Pacific Jules

If in doubt, swim it out

A chill is in the air

 

The water temp decreasing

Has summer already said goodbye?

Drinks Express never fail to rise, no matter the conditions. Creatures of habit (and a good one at that)

Flashing lights of red and blue, Sarah from Sales and Jon already in the water, heading north.

 

Alan Thomson has completed 4000km today! WHAT. AN. ACHIEVEMENT!

WOW! Congratulations!

There were so many 7am swimmers, I couldn't find him for a photo.

 

The line kept on going and going and going...

A procession into the water, a continual flow.

Pitch Report

Visibility is pretty average. Bit of a chill in the air. 

I say that swimming in the dark with Drinks Express. There is something truly special going out before dawn, following the flashing lights.. or no lights. I've even started to pick out swimmers on their stroke alone.

If anything is true, I have to believe our night vision has surely improved.

It clears a bit towards Shelly where there are large schools of yellowtail scad and bonito.

Even if visbility is not great, its super flat and if anything can be absolutely 100% undeniable, you never regret a swim.

Thanks for reading!

Carolinebythebeach x

 

Wednesday 29 March - things that go "bump" or "squish" in the dark!

Wednesday 29 March - pitch black at 6:09am.... flashes of blue, green and red in the water..... I can hear but not see the small rolling wavelets.... zephyrs of breeze, the air felt a little heavy.... the clubbies have chosen to run to Queensie and play on the boards at first light, which today wasn't until around 6:50!   

water temp: 21.2 degrees (and Guys artwork continues to delight us!)

air temperature at 6am: actually the same, 21.2 degrees

conditions:   pitch black.... only the sound of the surf-lets

vibe:  a little trepidation in the pitch black... even drinks mused that it was the darkest he had ever started a swim!

Sally and Guy on the welcome desk were visited by a newbie who promptly took his cap, looked at the blackness and advised that he will come back tomorrow - we hope he does!

 

watching the swimmers enter the water from 6:25am was quite surreal,

flashes of blue, green and red and the occasional breaking surf-let...

as the swimmers swam to the point, the lights painted the water blue, green and red with the occasional white.... 

 then, the conga line of flickering lights like aquatic fire flies disappeared around the point into the bay..

 

i joined the "dolphins" for a short board paddle & waves session at first light (sadly work meant a shorter session for me!).    Until Leah's arm caught a huge squishy jellyfish as she paddled (eeeeww) - thus ended the session pretty quickly!

thankfully, all nocturnal swimmers returned at 7am as first light broke ...

and the 7am swimmers entered the water under moody skies threatening light rain...

and as the swimmers emerged, the stories began:

• Drinks swam into "about 50 drinks expressers" at the point
• Frangi swam into a white jellyfish - i guess it glowed in the dark?
• "Someone's arm" reached between the Guvnors legs.... (he said he would be back at 6:3o tomorrow FYI 🤔)
• Trooper swam into Merman - unintentionally
• greg bumped into Rob and jo
• no one bumped into the sting ray

Manmaids, and Mermaids (with a manmaid)

• Rob kicked a jellyfish (the RSPCA and Sea Life were called)

mermaids 

• Petra bumped into a jelly and was rewarded by a nasty sting - hope the Soov lotion helped Petra!
• Tracey Zig-Zagged to avoid jellies and ran into Petra
• Davina (wearing dark goggles 🤔) Swam into a Jelly and squealed twice, causing a few other bumps as swimmers around didnt know what she was squealing at!
• Karen and Sally swam into jellyfish

Sterling swam into about 50 Jellyfish - as its his 50th Birthday! 

 

Walter didnt run into anything as he sat nicely waiting for treats to bump into his mouth!

Have a wonderful Wednesday:  stay safe, stay sane, look out for and after one another, be kind and enjoy your day!

Jocelyn

Public service announcements:

1) Badges - dates for the summer badges will be announced sooon!

2) Budgie Smuggler Random Swimmer of the Month

The Budgie Smuggler Swimmer of the Month for February is Filippo Ammazzalorso. Filippo will receive a voucher for a new pair of Budgy Smugglers from the Budgy Smuggler shop. To be in the running for Swimmer of the Month, all you have to do is log your swims. The winner is selected randomly from all those who have swum at least once during the month. The more times you swim the more chances you have to win the prize. So start logging now. If you don't know how, just email Ian, [email protected].

 

Tuesday 28th March - You have to take the good with the bad

Morning darkness will soon end with the clocks changing on Sunday (except probably the Manly surf club clock which definitely has a mind of its own!) but so will those sunrises, which have been spectacular of late. Always hard to decide when's best, summer, winter, in between...

