Pacific Jules

Reasons to be grateful

Just sometimes on a drizzly Sunday morning, when you are hurrying across wet roads in the grey, 9 degree dawn, you question why you have forsaken the comfort of your cosy bed.

“I’m doing the blog today!” is the grumpy retort to myself. On the way to B&B Central you nod to other swimmers, check out the conditions and begin the routine – cap, goggles, earplugs, etc, chat then chat some more. Soon, that grumpy voice is silenced by another telling you to acknowledge your good fortune and to be grateful.

So today I give you the 10 things for which I am grateful.

1.There may be rain, but how grateful are we to have this precious gift from the heavens. For us in the ‘burbs our gardens and lawns are green and bursting with new growth.

2. The friends! What an opportunity to meet so many new and interesting people to not only swim with, but to share so many other joyous occasions!  Each time I swim, I have the opportunity to see these beautiful and amazing people.  Each with their perfectly unique stories that inspire, amuse and sometimes stretch the realms of believability.

3. The sea that ceases and suffices itself.  Plunging into the sea gives you such a sense of renewal.  We are so lucky to have this watery health spa.

4. My ability to swim.  I was told by a Buddhist friend that she begins each task by being grateful that she has the ability to complete the task.  I am very grateful that I can swim (‘cause I’m a hopeless runner).

5. The opportunity to celebrate. Today David cracked the 1,000km – and yes there was cake – and it was Corinne’s birthday.

6. The serene marine creatures we see each day.  The sunny flash of the yellow tail, a Blue Groper darting about the rocks, the Wobbegong that blends into the shelly bottom of the bay, the Rays, the Sand Whiting.  So much nicer to see them here than in submerged in ice at a fish market. (However, not seen today 'cause it was a bit murky).

7. That bottle of hot water on a wintry morning.  It makes all the difference.

8. The après swim coffee.   This is the only time I drink coffee – and it is soooo good.  Made even better with the pleasure of sharing the morning sun with friends.

9. Being here to enjoy this moment.

10. My friend, and Sunday Blog Meister, Gemma who has somehow enticed me back to blogging.  

What are you grateful for? 

 

Mary

 

Bottom of the Blog - the very useful stuff 

And now for something completely different, a word or several from management

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 (Cardonnay).

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

The Stats

Regulars:  about 180

Newbie:  7

Temp:   17.9 degrees

Sunrise:  6.17 am

Sunset:  7.06 pm

Weather man lied again last night

Heavy showers along the coast in the morning. Willy Weather concurred.  But they were both wrong.

Plenty of blue early morning sky greeted the 6:30 swimmers. I just managed to catch this group before they headed off (the parking gods were only moderately kind to me this morning).

Who needs a plane when you can swim?

Unfortunately the recent rain resulted in a bit of rubbish on the beach as well as in the water

Water temps a bit lower - what is going on?

I'm in awe of Roger's skill. This cartoon took him all of a minute to draw. And all this time I thought he was just a bullsh!t artist

A few newbies being indoctrinated sorry inducted by management

Just as I thought no one was showing up, the regular crowd appeared, possibly a little bleary from Friday night activities, or maybe the 9 to 5 grind.

Someone (was it Lisa?) dropped the trigger word (whale) 

Shaun's attention was drawn to warm blooded wildlife while all other eyes were turned seaward

Warm up shoulder exercises?

Amelia - 2 weeks to go. Legend 

Shelley

Amelia again with some admiring WOWs

The Liquorice Allsorts

Bummer of a shot

Heading back

No fish today, water was too murky. They were there but.......

This is the original Capless Dave on the ski, trailed by a conga line of WOWs, and Capless Dave The Younger

Then Jonny raced past on a double ski, distracting the WOWS.....

affording Dave the opportunity for a speedy escape

Which way did he go?

Back on shore, here is Monty Murray-McNaughty with Lyndall. Special kudos to fellow tennis tragic Murray who went to China to watch a tennis match. As you do.

