194 Bold & Beautiful swimmers !!
The water was beautiful, with blue skies, sun and finally warm water, no wonder we broke all of our records this morning !! 🙂
What a bumper swimming day it was today… starting with a fantastic record number of swimmers swimming to Shelly and back with a mystery bottom off the point… any guesses ?? 😉
We had lots of children this morning too which is awesome, including two of Andrew Thomas’ boys; Dylan (aged 8) and Owen (aged 7) and Teagan Myerscough (aged 11) with her Dad, James who are featured in the photos below.
We also smashed the 2000 barrier, now currently sitting at 2006 B&B participants. Congratulations to Tessa Berkeley who is our 2000th swimmer !! 🙂
A significant record for our 6km and 10km summer badge swims too, with 40 swimmers setting off together, all continuing on from the Shelly swim up to Queenscliff then across to Freshie Pool. There, 9 of the swimmers headed back to Manly and successfully completed the 6km summer badge swim.
The other 31 of us continued on around Freshie headland and into South Curly Beach for our teddy bears picnic, kindly delivered by Nick Turner. Thanks Nick ! Also thank you very much to Nicolee Goins who followed us the whole way headland by headland and to Maureen Rath our resident Angel who as always was on hand to apply the much needed sunscreen today. Yes we actually had sun 🙂
A couple of people enjoyed the one way swim so got a lift home from Curly. Good move, as they didn’t have to face the surf that seemed to appear just as the rest of us set off on our return leg.
The return swim started with the Bee-line Bolters who only had two re-groups the whole way back meanwhile the rest of us social sun worshipers took all the re-groups we could get 😉
The great news is that in true style, everyone who wanted to finished the 6 and 10km swims that they set out to do. OK, well maybe that’s not quite true. A couple of people, at least Luitz and Midge completed the 10 when they had only set out to do the 6 😉 Pretty damn impressive when Luitz has only ever swum one 3km swim before ! Well done 🙂
I’m sure you’re all wondering if our Pacific Leader took on the 10km swim today… well he did… and he finished !!! Congratulations Neil, that is a massive achievement which I am sure will inspire many others.
The cutest moment of the swim would have to be Billy Derrin’s who was sooo thrilled, I think I could even be excused for saying ‘deliriously happy’ to have some pink caps smiling and waiting for him at Shelly before the last 750m finishing leg.
Well done to every swimmer who completed the 6 and 10km swims this morning. Fantastic effort !! To see who they all are please check out today’s attendance and to quote Iain, “what a good way to start Christmas – in calorie deficit” 🙂
We musn’t forget we also had Brendan, Ben, Collie, Daniel, Gaetan and Marty who set out early for a Bolderdash before hand. All of them continued on for the 10km swim, so all up they completed 13kms ! A mammoth effort guys, well done 🙂
There are some fantastic photos coming later today courtesy of Nicolee Goins
Hope to see you all for a Christmas swim to Shelly and back at 7am tomorrow 🙂 Plus, you’re all welcome to join us for the BYO BBQ brekkie at Shelly afterwards too.
Tim’s fact of the day: “Pacific Ocean is almost triangular in shape, narrow in the Arctic north and broad in the Arctic south..”
Happy birthday to Julie Speer and Neil MacLean today ! 🙂
Water Temperature 22.2
Air Temperature 19.5
Sunrise 5.42am
Sunset 8.07pm
High Tide: 8.30am
Low Tide: 3.15pm
24 comments
Little Tiger
24/12/2011 at 3:22 pm
Congratulations to all those distance swimmers. At Sth Curly you guys looked so incredibly fresh. Well done Neil, I’m inspired!!!
Super effort by the u/12 swimmers, hopefully Santa’s watching.
Merry Xmas to all.
lesley
24/12/2011 at 3:37 pm
mystery bottom? Dave Adams??
Vicki Harbutt
24/12/2011 at 4:02 pm
I just had to see who completed the first 10kms, I’m jealous !! Michael you appear to slipping on the attendance photographs, there are certainly a lot of dolphins……Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all see you in January.
Neil
24/12/2011 at 4:09 pm
Thanks to the people that got a little sun burnt waiting for me and to swim buddy Tony ,
Gaetan
24/12/2011 at 4:16 pm
Nicolee, Maureen, Nick, THANK YOU for everything, you guys are wonderful!!!!
What an amazing swim, an amazing weather, an amazing group and an amazing day!
I am tired, sun burnt, sleepy…. but so happy to have done it!
