a scheduled opening of 1420, so we anchored off of Snapper Island for lunch then crossed the bar with the in-coming tide and up  under the bridge to anchor in the Clyde River. It was quite funny to think that all of the traffic on the A1 road is held up at least twice a day for the bridge to open up for water traffic.

The centre of the bridge on the rise for us to travel under with about a metre clearance!

 

We haven’t spent any time in rivers before.  Unfortunately we can’t get Division II much past the bridge due to overhead wires, but we have enjoyed the flat water, no winds, and the novelty of swinging to the tidal flow.  We are surrounded by oyster farms and moored river boats for hire.

Rylee enjoying the rope swing at twilight on the river, photo courtesy of Oliver

 

We have done a small amount of exploring as far as our feet can take us, including the local museum and library as well as discovering the local water gardens where we discovered the local flying fox population spends their days.

Bats hanging in the trees at the Batemans Bay Water Garden

 

 

We have also been catching up on a few more jobs, including having Dan cut a couple of holes in the boat to put in new hatches for the forward berths.  This has made a huge difference in lighting and will also assist in ventilation in warmer weather.  He is also working on re-stitching part of the tramps which has deteriorated due to UVs.

We have been looking at weather for a few days now to see when we can get further north, but light winds mixed with a big swell mean that we will be here for another couple of days at least before we can co-ordinate getting back under the bridge with the right tide for crossing the bar, but we will keep you posted as we carry on.