Stats: Newbies - 2 that I know of; swimmers - 94 ticked, almost certainly more; water temp - you know that already

And now for something completely different, a word or several from management

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 (Cardonnay).

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

What am I listening to? It's my habit to pick something I like on Youtube Music and then let it do its thing but not today.

This is quite bizarre. Shonen Knife is an alternative rock band formed in Osaka, in 1981. Heavily influenced by 1960s girl groups, pop bands, The Beach Boys, and early punk rock bands, such as the Ramones, the trio crafts stripped-down songs with simple, yet uncoventional lyrics sung both in Japanese and English. (this from Wikipedia).

A very strange set of influences for a 3 piece female Japanese band. They are playing the Metro on November 8 and 9, I think I might go.

 

Summer is coming and so are the swimmers

280 swimmers and 9 newbies despite the still cool water temps

(I must say I'm rather partial to the colours of this year's winter badge. Don't forget The Ceremony on 22 September, let's all get in sync for it)

It's a newish feeling to leave home in full daylight but in a few weeks when daylight saving starts we'll be back with darker mornings for a while.

The early morning ambience at Manly

The 6:30 crew, some of

Dog of the day, Polly

Here are 4 newbies, all the way from Cronulla. When I asked if they were going to the NRL game against Manly later and they said maybe. Hope you enjoyed your first swim with the Bolds, and we see you back soon.

The drum lines are back nuff said

It's Robyn's birthday - happy birthday, Rob, hope it keeps getting better all day. Here with son Edward, and Kerry

Errol

Another of Robyn's sons, Keith with honorary WOW Dave

Gillian blog tarting

In we go

A gentle reminder on etiquette - this is a social swim. Barging through your fellow swimmers and potentially causing injury is just not nice. If you want to get past someone and there isn't space between that person and the people next to them, please just go around them.

At Shelley

Cloning

Amelia and Elanora.  6 weeks to go, Amelia before you meet your small human

I only just caught Robyn's birthday splashes

Once again I missed the turtle, but we have lots of friends in the bay

The crayweed appears to be growing

The surf lifesaving season starts in 2 weeks' time, and the activity is hotting up.

Robyn and Edwina

Here's fabulous sea creature photographer and fellow blogger Lainey, smiling despite having missed the turtle too.

Some of the OMOS (Old Men Of the Shed) trying to keep the evil Witch of the WOWs at bay

Fellow blogger Elizabeth reckons I take fabulous wave shots. This is the best I could manage in today's flat conditions

Management notices

2019 Winter Badge Ceremony – Sunday 22^nd September

You’ve done the hard yards and earned your Winter Badge(s), now come and collect your badges with all the pomp and ceremony the B&B can muster.  Bring along $10 for each badge you have earned (correct money appreciated). The venue is the Royal Far West Centre (Wentworth Avenue, Manly) on Sunday 22^nd September, straight after the regular swim! Everyone is welcome, family, friends and swimmers alike.

A $5 donation will be payable to the RFW at the gate for hosting this event, and .... RFW will provide a FREE breakfast (sausage sandwich and a coffee/tea). Bookings are essential to ensure there is enough food.  Book here for Badge Ceremony.

All 2019 winter badge qualifiers will be presented with their well-earned badge(s), so whether you are getting one personally or you want to enjoy the celebrations of your fellow swimmers, a great morning is guaranteed, so come along, soak up the atmosphere and get inspired for the upcoming summer badges.

In conjunction with the badge ceremony, Royal Far West will be holding a raffle with great prizes, so don't forget to bring along extra money for the raffle (credit card payment facilities will be available for the raffle).

 

EMMA'S AT IT AGAIN!!

