Clyde River Batemans Bay

Just a quick update on the last few days. After my last entry the conditions got progressively worse. The storm coincided with an abnormally high tide and the resulting surge knocked us around pretty badly. Around 9pm as the tide reached its peak Michael went on deck and tossed some of our spare ropes to the marina security guard and a couple of other boat owners so they could secure some vessels that had broke their dock lines. It was way too dangerous for us to get off the boat - we were lurching and pitching so violently. Quite a rollercoaster ride! After 10pm the tide began to ebb and things settled down a bit, but we had a pretty sleepless night.

In the morning we inspected the damage. BV came through ok, although one of the stanchions on our starboard side was torn out of the deck. Other boats were not so lucky - because the tide was so high and the marina doesnt have floating pontoons one power boat with two large outboard engines on its transom was slamming up and down on the jetty doing a fair bit of damage, to itself and the dock.   The boat next to us broke one of its lines and had been scraping its transom against the dock too.

We went for a walk down the promenade where the waves had been crashing well over the walkway, tearing up paving and depositing it on the doorsteps of the riverside cafes. "It was the worse Ive ever seen it" was a phrase we heard a number of times that day.

Anyway, we were keen to move out of the marina as even in calm conditions it was very surgey and uncomfortable so two days later we are happily anchored out in the Clyde river enjoying the post-storm sunshine and calm waters and planning the next leg of our journey to Jervis Bay. We hope to leave on Sunday or Monday once the swell has settled. Bye for now!

Damage to the Batemans Bay promenade

 View from our anchorage in the Clyde River. Hard to believe we saw a big storm just two days ago!