Guy's chalk skills have also been spectacular recently, mixing it up with stripes and today, spots. At 21.4C the water is lovely and it was pretty much smooth swimming all the way across the bay. Viz was good and I saw a fiddler ray as well as a big wobbegong at the point plus an abundance of fish. No jellies spotted on the way over but one or two on the way back. Ed Dennet made the mistake of swimming out to the bower and found that's where they congregate. Yes, he got stung!

Henrietta welcoming some new swimmers. She was either camera shy or it's my bad photography.

Fi, Robyn, photobombing Di, Lisa and Ed with some home grown bananas that were gifted to the swim by an unknown donor.

Georgina, post swim with Fi McT and her cool sunnies, pre swim.

The usual bench gang and their post swim chin wag, as we all know, just as important as the swim itself.

By the looks of the tide line, it was a shorter swim than usual, but definitely a good one and no bad rip.

And lastly a big happy birthday to Ted, off to celebrate the day with Lainey and son Charlie. 

Have a great day everyone and Ted especially!

Amanda

 

Monday 27th March 2023 - Pink + 70

Great shot Duncan

Dave congratulating John on his 70th.


Nice fingers Guy.

Sarah & Jonathan 

6:21am

Getting ready


locks & none

On the beach@6:30


3 girls doubling for next Sunday‘’s Wedding Cake Is Swim.

stay safe

enjoy

Simon

Budgie Smuggler Random Swimmer of the Month

The Budgie Smuggler Swimmer of the Month for February is Filippo Ammazzalorso. Filippo will receive a voucher for a new pair of Budgy Smugglers from the Budgy Smuggler shop. To be in the running for Swimmer of the Month, all you have to do is log your swims. The winner is selected randomly from all those who have swum at least once during the month. The more times you swim the more chances you have to win the prize. So start logging now. If you don't know how, just email Ian, [email protected].

 

 

 

Friday 24 March 2023 Something to think about

The clock above the surf club is off. Maybe it is just a fault or maybe it is a sign that we should not worry about the time but just enjoy the moment. 

Whoever swam in the ten out of ten conditions today would have been in the moment because it was a very nice swim

 

And think how can you improve a beatuiful swim location? You add a beautiful swimmer

 There was a bit of waves, warm water, lots of fish which could be seen despite the low visibility. 

Albert and Nick

FFF went on in the dark. It is very dark at 630 but they still ran into the surf. Then onto the beach. Then into the surf. Then back onto the beach. You get it. There is also talking but I am not sure it was all in English today.

And for a special treat, I saw Justus and Charl today. They are the sort of people that made me think early on - when I met them - that swimmers are great people. Justus not only graciously posed for the photo but he also gave me direction on how to take the photo. In the kindest way.  A true teacher. 

 

Wed 22nd: Kelly's Heroes

Drinks for our inestimable Liverpudlian JK at Steyne last night ... Happy Birthday John!

CONDITIONS

Water:         22º

Air:              22º

Jellies:        Four (They found their marks)

Wind:          Nil

Dolphins:    Three wins in a row

JK:              Going to pubs all week long

 

 

21/03/2023 - Fun Tuesday

Lovely atmosphere down at the swim today. Sally Stobo's birthday so a big turn out from 'The Mermaids'!

A beautiful swim with calmer conditions, avoidable Jellies and that nasty rip has gone!

It's still pretty dark at 6.30am... 22 degrees in the water and around 19 out. Pilates and Yoga sessions were in full force from 6-7am. How lucky are we to have volunteers like Lorraine and Sally providing these fantastic classes for free!

This was taken at 7am so still dark!

Helsy with Oosty and friend at Shelly

It was so clear stepping out from the beach close to the rocks! Wrong order sorry!

Sally was splashed and we sang Happy Birthday at Shelly :-)

Frenchies, Paul and Valerie after their swim

The Drinks Express and Mermaids get together for some birthday cake post-swim. Popular Sally had about 5 friends bake for her this morning. Jocelyn couldn't make the swim but still baked. She's one generous woman. The 6.30am crew are missing Baker Andre who is away in Papua NG for a few weeks

Eagle Ray with Maori wrasse

Beautiful tropical fish with a green Groper. I think its a Moon Wrasse

Dea and Jenny

Gloomy Octopus near Shelly a few days ago

Baby cephalopods probably Squid not Cutties

Gary the Groper has been out and about at The Bower lately. I've been visiting him every day!

