Pacific Jules

They didn't, did they? 20/06/2021

5amish mobile phone tells me to get up.

The rain was driving. The wind relentless. The windows rattled in the house and in the car. The surf was huge.

Actually the waves weren’t – they were huge at every other northern beaches - Queenscliff, Freshie, Curlie and all up the coast  but we had our little bit of calm paradise at Manly. That southerly brought  flat seas to our little bay as if to fly in the face of news reports.

And they did swim, didn't they?

Above: The waves at South Steyne were at least 1-2 foot monsters but the sun made a valiant effort to break through all day.

Above: This gang weren’t sure that that the others would turn up but they did.

Above:

Swimmers – about a hundred for a 6.15am swim – so they say.

The rest scattered across the day as people realised the conditions weren’t that bad.

Total of 99 by 2pm.

Temperature – chalk record washed off by the rain but I reckon about 17.3.

Jimbles – I did not come across any but there were reports of  Jimble nipple stings (Rusty).

Brush turkeys at Shelly - unsettled.

Visibility: Murky

Above: Robert and John heading out.

Above: Just do it.

Above: Chipo, Rusty and Pete discuss their swim and Rusty's jimbling.

Above: Kit and Woody spend some quality time together.

 

Above: Giant cuttlefish seen fleeing Shelly Beach.

That's it for today- I'm outta here. Enjoy your swimming.

I have my Pfizer No.2 vaccination lined up for Friday – the staff at Sydney Olympic Park run a friendly and efficient operation. This time I hope to avoid being stung on the lips by a jimble on the morning of my jab.

Remember – it ain’t over till its over.

Oosty

 

June 19, 2021 A blog about nothing and everything

Up with the birds

Winter surfers

Bed or Beach the winter quandary, the never ending "will I or won’t I?". The blog drove me from the warm sheets to the cool sand, to greet a gorgeous winter morning. A few less people than average, swimmers and surfers,  some meditating some sand running. Subtle colours in the sky, changing almost imperceptibly as the morning light comes. After another magnificent Manly morning, with cool waters and warm smiles,  I reflect that the answer to "will I?", should always be "I will".

The boardwalk goes from almost silent to the chatter of the brave. Watching the day come alive is a treat.


The 6.30 crew celebrated Jens significant birthday with a tunnel, a song and the comment ‘She’s still kicking A’ in the early crew. A goal for us all.

A young man happy for the winter holidays scampers in to do the chilly dance we all do getting into the water this time of year.

Today's  Cammeray winter crew Annie, Belinda and Jackie ready for their cold water immersion.

Happy Saturday, enjoy the weekend. 

Water temp 17

Clarity : bitsy 

the B&B continues to operate informally.

Habits and Routines

A winter swim. Clear water. Temperature falling. The swimmers arrived today in large numbers (swimming individually at a time of their choosing) to swim under a clear winter sky. Taking off warm clothes and revealing swimmers underneath or wrangling into the wetsuit. Swimmers have their locations and swim times. They have their preferred goggles. Some are boringly predictable - yes, me: on arrival, even though I am going to swim anyway, I check the temperature; I ask early swimmers what the conditions were like, whether there were jimbles. I take ages to get in rather than being like Nike and just getting on with it. Out in the water, you think every swimmer is just swimming but all you have to do is some aquarobics actions out in the bay to find them stopping and asking "are you ok?" (this from personal experience.

 

 

 Here is Robin with the sun behind. The early swimmers are entering almost in the dark as we approach the winter solstice. And only this morning I was involved in a conversation with some swimmers about Sunday's 615 swim marking the winter solstice from Shelly Beach for which there is a private badge that can be bought. It was interesting to many swimmers who want to swim with a deliberate wardrobe malfunction. 

