What a fantastic Autumn we’ve had! Warm, sunny days and water temperature not going below 20 degrees. The water has been flat, calm and clear. Each morning we have been greeted by magnificent sunrises over our favourite corner of the world… It’s the last day of Autumn. Today it looked wet and gloomy but the sun came out just for us at 7am!
It was a bit darker at 6.30am for The Drinkless Express and numbers were down on the 40 or so that swam early yesterday. Looks moody and romantic here!
Look at the calmness of Cabbage tree Bay! A few of you will be sorry you didn’t get out of bed this morning…When you hear rain on the roof just jump out of bed as you know you won’t regret it!
The sun magically appears as 7am swimmers start to arrive…
Robster the Blogster is supping wine in the Hunter Valley this weekend so I’m the fill in blogger today. I was going to keep it short but the light and sunrise as we entered the water was so incredible I’ve got to share all the photos!
Rusty tries to catch the sun with his arms…
and with his ar*#*
Sarah and Renae with a bit of whitewash
Brian and Ted made it down from Gordon and Avalon today. How far do you travel??
It’s really not cold yet Michelle and Mahdi!
Tomorrow is the 1st June, ‘Onesie Day’ if you feel like wearing a ‘Onesie’ and the start of the Winter without Wetsuit season! Remember 20 swims over 7 weeks of Winter and you get your www badge!
John and Max get a bit of whitewash too
Some of the ‘Press Uppers’ can wave too. Come on Rusty!
You look at these faces and you think… seriously how much fun can you have at 7.30am!
10 year old Vincent’s parents must be proud.
Beautiful starfish at Shelly
I saw a few small Duskies but Michael saw a fish that was that big!
Old Wives over the rocks
The sand whiting scurry below us as we come closer to shore.
If we’re lucky a flash of bright blue catches our eye and a groper appears…
If you are really lucky you might see the rare GregMcDonaughericus
Lots of swimmers are doing ‘Doubles’ at the moment and making the most of the warm water and great conditions. Here are a few coming in. What a gorgeous morning it turned out to be!
A perfect swim isn’t complete without the home made hot shower which Lindsay models beautifully!
Next Monday 2 June is a special screening event of the new adventure film “LAST PARADISE” by local Manly legend Barton Lynch. LAST PARADISE is the award winning story of extreme water adventure. It has taken 45 years to make and was completed at Peter Jacksons studios. Tony Elmore and a couple of “pink caps” have seen it and convinced it would have huge appeal to the whole pink caps group – including kids. It will be hosted by world surf champ Barton Lynch. I attach the event details. You can watch the trailer for a taste and reserve tickets at:
www.lastparadisefilm.com
Bottom of the Blog – the very useful stuff
Monthly Dinner – Bluewater Cafe, Tuesday 10th June at 6.30 pm
This month’s guest speaker, Chris Miller, is a freelance cameraman who worked on the TV program Getaway for 20 years. Chris has traveled to many exotic locations where he has filmed both above and below the water. Chris will talk about his experiences swimming with Whale Sharks in Western Australia and cage diving with Great White Sharks in South Australia.
The cost will be only $20 a head and includes shared entrees, a selection of main to choose (incl a vegetarian option) and corkage (for byo wine only) and a little thank you for the staff.
All beers (including four pines beers !), wine and deserts an optional extra at the special price of only $5 each !!
BOOKINGS ARE ESSENTIAL, so book here now!!
Winter Badge season kicks off 1 June – Onesie wearing is strongly encouraged..
You know you want one! There are 14 weeks in the winter season. To qualify for the prized Cold & Bold Badge you simply need to swim 20 times within the season ensuring you have swum in a minimum of 7 different weeks. So, attempting to do it all in the first few weeks does not count!!
Also on Sunday 8th June (next week now due to Food and Wine Festival this week), to mark the winter swims, we will be hosting our own Biggest Morning Tea after the swim at the benches. Funds from this morning tea will go to cancer research ‘cause you never know if you or someone you love will one day be a beneficiary of this work.
