Following the Swim

There won't be any blog updates during the swim. 

For updates and photos, James will be looking after the Twitter feed here:

https://twitter.com/Swim_Sydney

You don't need to log in or sign up to follow it, just click on the link.

And we'll have a live tracker on board so you can see our progress:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=06o4DOyB0Fqpq1YnQcqA9jMutW79rMNg4

This has been very kindly loaned to us by Tori Gorman, so it will say 'Tori's Tracker' in the column in the left. Thanks very much, Tori.

And if anyone feels this is worth a dollar or two to a good cause, the link to helping out the Inspire Foundation is here:

http://personalchallenge.gofundraise.com.au/page/SwimSydney

See you all on the other side, safe and sound, hopefully.

Palm Beach Start at Midday

Conditions are looking favourable for a north-south swim. We have a small SE swell running but all anecdotal evidence we can muster (lacking hard data) suggests there is a good north-south current running. We may have to head a way offshore to find it but swimming north would mean we'd have to hug the coast to avoid swimming against the current. Plus, the winds will be swinging round to the nor-east Saturday afternoon so we'll have them slightly behind us and hopefully giving us a good run down the northern beaches while I'm still fresh.

I've been lucky enough to have the expertise of Matt Hayes from Sydney by Sail on the team. Matt has done numerous Sydney to Hobarts so he knows a thing or two about currents (though I did stress that I'm built slightly differently from a maxi yacht and probably not equipped to head out to the continental shelf...)

The finish will be on Horderns Beach at Bundeena, near the ferry wharf, some time on Sunday morning. The hour goes back at 3am, so it will be groundhog day for the crew, while I remain completely oblivious. Hopefully we can benefit from this current and arrive some time mid-morning.

And yes, I'm nervous. The cold overnight, bluebottles, sharks, possibly in that order. Oh, and the 'chance of a thunderstorm' tomorrow afternoon. Lightning is never a good thing when you're swimming. 

Here's hoping it will all be.

Start Date Confirmed

After days of frantically scanning six different weather sites (which probably all get their information from the same source anyway) it's starting to look good.

Forecast is for a 1 metre SE swell, and light ESE winds during Saturday, freshening in the late afternoon & evening, before dropping off to calm overnight and possibly swinging round to the SW. They should swing SE again during Sunday morning and into the afternoon but I have most things crossed that I'll be finished by lunchtime.....

It's pointing towards a south to north swim, starting at Bundeena at midday and finishing at the northern end of Palm Beach. We're just waiting on confirmation about the currents. Our expert weather guru says that the warm water temperature (a crazy 24 degrees at the moment, not that I'm complaining) suggests a strong southbound current, in which case we may swap.

We'll make that call in the next couple of days.

I was so nervous about whether we were going to get to swim at all, and it feels fantastic that we're going to start. Finishing is another matter entirely, and a whole new set of nerves.....