Here is the "Getting Ready" chapter of this blog where I focus on swimmers getting ready but as this is a family blog I wait until there are no wardrobe malfunctions to capture in the photo

Look at the lovely sunrise aura surrounding Linda and swim mates

More swimmers getting ready. A swim robe allows for easy and modest changing

AHHH What a warm glow seeing two pink caps. In these times where the group is not swimming we are all wearing different caps. In the olden days we would all wear a pink cap and it is lovely to see this 

 

Early swimmers dressed and ready to go after a superb swim

triathletes who have probably run and biked through the night to now come and have a swim

See the sun reflection behind these early swimmers; even without it they glow with the benefits of the swim in the sea they have completed. Partly in the dark. 

On the ramp




Kevin reports that the swim was excellent. It is true that the water was very much warmer from the point onwards while the shallower water was cold. 

Have a good day!

Thursday, 17 June 2020 - Life Down Under (Deep) - Mysterious

BOLD & BEAUTIFUL IS NOT CURRENTLY RUNNING
DUE TO THE RISKS OF CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19).

Thank you for following public health advice at all times.

Sources:

Visual Ecology and Functional Morphology of Cubozoa (Cnidaria)1 | Integrative and Comparative Biology | Oxford Academic (oup.com)

South Western Stinger Factsheet | Western Australian MuseumSouth Western Stinger Factsheet | Western Australian Museum

Water temp: 17.4

 

Winter Swimming

B&B is still bound by Covid 19 restrictions with which we are determined to comply. So, for the near future, B&B’s operations will continue to be suspended. This does not mean you need to stop swimming. As an encouragement to swim, B&B is offering its usual badges over the winter swimming season. To qualify for a highly prized winter badge, you need to:

• swim from Manly to Shelly and return (or halfway swim) a minimum of 20 times between 1st June and 31st August. 
• swim in at least 7 different weeks during the same period.
• log your swims.

If you manage to do all of your qualifying swims without a wetsuit (or other thermal enhancing equipment), you will also qualify for the coveted WWW badge (winter without wetsuit).

All swims must be at Manly. Should there be any restrictions imposed during the Winter period, The Covid Swim will return as an option.

Interact with the Sea

In the Dolphin Blog today, they noted that they swam with Cheryl White today and with Simon, Danny, Julie and others on the long weekend. I just don't know if they have any photos. 

We have photos of some of the beautifully bold people who swam today

Even if the Dolphins blog won't have photos, we do have superb photos of the sea life at Manly - how fortunate that we have such generous photographers sharing their lovely photos

Octopus

A shark

The perennial favourite, bright blue (no camouflage) groper

Perfect hump day

I’m covering for Jocelyn, and phone battery dying , so it’s a quickie today , 
temp 17.7, felt cooler but it doesn’t get any better , weekend not looking so perfect

Enjoy the week, edwina 

Calm after Queen's birthday weekend

I had my arm twisted to become a blogger but with all the help that was offered I didn't need to take a single photo! Thanks Di, Rosemary, Lainey and Jac.

Jonny and Lainey pre or post swim?

It was another beautiful morning in the bay. No reports of anything stingy from the early swimmers but a couple of light stings at 7.30. 

Outside temperature was up on previous days (about 11c), water temperature unfortunately going down, a brisk 16.9 but clarity was up so a lovely swim. The bay was calm and almost empty. We saw plenty of fish, some strange jellies and a few cuttlefish,  including the really big one.

Marie and Lisa with Cody

Alison Chris Ingrid and Nicola  

Didn't get everyone's name,  John, ?, Susie, ? and Ian after an enjoyable swim.

Jonny with the big cuttlefish 

that's it for today. Have a good one. Haven't managed to copy in the usual post blog blurb. Sorry.

Amanda

Monday 14th June 2021 - Queen’s at Manly

Future Queen@Manly

Past Queen

Happy O birthday Queen Midge 

White Queens Attracta & Izzy


Queens Susie & Meg

Danny Roberto & I swam with Queen Jane.

I met Queen Barb’s fella.

Birthday Queens

Dave flanked by Queen’s Mel and Trish


Speedster Queen Trish can give Simon and Matt a swim for their money

in his usual long winded way Simon said the movie premier tickets are sold out but if you click on the link you can get in the waitlist:::::>>>>

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/premier-salt-joy-documentary-tickets-153598131145

—————————-/////———

above the Pines @7:17am.

