30/05/13 – Vivid Manly…

130 ‘Gladtheygotoutabed’ swimmers swam under a magical and vivid sky today…Another ‘wow’ day! Beautiful early morning light and sunrise, loads a fish, warm, clear water with just a gentle wave… You will get cuttlefish photos today!

First light was breathtaking… ( It was really difficult to stop looking at the sky and taking photos, to go to the loo!) So you’ve got quite a few! The Vivid lightshow is on across the Harbour but we have our own here in Manly nearly every day!

 

And then what have we here? Bella is so excited about wearing a ‘onesie’, she is here 2 days early! (Remember ‘Onesie Day’ Saturday, first day of Winter.)

And after an incredible early morning light show, the sun appears over our ocean…

Swimmers start to arrive and derobe, the King of Blog Tarting makes an early appearance!

 

7am, time to start the walk of glory, down the ramp…Doesn’t Peta look amazing? All the swimming certainly helps to tone those abs and pecs.

The 6.59 am early starters, Helen, Marije, Jane and Rainer are a tad late. (They’ve been Photo Tarting).Giles, the photographer is taking photos of us all. He is here again tomorrow and Saturday so make sure you get your photo taken in pink cap!

The ocean is calm and friendly. We are all going from South Steyne today no Halfwayers.

JK makes a few adjustments or maybe he is hiding his GoPro down there. He is back in his pink budgies. He was only trying out his wetsuit on Monday. JK would never even contemplate going a Winter with wetsuit. Our John Kelly IS hardcore!

Rusty performs his daily pre-swim stretch… 

Elaine, Vicky and Sue have their daily pre-swim giggle and catch-up.

Nicky and Ian have their pre-swim chat…

Try and spot yourself. I do like to try and get as many of you as possible on camera in my blogs. I know we are all ‘Blog Tarts’ at heart!

Here she pops up again, the Blog Tart who pretends not to be! Lesbutt has a new nickname, ‘Bubbles’, ask her all about it!

After a quick wait at The Point, we are off. Some of us, prefer to do a bit of backstroke to look at that amazing sky. Is that you Nurse Jalna?

Happy faces at Shelly. I promise Inez we’ll see cuttlefish on the swim back.

And we do!

Then he goes under the rocks and Inez goes looking!

This lovely lady is in the water 90 minutes this morning! She has done an early lap before the regular swim and fish hunt, WITHOUT a wetsuit. She juggles 3 kids, work and a journey from Concorde to swim with us whenever she can and she makes the most of it!

We swim over to the rocks by the tall palm tree and there are so many fish and great vis. How many different species of fish can you spot in this one photo?

Loads of littlies too.

Looking at my photos back at Bluewater, Lisa and Inez notice how this Sergeant Baker is framed in a circle of shells.

More wonders that lie beneath

Another ‘gobsmackingly amazing’ Thursday swim! And a B&B on Tour photo of John Hiron braving the freezing water in Iceland. The cheek of it, one of his Facebook ‘friends’ said, ‘What are you doing with a condom on your head?’ 

 

 

WINTER BADGE – Starts June 1st. To qualify swim minimum 20 times and in at least 7 weeks of the winter. Each week starts on a Monday and there are 14 weeks in the season.

AND if you go without a wetsuit you also qualify for the Winter Without Wetsuit (WWW) badge! Put a W by your name every time you tick the attendance.

To celebrate the start of Winter Badge Season which is a Saturday (1 June) – please come down wearing a ONE-SIE (or jumpsuit) – the funnier the better!!

AND let’s make it a charity event!  Please bring a gold coin on Sat June 1^st and we will donate it to the Royal Far West Hopsital!

 

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There is a NEW BADGE – the 500 km badge! See the Pacific Challenge top left of the blog to see how many km’s you’ve swum – if you’ve hit 500 or more you get a badge….(for $10)

33 people so far have already qualified for their badge – they will be presented at our NEXT monthly dinner at Bluewater –Tuesday 4^th June at 6.30pm (or any time after that night). See the “management” for more details!

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ALSO at the above dinner one of our swimmers Dr Ray Hodgson will be giving a talk about the work he does in Nepal with women who suffer prolapse after child birth. He organises trips for volunteers for 2 week stints and is always looking out for more volunteers to go to Nepal and help. If you want to hear from someone who is making a difference to peoples lives and want to find out what you can do to help, then come along to the dinner. Bring friends, family, all welcome! This amazing man is another Fred Hollows and we really should come along. He is flying down from Port Macquarie especially for us!

TO BOOK INTO THE NEXT MONTHLY DINNER PLEASE RSVP HERE!!

We want to get as MANY people as we can that night so we can book the whole restaurant out!!!! Remember it’s only $20 for a starter AND main course of delicious food!! Desserts and drinks are only $5 each and no corkage on wine!! Bluwater now offer a special $25 menu too.

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And some fantastic photos sent in by Stephen Coulter!

 

The Stats

Regulars: 130

Newbies: 6

Water Temp: 21. degrees

Air Temp: 13

Sunrise: 6.50am

Sunset: 4.54pm

Signing off Lainey Loo xx