I've signed up to walk 35km in one day in The Bloody Long Walk. I'm walking to support people living with mitochondrial disease (mito), a debilitating, terminal disease that affects thousands of Aussie kids and adults. Mito is a cruel disease that can strike anyone at any age. There is no cure.
Please support my 35km walk by making a donation through my fundraising page:
https://event.bloodylongwalk.com.au/s/7410/8175/e
All donations are tax-deductible and a receipt will be sent to you immediately. Your support will help The Mito Foundation continue their work to improve the lives of people living with mitochondrial disease and fund research to find a cure.
Thank you.
Emma Grose

What am I listening to? While writing this blog a documentary came up on my Youtube feed while I was listening to something entirely unrelated  - the collaboration of Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris. It was a interesting doco and I am a sucker for vocal harmonies which is a good thing because I get to listen to music I may not normally. 

 

Prescription: A swim

It is great to know that when you need a swim, you can go to Manly and swim with others. It was not a pool swim today but I really enjoyed it. I think it rated as quite bumpy which bumpier than pretty bumpy. It was caused by onshore winds which means winds that are coming into the shore. By contrast with the nor' easterly (see me use the abbreviation like an old salt) which are winds which come from the northeast. I think

Mel and Vincent kindly posed - they don't even need to start to get ready by 6:53 am because they are so fast. Both very photogenic!

About 95 early swimmers - a photo of some of them from the path 

Management business 

 

Lovely morning time

tropical temp and climbing

There was applause and excitement on the beach. It is understood a swimmer may have proposed to another swimmer while doing booty camp. So much going on!

WOW - Cheryl spotted out of the water

Early swimmers passing on intel

The Keast girls (two of them)

By popular demand, I have discontinued the shower scenes and am now trying to get waves. It is VERY hard to show wave movement. I know it can be done - see Anne Henshaw's photos. But I am still working on this. An admirable goal because waves terrify me. 

 

But I do have blogger radar - the random people I photographed today including Anita who is a birthday girl. What a star

Here she is - Happy birthday Anita

Also Paul 's birthday

Thanks, Elaine for getting this photo of them 

 

The Monthly Dinner – 10^th September 2019 – Guest Speaker

The Next B&B monthly dinner for the year will be held on Tuesday 10th September at 6.30 pm at Bluewater Restaurant. Our guest on the night will be Emily Kempson, who is Australia’s 2019 Ultraman Female Champion. After suffering a fractured sacrum in the lead up to the 2018 event, Emily managed to overcome her injury and win the 2019 Female Ultraman title. This was no mean feat, as the event is conducted over 3 days and includes a 10 km swim, 421 km bike ride and a double marathon (84.3 km). Emily will talk about why she was attracted to the event, what her lead up training was like, the number of people who helped her in the race and their roles (it takes a village), her nutrition during the event and recovery each day, how she kept focus, dealing with injury and disappointment to come back stronger and what’s next.

Please book early for this event as it is sure to be popular. The cost of the dinner is great value at only $25 ahead, which includes shared entrees, and a selection of mains to choose from (including a vegetarian option). Glasses of beer or wine and desserts are also available at the special price of only $5 each. Numbers are limited, so bookings are essential. To avoid disappointment and secure your spot please book at www.boldandbeautifulmanly.com.au/bb-bluewater-monthly-dinner.html     

 

2019 Winter Badge Ceremony – Sunday 22^nd September

You’ve done the hard yards and earned your Winter Badge(s), now come and collect your badges with all the pomp and ceremony the B&B can muster.  Bring along $10 for each badge you have earned (correct money appreciated). The venue is the Royal Far West Centre (Wentworth Avenue, Manly) on Sunday 22^nd September, straight after the regular swim! Everyone is welcome, family, friends and swimmers alike.

A $5 donation will be payable to the RFW at the gate for hosting this event, and .... RFW will provide a FREE breakfast (sausage sandwich and a coffee/tea). Bookings are essential to ensure there is enough food.  Book here for Badge Ceremony.

All 2019 winter badge qualifiers will be presented with their well-earned badge(s), so whether you are getting one personally or you want to enjoy the celebrations of your fellow swimmers, a great morning is guaranteed, so come along, soak up the atmosphere and get inspired for the upcoming summer badges.

