Sunday, July 16, 2006

Beecroft Peninsular Jervis Bay

This was to be a NSWSKC two day trip to circumnavigate Beecroft Peninsular, at Jervis Bay. The group was large with at least ten novices, four advanced sea skilled paddlers and two instructors but even with this generous ratio of experienced to novices it was decided in pouring rain on Saturday morning not to do the circumnavigation as the sea state and wind were up - wind was NW up to 30 Knots and the swell was more than three meters. Although we were not going to go all the way round it was decided that we should go to sea for a feel of the conditions, so we launched our boats and headed out.

It wasn't long before we had our first swimmer
Lucky for Katherine Mark Anderson was straight on to the rescue
and reassured the victim
Of course if it was any of the lads who had gone in Mark would have enjoyed a sandwich instead.

The next day conditions had improved. The wind had died down to between 10 & 15 Knots but the swell was still running at up to 3 metres. The circumnavigation was on!

Currarong Beach
We split into two groups and set off for Honeymoon Bay which would be about 10KM and a portage shy of a complete circumnavigation. The conditions were bouncy and a few in the first group swam, some more than once. Everyone in the 2nd group was fine.

Bouncy conditions near Gumgetters
The 2nd group caught up to the 1st group and we all paddled into Boat Harbour for lunch.
After that we went around the corner where some of us explored a through tunnel that goes for about 30 metres. Soon after we landed at the beautiful Honeymoon Bay where we ended our trip.

Here are some more pics of Beecroft Peninsular taken on subsequent trips.

Magnificent Arches that can be paddled through
Gumgetters on a calm day
Full Circumnavigation done on the 24th June 07