 

I tried to do an arty Jelly/above water shot like Bibi's but it didnt work that well!

 

Remember birthday drinks for JK's birthday tonight at The Steyne. All swimmers welcome!

 

Lainey xx

Monday 20 March - taken down by the rocks

Hey guys 

 

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. 

The water was a really lovely 22.6, but really very murky and bumpy.  In a moment of sheer stupidity & not paying attention, I swam straight onto the rocks this morning - twice. Needless to say, I’m covered in scrapes & scratches 😢

 

It was lovely to see my A team pals show up on a Monday as always. Here are a few pics from this morning 😊

 

Checking out the ocean before the swim 

 

My bestie Genevieve & I in our matching budgies 

 

 

Dave & Jesse catching up before the swim (with Tammy in the corner of the pic!) 

 

My poor rock shredded feet. I came out of the water crying - it was incredibly painful. And I’m covered in a fair few scrapes & scratches, but this is the worst part 

 

Have a lovely week everyone. Doubtful I’ll be there tomorrow - need to keep the wounds dry ☹️

 

Take care,

Tilly xx 

To be sure to be sure

 

Did you know that wearing green on St Patricks Day makes you invisible to the iritating pinching leprechauns. I swam out in the dark in green sluggos hoping it worked on Jellyfish as well. Not a jelly did I see! Didn't stop me running smack bang into Passage Rock, I'm sure it wasn't in the same spot yesterday.

They've got cars big as bars. They've got rivers of gold

The boys of the NYPD choir. Still singing Galway Bay

 

 

Chatter around the camp fire revolved around the change when a swimmer dons flippers. Ruthless someone says. 

The Baker does banana bread for the birthday boy. 


The Boys of Summer, heart and soul of the Drinks Express.

Happy Birthday to the amazing Snoopy. Looking very sharp with his new haircut. Faster?

 

They printed one of Caroline's amazing photos as a present. She is contemplating a BnB calendar. Maybe we could combine with some rauchy speedo action shots too? I know that Chippo and the Machine Men would be up for it!

 

Thanks for the swim and coffee Team. Remember don't let your true love run cold!

Rusty The Fish & Carolinebythebeach

I'm off  to sink a Guiness, listen to my favourite Irish band and try out this delcious new recipe I found:

 

Ingredients:

300g fresh jelly fish

Chicken meat

Green mango, cleaned and peeled

Onion, basil leaves; coriander

Roasted peanut, smashed

Deep fried glutinous rice with powdered shrimp (bánh phồng tôm)

Chili, pepper, vinegar, sugar, spices … 

 

Process:

Step 1: The first important step to create one of stunning Vietnamese Salad Recipes is cleaning jelly fish. Clean well its slimy skin, soak into alum water in few hours; next use your hands to press out all water. Then slice small and soak in hot water in few minutes and pour them out on basket.

Step 2: Boil chicken until it is cooked, tear small

Step 3: Slice green mango into long and thin pieces. Peel off the cover of onion, slice fiber. Clean and slice basil leaves small.

Step 4: Making dipping sauce: Mix sugar + salt + pepper + vinegar + fish sauce + sliced chili, stir well and text again to suit your flavor. This sauce is required with a little sweet and sour.

Now, you finished basic steps from one of interesting Vietnamese Salad Recipes. For presentation, Mix jelly fish with chicken meat, onion, green mango, basil leaves and coriander together. Add more roasted peanut on top. When eating, pour more sauce in step 4 and serve with deep fried glutinous rice cakes. That is also my favorite way to enjoy it. Hope you will satisfy with this instruction and good luck for your Cooking.

 

and that's right... sitting here right now with my beer and my favourite Irish band playing...

 

Shorter Days

6:26

This time of year brings later sunrises which means a darker start for the 6:30 swimmers. The countdown is on for changing the clocks.  There was a bit of fog in the air which made for an interesting view of the sun as it rose between my first and second laps and as the 7am group started.

With the darker start, all I saw on the way to Shelly was this ray swimming.

...and a few Jellys

There seemed to be more as it got lighter, as I saw more on my second lap, but maybe that's because I could see better.

6:30's at Shelly

I saw this resting ray on the way back, maybe it was the same one?

Just at the point I saw this Estuary Cobbler, I often see them on the beach side of the point.

The rip was still raging.  Today I got close enough to the rocks to get a nice ride in, earlier this week I wasn't close enough and it took a bit more time to come in. It was the opposite for my mate who got a nice ride in earlier this week but was as just a little further north than me today and didn't get the easy ride in. A small distance makes a big difference.  

Have a great day!

Alana