In conjunction with the badge ceremony, Royal Far West will be holding a raffle with great prizes, so don't forget to bring along extra money for the raffle (credit card payment facilities will be available for the raffle). 

AIR GUITAR

SAVE THE DATE - CrawDaddies Play for Streetwork 7:30pm Saturday 21st September - Manly Bowlo

 

If you love the simplicity, thrill and exhilaration of winter swimming in sluggos, you'll feel right at home on the dance floor shaking around to pure rhythm & blues three-chord songs of the 1970's, 80's from the CrawDaddies on Sat Sept 21st at Manly Bowlo - starting around 7:30pm.

 

We're getting the band back together again for STREETWORK - the best little charity on the beaches looking after local kids experiencing debilitating and life-threatening stress. STREETWORK desperately need more counsellors, so every dollar we raise on 21st September will be going to support the Counsellors who support the kids.  

 

The final line up will be announced closer the Gig. (For a fee we might even adjust the play list).

 

So even f you're not desperate and dateless or just after good club food, a few beers and a party with buddies - come along - those who swim with wetties are also welcome, though we know you can't shake it like the non-wettie's! We might even have a shake-off! Come prepared.

 

There'll be silent auctions, $35 entry tickets, lots of prizes (we hope) and good music to raise funds and awareness for Streetwork.

 

Any questions - chat to Jim Stackpool (a 6:30'er) - 0414 54 1818. 

 

 

Reading

Lots of crime fiction set in the Lakes District. Theroux's book on UK - Kingdom by the Sea; Nine Pints - about blood by Rose George which I loved  until it covered leeches which I hate and soon to start Bill Bryson's new   book because I am going to see him speak.  I like his books a lot

 

05/08/19 - Rinse Your Lens

Before taking a photo for the blog, I always check the lens is clear. If not, a quick rinse in the ocean clears it. The button is then pressed and the camera's brain captures that beautiful moment as clearly as possible.

Life's been evolving for about 3.7 billion years. Central nervous systems have only been around for about 600 million years. Rudimentary brains came on the scene about 100 million years later again.

As an evolving life form you've been a body for about 3 billion years longer than you've had a brain. Although the modern brain organises and co-ordinates your moments,  it's always doing so through the lens of the body.

Ever noticed how life looks different after a swim? It has that easy clarity...

Remember that, because Life is a string of moments. If you want to capture the full beauty of the moment, it's important to rinse your lens.

(click photos for clarity...)

 

 

 

 

 

 

With love,
Andrew Maher.
Foundation, Neuro-Structural Optimisation. Collaroy (mention you swim with B&B)

Stats
Swimmers:  167
Newbees: 1
Water:  17.6 deg C

Winter swimming
The B&B Winter swimming season starts on 1st June. Although the water temperature may be a little colder than you might like, there are several advantages of swimming in winter, including flat seas, good visibility and no bluebottles. Perhaps the biggest advantage is that you can also qualify for a winter badge by swimming a minimum of 20 times between 1st June and 31st August. You must also swim in at least 7 different weeks. 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). Start now, and don’t forget to log your swims to qualify.

 

The Monthly Dinner – 13^th August 2019 – Guest Speaker
The Next B&B monthly dinner for the year will be held on Tuesday 13th August at 6.30 pm at Bluewater Restaurant. Our guest on the night will be B&B Swimmer, Duncan Young, who is the head of health and wellbeing for Lendlease. The title of Duncan’s talk will be ‘Does the ideas of living to 100 excite you or fill you with dread?’ He will speak about ‘living and working in the age of longevity’, what can we learn from super-agers about elongating our healthy lifespans? Don’t miss this very interesting presentation.

Please book early for this event as it is sure to be popular. The cost of the dinner is great value at only $25 a head, which includes shared entrees, and a selection of mains to choose from (including a vegetarian option). Glasses of beer or wine and desserts are also available at the special price of only $5 each. Numbers are limited, so bookings are essential. To avoid disappointment and secure your spot please book at www.boldandbeautifulmanly.com.au/bb-bluewater-monthly-dinner.html

When too much perfection is never enough

Nothing to complain about when it's the weekend and the morning looks like this. I honestly believe every morning is perfection; immersion in it provides an opportunity to remember that even for a little while we have this daily refuge of calm and beauty. 

