Wednesday 8th September - spring has sprung! Well, in the air at least, the water still thinks its winter - perhaps the warm currents are awaiting the go-ahead from our QLD politicians to start to move South!
Firstly a belated happy birthday to our fearless leader, Ian for yesterday! For all who are wondering, Ian, HRH and JK are being well looked after here at Balmoral. We are very lucky to have Ian and HRH & JK swimming with us :) I posted a picture of Ian and HRH on Sunday, and here is proof that JK is thoroughly enjoying himself over here, and leading our swims (or maybe asking for help? :)
JK leads our swims something like this:
- we agree a swim route
- JK leads (lures?) us into the water with the promise that the temperature is warmer than it has been (where does he take it - the kiddies pool?)
- JK heads off to the first "meeting buoy"
- the rest of us are something like this: "[expletive] its cold" "which buoy?" "that one" "that one?" " no that one" "which one?" "that one" "[expletive] its cold - where does JK take the temperature?" "i forgot my goggles - have to go back and get them" "JK has gone - we need to swim" "quick we need to catch him up"
- seriously we do have a fabulous swim always! thank you JK!
water temperature: Manly- 16.7 ; Balmoral - 15.7
conditions: Manly- flat, bit murky; Balmoral - calm, clear but a few little waves!
The vibe: Balmoral - happy, calm as evidenced by Lucy and Karen (see cover photo)
Whilst we are missing Manly and Manly friends & sea creatures, we are staying positive (and testing negaative) & finding joy and fun swimming together (in pairs) in our "small but mighty" 5km zone, contnuing our - well, creativity or imagination with swim-tracks. We have also "named" a few of our favourite swims!
This one is called "doing the b[u]oys"..
The "B[u]oys"
Here are a few of this weeks (so far) swim tracks - it is important to note that for all said swim tracks, most of them do not look remotely like the original shape we were trying to "swim/draw" (lucky we all have incredible imaginations - lockdown lunacy ha ha!):
A kite
a boot
a platypus
A ray (started out as a turtle! ha ha)
A crown - in honour of B&B birthday Ian and HRH (its a bit skewed, we will straighten it!)!
Please post any requests on the B&B face book page and we will do our best to oblige (the octopus is coming, we promise!)! likewise anyone swimming anywhere is encouraged to get creative!
In other harbourside news, bull sharks seem to be a hot topic and for good reason. This info (linky thing below) has been posted on the BB pages and blogs previously but here is the study again, regarding sharks in Sydney Harbour so you can make decisions about where/when to swim. This is why we are getting the longer swims in "now", before our sharp toothed friends return to the super highway when the water warms up (ok, maybe an exaggeration but it seems like all of us have different ways of viewing this!)!
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-54365-x?fbclid=IwAR2IRSbYxto41Ps5njc5pkw3EPXqrktjDwYI-q77ZXfjSR6h1mLbYCbAf5k
and here's a map of "hotspots" to be aware (but not alarmed) of:
Hope you are all well and coping as best you can, getting out in nature somewhere and somehow and keeping in touch & checking in on each other, we all know that Kindness is catching :) Its been a long haul but there is a saying "this too shall pass" and hopefully you are all seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.. something to look forward to....
happy wednesday everyone!
Jocelyn
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