20/10/2019 - Great swims in history

This morning after the swim I'm doing the brain cancer charity walk from Shelly Beach to Curl Curl, so as I'm super-organised and a little short on time I prepared most of this blog yesterday :). Also, I took some great close-up photos of a wobbegong this morning but just discovered that the memory card was missing. So apologies for no swim photos in today's blog. 

I'm forever impressed with those courageous, sometimes a little crazy, ocean swimmers who attempt first crossings and channel swims. So today's blog will look back in time at a selection of some of the greatest swims in history...

The Hellespont Strait (also known as the Dardanelles). In 1810 Lord Byron, an English poet, politician and revolutionary, and Lieutenant Ekenhead, successfully crossed this infamous stretch of water that separates Europe from Asia. I suspect a wager of sorts must have kept them motivated. That's Lord Byron below, sporting pre-swim attire rarely seen amongst the B&B crew!!

Next up, and much closer to home, is the Maori legend of the first crossing of Cook Strait, which separates New Zealand's north and south islands. According to the story, the beautiful Hinepoupou made the 22km crossing girded with a small amount of seaweed. Since then, official records show that only 126 swimmers have completed the crossing. Looks nice, but I reckon it would be cold...

One of my favourites would have to be the Strait of Gibraltar crossing, around 16km from Europe (Spain) to Africa (Morocco). Swimmers must dodge all number of obstacles including ships - about 300 per day pass through the straits - and even killer whales! Congrats Mark Mallinson on completing this swim last year. Here's what it looks like from space...

I would be remiss to exclude the English Channel swim from this list and it was first crossed by Captain Matthew Webb in 1875. Too many stories of courage and perseverance to detail here (including by some B&B swimmers), but I was particularly impressed with Sarah Thomas, a cancer survivor who earlier this year became the first person to swim the channel 4 times without stopping. Here's a GPS record of Sarah's swim...

As good as all of those swims were and are, our daily trek across Cabbage Tree Bay and back has to rank as one of the best in my opinion. 

Stats: 17 degrees (felt cooler to me) and it seemed like loads of people heading in for the 7am swim.

IN LATEST EXCITING NEWS…..   THERE’S A BOLD & BEAUTIFUL WINE !!!

 

There is a new set of wines, just for Manly!

They're a white and a red named 'The Bold' and 'The Beautiful' dedicated to “us” - all the swimmers who take to the ocean for the daily Bold & Beautiful swim from Manly to Shelly Beach and back. 

The wines are made by James Becker, out of his vineyards in the Hunter Valley.  David Webster has said it’s been a wonderful journey planning the grape varieties, the style of wines and helping James through the process of making, bottling and labelling the wines. It's a very small run with just 100 six packs available for purchase. Each six pack contains 3 bottles of the red (Shiraz Viognier) and 3 bottles of the white (Chardonnay).

David and James would love to see you at the wine launch on October 22nd at Manly Surf Club where you'll have the chance to taste the wines and nibble on some cheese while David talks you through the story behind the wine. Tasting starts at 6:30pm and runs through until 8pm. 

Please RSVP to David if you’re able to attend at: david@northernbeacheswine.com