Ready for their daily immersion.

                           Baby Bear, Mama Bear, Papa Bear 

And off they go

6:30 swimmers including this trio

World's best babysitter - mum is off swimming

finishing an early one

Wot?

Taking in the morning spectacle

Here we go, the low tide walk to the point

Ian contemplating the newd double, at least his face will stay warm

No wetsuits for these tough wimmen

The unedited elbow

?????

I feel I may be losing my fish photo mojo - the residents were being anti social this morning. Possibly if I  put on a wetsuit and stayed in the water for longer.....

These ones pretty much ignored me

Diver was checking out the underside of this rock for quite a while

So I had a look.....

At least I saw these mysterious creatures 

Look who's back! It's the love sponge.

SAving the best for last, this is Victoria who completed 1000km yesterday and  pulled plastic out of the ocean today. Doubly legendary.

Stats - 250 swimmers, 5 newbies, 16.7 degrees

Management notices:

 

The Monthly Dinner – 13^th August 2019 – Guest Speaker

 

The Next B&B monthly dinner for the year will be held on Tuesday 13th August at 6.30 pm at Bluewater Restaurant. Our guest on the night will be B&B Swimmer, Duncan Young, who is the head of health and wellbeing for Lendlease. The title of Duncan’s talk will be ‘Does the ideas of living to 100 excite you or fill you with dread?’ He will speak about ‘living and working in the age of longevity’, what can we learn from super-agers about elongating our healthy lifespans? Don’t miss this very interesting presentation.

 

Please book early for this event as it is sure to be popular. The cost of the dinner is great value at only $25 a head, which includes shared entrees, and a selection of mains to choose from (including a vegetarian option). Glasses of beer or wine and desserts are also available at the special price of only $5 each. Numbers are limited, so bookings are essential. To avoid disappointment and secure your spot please book at www.boldandbeautifulmanly.com.au/bb-bluewater-monthly-dinner.html

Here' s an idea that B&B swimmers who live in the Manly electorate might like to support - A Festival of Seaweed!

The Sydney Institute of Marine Science together with Dorset and Anne put forward an idea for a science, art, food festival around seaweed.  and they are now at the stage of promoting the project to locals to encourage their vote. It’s through the NSW Government Generation fund.  The community submit  projects for review, but the decision as to which project receives funding rests with the Manly electorate community who are able to vote for their preferred projects. They are now at the stage of promoting the project to locals to encourage their vote. All the information is on the SIMS website – see link below with all the detail, including relevant links for voting, plus the attached document

http://engonet-sims.azurewebsites.net/news/77/my-community-project

What am I listening to? On the way home I heard this on the radio. Hadn't heard much from the Indigo Girls - I believe they may have broken up. Nice live version with special guest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h79Tw7SbuhA

Thanks y'all

 

 

 

One small step...

There wasn't much talk  today of the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, so there's your reference and lets get to the topic of today. Swimming in the sea.

A sizeable contingent of ski and board paddlers. Not a bad way to start a morning as we all know.

Shortly joined by the swimmers. Dry weather, light offshore wind and a small swell with lots of southerly in it give us the conditions we like.

Warmer than yesterday. Just.

The 6:30s heading off

Matt with a UFO (the probes!)

Andrew was honing his blog tart skills today.

Keep practicing, Andrew, it's a time honoured tradition

This is James. James is a distance ocean swimmer, well known among us and has just written an autobiography. He has asked for some photos for it. The plan was to go to Shelley but you know, plans.  John B, Alanna and I swam with him in search of the perfect photo opportunity and in so doing visited many areas of the bay, Not sure if we got the perfect photo, hope one will be good enough.

