Last night after passing the bright lights of Sydney we continued sailing south and once past Woolongong the lights ashore started to thin out. It was a dark cold night, no moon. Our weather man had warned us to expect some strong wind between Kiama and Jervis bay, up to 25 knots. As predicted the winds increased as we neared the area, but they quickly passed the 25 knot mark and continued to increase up to 35 knots. You guessed it, my midnight to 3 watch again! We dropped all sail and just motored along slowly for about three hours until the wind speed was in the mid 20's and we could set the staysail. The Spirit of Tasmania passed us on its way to Sydney, so I took the opportunity of asking them about the winds to the south, they confirmed winds in the high 20's. I also wondered about telling them they were a bit off course, Tasmania was behind them!

So after experiencing higher than predicted wind speeds, I started to doubt the weather forecast and also the wisdom of continuing past Jervis bay one of the few safe havens on this coast. I decided to go into Jervis bay and pick up a mooring. It was just on dawn as we hooked onto a mooring and I sent off an email to Bruce our weather man. A few hours later he came back with this explanation for the strong winds....It looks like you have hit the touch down zone of a rotor - caused by the topography of that region. Well that explains it all! He said it is still good to continue on, so here we are, passing Batemans Bay and well on the way to Eden ETA Monday morning.