Karmea Fitness Open Day
Sarah Anne, your Pacific Jules swim coach, is holding a FREE open day at her multisport hub on North Head. Come along and try out a wide variety of classes, meet the inspiring Karmea team and family, and find out how Karmea can support you to live a healthier life and reach your sporting goals. The entire day will be packed with classes, talks, workshops and everything will be free of charge,
Open day schedule is now open for bookings Click here
If you’ve not made it to the Karmea hub yet this is the perfect opportunity for you to come in and try out classes for free. If you are a hub regular then come along and take part in one of the classes you’ve never experienced but have been dying to do.
The Biggest Morning Tea ever
Help B&B regular Miguel Maestre (aka the Crazy Bull) fight cancer this May and June, and make this year’s Biggest Morning Tea the biggest ever! Please share his video or maybe even organise one with as many friends as possible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqn8zLeMJZk&list=UUoqsI4BQjKoFanMQOy5VEIw
B&B i-Log
Really if you haven’t been using the B&B i-Log then you must be new!! Almost 75% of swimmers are now using the B&B i-Log. Log your swim ANYTIME of day using this really efficient and easy way to ensure your swim is recorded in the daily attendance and on the Pacific Challenge. To get started, send an email to Ian Forster ugoboyo@gmail.com (This is not a link so please copy and paste into your email). He will check that your email address is activated on the attendance register then send you info on how to get started.
Staying safe
We have had seen the return of some serious waves and rips this past week! Were you prepared? Remember that there are no badges for scaring yourself silly! While it is great to extend your boundaries, it is important to know your limits. Do read these excellent tips on staying safe in the surf. To read, or even download, click here.
Stats
Swimmers 150 (at 10am but will increase) Newbies 5
Water Temp 20.5
Sunrise 6.50am Sunset 4.54pm
Signing off
Lainey Loo aka Elaine
Have an amazing weekend!!!
14 comments
Lindsay
31/05/2014 at 11:28 am
Great blog Lainey!
Quick question. How do the www people log this onto the app?
Simonfcowell
31/05/2014 at 11:43 am
“Like++” (from Willoughby East)
Lindsay “swimmer of day ” yeah!!!!!!
Anna McBold
31/05/2014 at 12:13 pm
Top photo of that new fish, Elaine – it reminds me a bit of our Greg.
ros
31/05/2014 at 12:48 pm
Nice one Lainey! I liked the photos of folk walking through the water and into the sunrise. Poetic!
Elizabeth
31/05/2014 at 1:11 pm
I love the photos go the sun and swimmers too. Just beautiful.
Lips
31/05/2014 at 1:55 pm
Great blog Lainey. Sorry I didn’t make it to Havana after all..
PS: Ted has picked up speed since he started swimming in cling wrap!
Sharondunn
31/05/2014 at 2:03 pm
Lovely sunrise pics!
Mr. I. P. Freely
31/05/2014 at 2:39 pm
Great sunrise LainE, great blog.
More images of Lips in his cosies please.
Pacific Jules
31/05/2014 at 2:48 pm
Magnus is currently updating the iLog to include an option for WWW (winter without wetsuit) option for us, so you will be able to ‘tick’ for this via iLog and quite possibly only via iLog, to reduce the amount of manual work that Ian and others will need to do !!! Good incentive to get onto iLog if you haven’t already !!
This upgrade might not be available for 2 weeks, but when it becomes available you will be able to back date the WWW option for the swims you have already logged since 1st June as appropriate :-).
Fabulous photos Lainey. Love the sunrise in the background and the starfish especially.
Robster
31/05/2014 at 4:36 pm
I’m actually in sunny Barcelona! Thx for covering LL
Jane
31/05/2014 at 6:40 pm
Your pics just keep getting better, Lainey!
LSA aka HKTQ
31/05/2014 at 10:01 pm
Amazing pics, Lainey! xxxx
Neil Richardson
01/06/2014 at 12:16 am
Amazing photos as always -wish I could visit again in the foreseeable future. Amazed to see there are so many wetsuits in use with water temp at 20 to 21 C!
The Submarine
01/06/2014 at 11:12 am
Benny Hill gets a guernsey