First longer training swim

Sunday 16 May

Well this was the first longer swim of the year. The plan was to swim from Watsons Bay in Sydney Harbour, out to the Heads and down the coastline to Bondi, a distance of 10km. I aimed to set off at 5.15am, to have another practice at swimming next to a boat in the dark, and also to make it to Bondi in time to meet the annual organised 10km South Head Roughwater Swim. We would then turn around and head back to Watsons Bay.

However, the weather had different plans. The day before there was a three metre southerly swell and I decided it would be too difficult (not to mention not much fun) for my support crew to battle in to that for at least four hours.

I made the decision not to go ahead with the two-way. I contemplated just doing the one-way from Bondi to Watsons Bay but wondered whether it would actually go ahead given the surf that would no doubt be crashing into Bondi.

I still wanted to have a longer swim so I met my paddlers, Anna and Margie, at Double Bay at 6.30am, with John on the support boat, and we set off on a four hour harbour swim. Conditions were pretty good - the water was clear (as clear as the harbour gets anyway) and very warm. We had a headwind for a couple of hours so it wasn't an easy swim, but a good way to loosen up for the longer swims to come this year.

Thanks very much to Margie and Anna for forgoing their Sunday morning lie-in and their support paddling, and to John for looking happy as anything up on the stern of the newly fixed boat.

PS. The South Head Roughwater did indeed go ahead after all - the surf wasn't too bad at Bondi and swimmers and paddlers made it out safely. And ironically enough, it wasn't the southerly swell pushing the swimmers north that was an issue, it was the strong current heading in the opposite direction that caused many swimmers to take much longer than anticipated. Well done to all who attempted it, and those who made it.