James, Cae, Brendan, Dave (and everyone else!), 5.25 Freshie tmrow? :-)))))))))))))))))))
Brendan Maher
24/12/2011 at 4:18 pm
Anyone interested in a 5.50am swim tomorrow?
…before any of the crazies says yes, just kidding!
after a bath and nanna nap I’ll be right as rain
Looking forward to a 1.5 km swim and BBQ breakfast tomorrow. Happy Christmas to all of the B&B.
PS i think the mystery bottom wearing two pairs of burger smugglers is one of the 10km swimmers who got to the points before me, which narrows it down to about 30 people !
Gaetan
24/12/2011 at 4:18 pm
good point! I also saw someone yesterday wearing pink Speedos on top of a black one, can’t remember who that was!
Brendan Maher
24/12/2011 at 4:25 pm
Berger smugglers?!?
I think I’ve just invented a new name for someone who wears two pairs of speedos
John
24/12/2011 at 4:36 pm
Congratulations to all the swimmers who completed their 6km or 10km challenge,especially first timers – we were fortunate to have good conditions for the swim, even the sun lasted. Thanks to our support crew including Nicolee and Maureen. Merry Christmas to all B&B swimmers – see you tomorrow for the Xmas swim. 194 swimmers – fantastic.
Michael [EX CI]
24/12/2011 at 5:43 pm
Happy Christmas to you also. I’ll have a job for you when you get back!!
Pacific Jules
24/12/2011 at 5:46 pm
Nicolee’s photos are now up, they’re great !!
Enjoy 🙂
http://www.pacificjules.com.au/christmas-eve-2011-10km-swim.html
Michael [EX CI]
24/12/2011 at 5:48 pm
Thanks Nick, Nicolee and Maureen for all your help today. It was really appreciated I can assure you.
The thought of food at halfway and the Banana Boat Angel to top up your sun protection is what keeps you going, particularly when you’re battling that awful last section into south Curly.
Thanks again guys. You’re fantastic.
Robin T
24/12/2011 at 7:10 pm
Yes thanks Maureen, Nicolee and Nick for the help at halfway.
Neil I was never waiting long enough to work on my tan at all. You are a rocket with those flippers on.
Thanks to Michael for swimming with me – 4.5 hours in my company can be tedious but he was gracious to the end!
Jules thanks for making all this possible for us. We all appreciate the time and effort you put in to making this an inclusive, friendly and fun group activity. You have brought out the best in us all.
Merry Christmas.
Miles
24/12/2011 at 9:33 pm
I’m still bobbing up and down like a cork! Great swim and wonderful company thanks for the experience I loved it.
Tacomajim
24/12/2011 at 9:53 pm
Hi All;
I’ve just spoken to Alex Prendergast. Albeit with great caution, he is in fact ready to have a go at swimming again! He will, unfortunately, not be able to come down on Christmas morning as we had hoped. Instead, he will have his first attempt on Boxing Day Morning. He is looking forward to joining the group again and getting back into the water.
Pacific Jules
24/12/2011 at 10:01 pm
Fantastic, were looking forward to having him back too. Thanks James 🙂
fifi
24/12/2011 at 10:30 pm
Thanks for a lovely swim adventure. It was fun to swim home from manly, and I promise next time I will do the return journey. I’ll make sure I have breakfast first and no taxi-duties. It was lovely to have all the little catch-ups along the way, and look at the view.
charlie
24/12/2011 at 11:33 pm
happy christmas to everyone. see you all in the new year 🙂
Anna Alvsdotter
25/12/2011 at 12:37 am
Well said, Robin! I think Julie deserves an award for service to our community of some sort, at the very least…!!!!!!
What a lovely group of people you all are. Merry Christmas to you, friendly swimmers of all shapes, ages and religious affiliations.
charlie
25/12/2011 at 12:38 am
I would have to say I agree….. It’s definitely D Adams! Not that I’ve been looking 🙂
Joan and Don Isbill
25/12/2011 at 8:18 am
Happy Christmas and a very Happy and Healthy 2012 to all
Gaetan
25/12/2011 at 9:17 am
Very coool pics! 🙂
Ragnill
26/12/2011 at 1:48 am
Wow it all looks fantastic! Miss you heaps, I even dreamt of swimming one night….. I am all well back in Norway. Cold, snow and 6-7 hours daylight, quite a contrast. Happy Christmas to all B&B swimmers! xxx
Pacific Jules
27/12/2011 at 11:49 am
Hi Ragnill, great to hear from you. Nice to know we are featuring in your dreams 😉 We miss you too. Hope you’re having a great Christmas, sounds like it’s a white one. Photos please !! 🙂