18/12/2019 – In Praise of the Little Fish

We often forget the little fish. The gorgeous schools of Mados, Pomfred and Hulafish we swim through every day in our beautiful Marine Reserve, Cabbage Tree Bay. How lucky are we to swim in this most magical place. Sometimes I’m so keen to spot a Turtle, Grey Nurse or Giant Cuttlefish I forget to appreciate the smaller stuff…

Often forget to admire the female,green or olive coloured Groper as we usually always ‘harp on about’ the big, blue male Gropers!

It’s also special seeing the schools of Yellowtail or even diving down and swimming through them!

The Old Wives are always a joy to see!

Back to the swim. Rocking up after a beautiful run, I see Eve positively glowing. It’s great to see how the ocean can have this effect on people and I love seeing the smiles and lit up faces. No wonder we call it our daily dose of Vitamin Sea!

Also lovely to see Anita also refreshed and shining (in the middle), who had her first swim with us today. I met her at the Warringah Tri Club mini triathlon on Sunday. The next one is on 15th Jan for anyone interested. Anyone can enter and they’re at North Head. Our very own Deanna organises them and would love to see more B&Bers!

Quite a big crowd this morning but in a few days there will be twice as many milling around at 6.56am. There were probably around 280 today altogether. Water temp seemed a bit warmer than the 19.8 shown on the board and conditions were great.

One of the newbies today was Harry’s grandson pictured here. Look at the pride on Grandpa’s face. We love it when our families join us!

Swimmers are grinners as we wade out in calm water at a very low tide

This Flathead always seems to be in the same spot really close to shelly.

Great buddies Georgina and Belinda in their licorice allsorts cozzies!

No birthdays today at Shelly, or none that we were told of. I take the scenic route back…

Always great to see an Eagle Ray

This is the Crayweed that is flourishing near the shed at Fairy Bower. Craybabies are reproducing which is brilliant!

The school of Tailor were shimmering again around the same spot.

I’m sure we’d all agree it’s amazing to swim over the sea grass coming in to shore at Manly at the end of our swim when the water is clear as it was today…

I was called over by Ian to take a photo of Lou who on her second swim with us did appear to have been bitten or stung by something, but wasn’t in pain. As usual all sorts of theories abounded. Ian seemed to think it was a seal even though nobody else reported seeing a seal. Please comment at end of blog if you did or have an idea of what it could be. Others blamed the poor Grey Nurse that seems to get the blame for everything! Nick said he didn’t think it was a bite… I’m wondering if it could have been a high swimming ray but not that sure… Anyway with 20,000 swimmers in 11 years and only a couple of incidents, please don’t be alarmed new swimmers! It is still the safest activity around!

And what beautiful sights you can behold post-swim like Big Jon Mackenzie, (named by Storchy not me) getting dressed in to matching boxers and shirt!

3 generations of Kit’s family with Mum Lindy in the air!

Here is Greg promoting Making Meditation Mainstream. “FREE BEACH MEDITATION SESSIONS supporting the mental health of our community. Bringing people together on our incredible beaches to breathe, reflect, centre, let go and connect. Everybody welcome regardless of age, gender or experience.”

Currently run at 6 beaches including North Steyne, Avalon and North Narrabeen on the Northern Beaches. Every Saturday morning between 6.30am and 7am. 

The first one on the beach at South Steyne is this Saturday, join in and spread the word!

Exciting News from Dorset Sutton

I’ve just been advised by SIMS Project Cray team that they are extremely happy with the Crayweed planting opposite the Bower Cafe …there are now over 100 Craybabies growing within about 10m of the mat! And we only started planting in March …

This answers the question B&B swimmers ask me every day…how are they going !!!

So ..here’s the answer !! This is the start of Crayweed regeneration ..and to the bringing back of crays to CTB! And so many swimmers helped in the planting to be part of the process to help make this happen !!

Pauline’s Annual Gogglebox Sale

Yes, it’s that time of year again. Every year about this time, Pauline gets sick of all the lost property junking up her car, so she sorts it all out and sells it at bargain prices, just to get rid of it. This year the sale will be next Saturday 21st  December, so get there early to get the best gear. CASH ONLY. Goggles, swimsuits and other swimming paraphernalia will be on sale from 6.15 am, so if you have lost any gear through the year, come early and buy it back before someone else does. All proceeds from the sale will go to the Royal Far West.

Greg and others will be running MMM at South Steyne starting from this Saturday at 6.30, finishing just in time to join the group for a swim 🙂

Have a great day folks. Enjoy Christmas celebrations and keep swimming!

Lainey