Hi Guys, lovely to be back swimming with you after a 7 week holiday in Europe! I had so many hugs and welcomes last week it reminded me again what an amazing B&B community we have here. Thank you! Just a quickie blog today though as I have teaching. I did manage to get some good underwater shots yesterday though so loaded last night. The Grey Nurse is still swimming around, maybe even two! There have also been Turtle sightings and it could be an endangered Hawksbill Turtle! Starting off with a pic of yesterday’s Grey Nurse.
Here he is swimming so gracefully not far from Shelly!
Back to today’s swim… the brave early swimmers, Jo, Midge and Nan.
It was quiet at 6.45am and then all this lot appeared!
Ann and Craig venture in the 16.9 water…
Here we have John, Cath and Ian and sorry forgot the names!
Wendy and Leisa, great mates, met at the swim about 7 years ago…
Well done JK, Gemma, Michael and Jo particularly as no wetsuits!
Kathryn tells me I might still be able to get my winter badge. I’ve got one the last 7 years but thought I wouldn’t make the 7 weeks this year. Maybe I will!
You need a bit of blog tarting from ‘Lips’ on a blog!
Andre wanted me to photograph his new budgies!
Here are the first swimmers to get to Shelly.
Photos from yesterday’s swim!After the Grey Nurse a bright blue Groper appeared. The Gropers around the Bower surf break sniff around you if you dive down as some divers feed them sea urchins.
I thought the Giant Cuttlefish had all died or disappeared but was happy to see this healthy looking one!
Another favourite of mine, a Porcupinefish aka Pufferfish!
…and lots of Diamondfish swimming close to the surface.
Also quite a few Port Jackson sharks around now.
The two photos above I took 4 years ago when we had a Hawksbill Turtle around for a couple of months. Has anyone seen a Turtle recently looking like this? Please let us know in comments, Sheena and Cheryl saw one on Monday that sounded like a Hawksbill!
Unfortunately I was too late to get tickets to the Bluewater dinner last night as it sold out quickly. From what I heard it was a great night and Duncan Young delivered an interesting talk on ‘living and working in the age of longevity’. Apart from community, exercise and good food he talked a lot about fasting as one of the keys to a long life, even if just for 14 hours.
Winter swimming
The B&B Winter swimming season started on 1st June. Although the water temperature may be a little colder than you might like, there are several advantages of swimming in winter, including flat seas, good visibility and no bluebottles. Perhaps the biggest advantage is that you can also qualify for a winter badge by swimming a minimum of 20 times between 1st June and 31st August. You must also swim in at least 7 different weeks. If you manage to do all of your qualifying swims without a wetsuit (or other thermal enhancing equipment), you will also qualify for the coveted WWW badge (Winter without wetsuit). Start now, and don’t forget to log your swims to qualify.
Signing off
Lainey
16 comments
Sarge
14/08/2019 at 10:10 am
Hey Lainey, Great comments re our B&B community. You’ve inspired me to shout out to all the B&B’ers that we are looking for someone to join our community in the CBD on a full time basis. If you know of a bright spark looking for full time work in a small team on a front desk get in touch with me. We like having good people on our team. Cheers.
Sarge
Sue Marinan
14/08/2019 at 10:25 am
Welcome back Lainey. Well done again with your underwater marine life. It’s great to see you back in the bay catching up with man and your underwater friends. Great that you could get the blog out and then go off to work. Well done again. Cheers. Xx
Lips
14/08/2019 at 11:14 am
Welcome back Lainey!!
Duncan
14/08/2019 at 11:16 am
Thanks for the wrap. I really enjoyed my first Bold and Beautiful dinner both as a guest and as a speaker. We all agree that good health and wellbeing allows us to better navigate the highs and lows of everyday life and acknowledge that its harder than it looks. If you are interested further information on wellbeing and performance please connect at http://www.duncanyoung.com.
Juliette
14/08/2019 at 2:13 pm
thank you Lainey, lovely blog from you – as usual! It’s me and Andrew in the photo with John, Cath and Ian, but Andrew is naughty and doesn’t log his swims, so how can anyone remember his name? 🙂 Personally i am hopeless at recognising just about anyone once they’ve put a swimming cap on…
Bernhard
14/08/2019 at 3:02 pm
nice blog Lainey. Andre, how did you get the green Striders budgies? I want them too, then we can swim as a happy German couple
Shelley K
14/08/2019 at 3:19 pm
Yay Lainey’s blogs are back
Lainey
14/08/2019 at 8:12 pm
Thanks Sarge. I know of someone so will try and introduce you tomorrow!
Lainey
14/08/2019 at 8:13 pm
Thanks Sue and you constantly amaze me with your long swims often before a day teaching.
Lainey
14/08/2019 at 8:15 pm
Thanks Jimble-face
Lainey
14/08/2019 at 8:16 pm
Sorry I didn’t get to hear your talk myself. It got booked up so quickly!
Lainey
14/08/2019 at 8:18 pm
Will try and remember for next time Juliette!
Lucy C
14/08/2019 at 9:46 pm
Welcome back to the land of blogs Lainey! For a quickie biog it was awesome! Those underwater photos are fab. I still haven’t seen the grey nurse.
Gemma
14/08/2019 at 10:16 pm
Awesome shots, Lainey! Welcome back!
Janet Franks
15/08/2019 at 4:35 am
Great blog Lainey, so glad you got to capture the grey nurse which I have encountered twice, now I can eventually show them instead of trying to describe it. I keep all your awesome fish pics to show my non-swim folks. Thanks for all your effort 👏
Lainey
15/08/2019 at 5:48 pm
Thanks Janet! There’s a short video on my Facebook page too.