One teeny catfish

Cat in A Hat and Bananas in Pyjamas

Aahhh, coffee

Found in the ladies' change room. It will be with our lost property tomorrow

Coco and Baci

Until tomorrow....

Management notices:

 

The Monthly Dinner – 13^th August 2019 – Guest Speaker

 

The Next B&B monthly dinner for the year will be held on Tuesday 13th August at 6.30 pm at Bluewater Restaurant. Our guest on the night will be B&B Swimmer, Duncan Young, who is the head of health and wellbeing for Lendlease. The title of Duncan’s talk will be ‘Does the ideas of living to 100 excite you or fill you with dread?’ He will speak about ‘living and working in the age of longevity’, what can we learn from super-agers about elongating our healthy lifespans? Don’t miss this very interesting presentation.

 

Please book early for this event as it is sure to be popular. The cost of the dinner is great value at only $25 a head, which includes shared entrees, and a selection of mains to choose from (including a vegetarian option). Glasses of beer or wine and desserts are also available at the special price of only $5 each. Numbers are limited, so bookings are essential. To avoid disappointment and secure your spot please book at www.boldandbeautifulmanly.com.au/bb-bluewater-monthly-dinner.html

Here' s an idea that B&B swimmers who live in the Manly electorate might like to support - A Festival of Seaweed!

The Sydney Institute of Marine Science together with Dorset and Anne put forward an idea for a science, art, food festival around seaweed.  and they are now at the stage of promoting the project to locals to encourage their vote. It’s through the NSW Government Generation fund.  The community submit  projects for review, but the decision as to which project receives funding rests with the Manly electorate community who are able to vote for their preferred projects. They are now at the stage of promoting the project to locals to encourage their vote. All the information is on the SIMS website – see link below with all the detail, including relevant links for voting, plus the attached document

http://engonet-sims.azurewebsites.net/news/77/my-community-project

 

 

 

What am I listening to? Well, being the anniversary of the moon landing...... Space Oddity? Too predictable. The Joker (Some people call me the space cowboy)? Naah.

Something a little less well known. 

 

Tuesday 16 July 2019

6:30 Crew catching the start of the day

6:30 Crew caught on camera this morning

Not sure where the fish went in this photo

Poser...

7 am crew pushing past the cold water this morning as they enter!

Did anyone else get brain freeze for their first few strokes?

Nice calm waters today made for a quick swim over to Shelley Beach

Happy Birthday to Lynda for today :)

Lynda enjoying a morning swim and a homemade cake for her birthday!

Today's stats:

Water Temperature: 15.7

Swimmers: 150

Newbies: 1

Notices

Anyone lost their dentures? Jacqui found these in the surf yesterday, so give her a call or send her a message on the number below if you haven't already!

Jacqui Stevenson  Ph. 0438225086

 

 

Feel Good | Look Good | FISKI

A new range of funky, fun, affordable, well fitting goggles for sale directly from the creator in Western Australia

Retail from $22 per pair. Enjoy B&B 10% Discount by using code: winter10

Buy 3 pairs for free delivery

 

She's at it again Every year, Emma shuns alcohol in July for a great cause. Please donate to Emma Grose's Dry July Australia http://www.dryjuly.com/users/emma-grose

Stay calm and carry on swimming

We're in the depth of the Sydney winter (which isn't that bad really) but still we respond to the call of the sea. A good sized crowd swam today

Water temperature was quite a shock to some

While others did not appear perturbed

This is taking calm to the next level

A bit of cool weather won't stop Manly LSC board and ski paddlers

The blogger walkabout.....

A 6:30 swimmer with heat source

Cheryl, fresh from Lady Elliot Island

I think today is his birthday

Fiona setting off on another marathon

Polly

Sunrise will be coming up at around 7am for the next little while - another thing to enjoy

Still it's pretty brisk

Elbows in the water, now!

