Sailing around Australia; Women who sail Australia network

Jervis bay, NSW.

Has anybody had mould in their boats, if so how do they fix it?

I see you are in Jervis bay at the hole in the wall, are their any moorings free?

These questions and many more are asked and answered on the women who sail network via their Facebook site.

Last Friday, we left Lakes Entrance and endured what we hope will be one of the last overnight passages during our sailing adventures. While anchored at Broulee Island sitting out a southerly blow, Leanne was making contact with people in Batemans bay to find out about moorings.

We booked a mooring in the Batemans bay channel but not long after ataching Easy Tiger, Leanne became sea sick from the buffeting created by the very strong tidal movement. When we couldn't bare it any longer we bravely rode the wild bucking dingy to dry, still land.

Eva, from Zofia had mentioned that Debbie Cockle might be a useful contact. So Leanne rang her and was very glad she did. Debbie turned out to be a wealth of information, not only on Batemans bay, but over coffee in the mall, introduced Leanne to the women who sail Australia network.

Without further ado Debbie got Leanne connected on to this network. While they waited for the joining request to be approved, Debbie also offered to take us shopping to her favourite store, Aldi, which was another new experience for us country bumpkins from WA. Leanne was surprised at how much cheaper everything seemed. She bought 6 bottles of cab Merlot for 4.49 per bottle and found
them very nice. After our first Aldi experience it was off to Debbie and Greg's for dinner.

While at dinner we found out that there are a few moorings at Square Head, that had been put down by the Batemans Bay yacht club. These were for yachts that went out for racing or whatever in the bay and then could not get over the bar due to the tidal conditions.

Next morning we were up early, as we hadn't slept while on the mooring in the rough channel. We motored out over the bar at half an hour after high tide without any issues and attached to a mooring at Square Head. It was beautifully calm in the light southerly (that was forecast to be a medium northerly). The rest of the morning was spent trying to catch up on lost sleep.

In the afternoon, Leanne was able to spend some time researching the women who sail Australia group. Sailing around Australia can feel a little lonely at times. You are constantly dealing with unknowns, such as where the better anchorages are, where facilities like shopping is easiest.

"It's very exciting to be connected to a network where any questions will be answered by people that have been there or done that, and I can look forward to meeting many of the members as we go along our sailing around Australia adventures" she said.

Leanne had no sooner uploaded her first post to the women in sailing Facebook page when a response came from someone else from Perth on a catamaran, currently in our next proposed port of call. These people had knowledge of moorings, access and even a hire car that we could share.

We found that an immediate benefit.

Debbie and Greg also had lots of information about the shag island yacht club. Stephen and Sharon Bone on Shiraz had told us they were members of this group. It also sounds like a worthwhile group to belong to.

It seems to me that sailing long distances is a fairly solitary pastime, but by participating in groups or communities you can make up for the lonely times when you arrive.