Thanks Roger for the sunrise shot

I discovered that I’m only nine years short of these two legends

Enjoy and stay safe

Simon

 

 

 

 

Sunday 13 June 2021 CTB. Feast. For the eyes

What a day. The water was 17.1 which is a bit higher than the 17.0 degrees yesterday but it felt a bit colder. Tell me where I can record my feeling of the temperature to be consumed along with the thermometer reading. 

There was so much in the swim to reward swimmers today. Daniel Julie and his early companions who swam to Queenscliff were joined by a pod of dolphins who swam with them for a bit. I lingered in different parts of the bay hoping they would join me but did not see them. However, I am so happy to learn they are there. 

Clare saw some big rays. Some divers including Judy Quan saw 3 duskies at the Bower. They were in deep but it was exciting to see them if not photograph them. I will check out instagram to see if anyone got a photo

Bibiana got some footage of the cuttlefish. And I saw several blue gropers (who are kindly very bright blue and easy to see) and some jumbles. 

I spoke to a few groups of divers asking them if they know that in diving in CTB they should look but not touch. They said that they were aware and I told them that some divers were spotted moving rocks (aka houses for sea creatures) to form shapes eg heart shapes but more worryingly also touching the fish, sharks etc for a photo. Don't do it. Nature knows what it is doing - how absurd that some divers should go to the sandy bottom of Cabbage Tree Bay and move rocks to form the shape of a heart (which nature invented so you can safely leave it to mother nature to arrange things on the sandy bottom) for a photo. Spread the word divers: Feast for the eyes but don't touch. For some sea creatures it causes them actual harm. 

Birthday feast for Karl today (second from left). Happy birthday!!

Some of the dolphin swim companions! Or why it is a great idea to always come along and have a swim

Autumnal fashion palette looks great even though it is now winter. When you are stylish, you can make these sorts of choices.  

Enjoy the sun before getting in

On the ramp

When you think you have made a good effort to swim and feel pleased and then you see someone doing push ups after swimming. 

Also the tattoo is a borg signal from Star Wars. For those who are not familiar with the reference, Star Wars is a big movie block buster that has famous quotes and a lot of merchandise. A famous quote you may have heard is "May the Force Be with you" and "No, I am your father". All of which I know even though I have never seen any of the movies). Great design 

Anne and Natalie in some warm swim robes. One with sharks! Seeing them at the start obviously led to me seeing the dusky whalers at the bower - Yay

Some blog tart action behind Charl on the ramp

A little bit of wave at the start and some swimmers enjoying them
I may not have seen dolphins but I was lucky enough to see Anne Belinda and Robyn

Up we go

In the Bay some lovely swimmers. Near where a jimble zapped me.



I want to show off my acquired knowledge of the colloquial expression to describe a busy place by likening it to Pitt Street. Well it was busy in the bay but in these times Pitt St is not. Nonetheless, I like seeing all the different caps and swimmers going across the water. 

Edwina - I had to try to photograph her and swim buddies a few times as she kept bobbing down to see the cuttle fish. Such lovely creatures. Swimmers and cuttle fish alike

 

Wonderful winter

Winter is cuttlefish season, so without further ado.....

Up on the walkway I encountered some amusing weekend ultraviolence

As well as calmer pursuits

Film crew - it seems we are global megatarts

Conversations

Elizabeth and Bernhard post swim

 

The same cuttlefish in nobbly grumpy mode

yellowtail

Wows

Last week I was on Heron Island (hence the relatively few people in this blog as I got home late last night and got up a bit late) and was extremely fortunate to swim with one of these divine gentle giants

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/562056882

Everyone loves a baby turtle. This was one of a very late hatching. The survival rate of these little darlings is not high but I hope some got away from the waiting predators above and below the water

What am I listening to? Some more blues

Enjoy the day, folks