We chugged slowly out of Huskisson, expecting a gentle speed of a few knots to be the standard. But once past the buoys, the skipper revved up the three outboards, the bow rose, and we took off at a cracking pace.  Before long we slowed again, pulling in behind the dolphin viewing vessels.  We spotted about half a dozen small bottlenose dolphins, playing around the boats.  They are too quick to photograph, so we enjoyed a few minutes just watching them, then moved on.

The first part of the cruise retraced our walk on the first day, to Hyams Beach.  We got a better view of the upmarket real estate as we cruised past.  We headed to Booderee, where we’d visited on day 2; from the water we had a good view of the heritage buildings of the Naval College, including the graceful clock tower.  We followed the shoreline, where the water was a beautiful blue-green; we paused at the Hole in the Wall, then pressed on to the lovely Murray Beach, which we hadn’t seen from land.

After that we went into adventure mode; as we passed Bowen Island, the boat was put through its paces.  We ploughed through the building swell, and rounded the end of the island with its tumble of huge rocks.  From here it was another adventure ride across the gap to Beecroft Peninsula; we sat back and enjoyed the wind slapping into our faces and whipping our hair.

Slowing again, we had a great view of Point Perpendicular and its lonely lighthouse.  The boat was able to nudge in close to the cliffs, and we admired the striking rock formations, pancake pillars, and tunnel shaped openings.  Taking photos was a bit challenging as the boat lunged through the chop, but we had plenty of time to take it all in.

The last stop was pretty Honeymoon Bay, where stand-up paddle boarders were enjoying the sheltered semicircle of calm water.  From there we set course for Huskisson again, across the open water.  We got a closer look at HMAS Canberra, moored in Jervis Bay presumably for naval training exercises; she is Australia’s second largest naval ship, a helicopter landing dock, and the current Navy flagship.  We got a good look at the ski launch where helicopters take off at sea. 

.

The cruise was two hours well spent; but lunch called, so we left Huskisson to the tourists and drove north to Callala Bay, which has a pleasant, quiet picnic spot and walking trail.  Originally we thought we might get to Beecroft Peninsula, but the weather was closing in, and we figured we’d had a good look at it from the water.  So it was time to head for home.  And time to start the big packup, ready for an early start and a long drive back down the Hume in the morning.