New wetsuit - nice

Shelley

The Let's Go comes a bit faster at wintertime

Heading back, someone noticed a cuttlefish. A healthy looking cuttlefish. He may have missed his chance at love this season, but got another shot at life. Hope it's worth it, buddy

Here he is hiding

By the time I was done looking at this lovely creature, I noticed I was pretty much alone in the bay, so made my way post haste

But stopped to watch this groper and crimson banded wrasse at the point

This is Beth who kindly gave me some of her hot water - thanks!

Ian has been working on the levitation skills

Management notices

Feel Good | Look Good | FISKI

A new range of funky, fun, affordable, well fitting goggles for sale directly from the creator in Western Australia

Retail from $22 per pair. Enjoy B&B 10% Discount by using code: winter10

Buy 3 pairs for free delivery

 

She's at it again Every year, Emma shuns alcohol in July for a great cause. Please donate to Emma Grose's Dry July Australia http://www.dryjuly.com/users/emma-grose

What am I listening to?

It's Wimbledon time and King Roger is in the final. As is Queen Serena

You can find Roger's press conference following his semi final win over Rafa here

 

Foggy with a chance of sea creatures

Very foggy this morning and the winter swell was still up

Still the bold gathered. What was going through their minds as they gazed through the mist?

No shortage of blog candidates. 

Lisa and David (miraculously I remembered!)

Saturday blog leader and excellent photographer, Edwina

Doggy love, with Maxine's unintentional photobomb

More musings

More dogginess

part of the WOW family

As to the conditions..... Ian addressed the crowd who listened intently. Swim to your ability and confidence level was the message (as it is every day really, but when the sets are big and heavy it's always good to be reminded and be real)

Murray came out of the water around the 7am mark and was very excited to have seen a dolphin.

Some went in from the beach

While half way was a good option. That's where I went in.

The dolphin was sighted from the water but you'll have to take my word for it.

I did see a dusky however, and Sheena said she saw 5.

The fog was spectacular from the water

Looking for the dolphin

fellow blogger Elizabeth

I got into the pool for this - what we do for art.

It had cleared up and hour or so later, it's going to be sunny.

MANAGEMENT NOTICES

CHRISTMAS IN JULY
B&B FUNDRAISING NIGHT, 
TUESDAY 9th July from 6.30pm
Generously sponsored and hosted by The Steyne Hotel
All B&B swimmers and their family and friends are cordially invited to our inaugural Christmas in July Fundraising Event – (no under 18 unfortunately)

ONLY $30 PER PERSON INCLUDING A MEAL. PLACES ARE LIMITED SO BOOK NOW. TO SECURE YOUR PLACE, PURCHASE YOUR TICKET(S) OR PURCHASE A WHOLE TABLE HERE
Please wear your best Christmas paraphernalia on the night. Theme and dress up your table for the chance to win a prize. It will be a fun night, so don't miss out! First in best dressed... If everyone is very well behaved, we may get a visit from Santa himself. Who knows, if you are really good, Santa may even let you sit on his lap.

Enjoy a delicious steak or chicken dinner. A vegetarian option is also available on request, please tell us at the time of purchasing your table. Drinks will be available at bar prices.

Lots of silent auction items will up for grabs, and there will be live auctions right through the night. We will also have a monster raffle which will be drawn at the conclusion of the evening. If you or someone you know would like to donate an auction item or a prize, either individual or for a table please let us know (email Ian at ugoboyo@gmail.com). Funds raised will support both the Royal Far West and the B&B, two great causes.

 

Royal Far West

Show country kids you care by taking part in one or all of some of Sydney’s most iconic upcoming running events with team Royal Far West.

Including City2Surf, Manly Fun Run and Blackmores Half Marathon.

Register your spot today!

royalfarwest.org.au/run

 

What am I listening to? When I write the blog I go to Youtube and let ifind what it will based on the first thing I search on.

The first thing I searched on today was Billy Connolly's hilarious sketch about dangerous animals in Australia

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It seemed appropriate.

Why it led me to this I don't know but I thought it was great

Enjoy the rest of your weekend