04/10/2020 Times they are a-changin’

BOLD & BEAUTIFUL IS NOT CURRENTLY RUNNING DUE TO THE RISKS OF CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19). IT IS IMPORTANT TO CONTINUE PHYSICAL DISTANCING AND FOLLOW PUBLIC HEALTH ADVICE. 

Thank you for swimming at different times of the day and
please continue to maintain that 1.5m distance – even in blog photos!

Today was the the start of daylight saving in the era of Covid –  many people have already lost all sense of time.

There’s no  Grand Final as a reminder to put your clocks forward an hour.

Likewise no jazz tunes lingering in the spring air.

While Saturday was a mirror flat surface with a colourful array of Grey nurses, turtles, Sunday was a pumping Northeaster, several rescues and swimmers heading out from Manly and Shelly.

Above: Seven am give or take an hour!

Above: Congratulations to Capless Dave for reaching the magic 1000 km mark today – there was early cake, drinks and a carefully spaced arch to mark this commendable milestone.

Above: Matt lives by the motto that “those who live by the clock, die by the clock”. So he didn’t notice that the clocks went forward an hour because he fits in the required work and sports into his day without clock watching.

Above: Kara is a fan of daylight saving because it makes for a longer day and especially a longer evening.

Above:  Early tracks ‘n empty benches and the promise of chocolate.

Above: Scott (right) says that daylight saving means that the sun is at a different angle so there are less head on collisions on his daily swim. Matt gives daylight saving the thumbs up.

Above: Sarah is still buzzing about her exclusive one to one with the Grey Nurse yesterday – the rest of us had to settle for groups of about five viewers. Sarah says you need a day or two to get used to daylight saving but the light in the evening is well worth the body clock adjustment.

Above: Peta thinks daylight saving is a great thing to boost Manly’s economy in this Covid downturn plus she gets to play more golf.

Above: Paul remembers the time when daylight saving kicked during university exams which caused confusion and disruption when he was cramming for finals.

Above: Sean, being a man of the outdoors relies on his bush knowledge and says it’s all about the sun not the numbers on a clock.

Above: Millie says you should keep at least one clock at non-daylight saving time in your house but remember which one it is. However, she is off to Queensland for a few weeks just to add confusion to the issue.

Above: Lifeguard Dave “Bordo” on duty at the point while his colleague performed a few rescues on the jetski. He is not a big fan of daylight saving – “Why take a pristine hour away from the morning,” he asks.

Above: Brendon can be forgiven for being a bit of a zombie and oversleeping on clock change day. He swam Manly to Freshie three times on Saturday. He still prefers Queensland time.

Above: An unidentified swimmer does his best Merv Hughes warm-up before taking on that north easter swell.

Photo above by Lainey de Jager

Research from the Institute of Marine Biology at Latot Tihsllub University shows that daylight saving causes the Blue Groper (our NSW State fish) to fade to a much paler blue. This is because clocks go forward so there are more swimmers in the water earlier and the groper tends to swim more in the sunlight instead of lurking in the shadows beneath the reef. Queensland has their faded curtains theory, but is there any truth in the faded groper theory? But don’t believe everything you read – and sometimes you need to read things backwards!

As Greg Parker observed – tomorrow is 05/10/20 – a very appropriate day for those considering a double. To be sure, to be sure.

Stay safe and remember it ain’t over till it’s over.

Oosty