I couldn’t have been luckier with the weather. We've had weeks of seemingly endless rain and, sure enough, I woke up on Saturday morning to hear the rain drumming down on the tin roof. Rain doesn’t bother a swimmer but it makes for an unpleasant day for the paddlers.
Fortunately, by the time we all gathered down at Shelly Beach in Manly at 7.30, the rain was drying up, the cloud was rising and the sea was as flat as I could have hoped for. I had been nervous during the week as a rogue nor’easter had washed in some dreaded bluebottles, but a couple of days of westerlies looked to have blown them away again.
James Goins had always wanted to swim from Dee Why to Shelly Beach so I convinced him that Shelly to Dee Why would be just as much fun and we set off together, with Margie and Millie paddling alongside. James and I first met a few years ago when we swam 10 km at Penrith Regatta Centre, practically alongside each other the whole time, so we’re happy swimming at the same speed.
The water was beautifully clear and we could see the bottom most of the way apart from when we were quite a way off shore. We had a Shark Shield on one of the kayaks, which came in handy when Margie saw a 4-5 ft bronze whaler nearby.
The swim past Curl Curl to Dee Why, along the headland, was absolutely beautiful. The scenery was very similar to that on the South Head swim – cliffs on one side and rocky boulders on the bottom.
James swam in to the beach at Dee Why, where his wife, Nicolee, was waiting to pick him up. It had been really lovely swimming with him (and the conditions were much nicer on the way up to Dee Why than they were on the way back, so he enjoyed the best of the swim.)
As I swam back to Manly, James and Nicolee made it up to Dee Why headland to take some amazing pictures – nothing I’ve ever seen quite captures the wonder and beauty of ocean swimming like this picture does to me, although this is possibly because I know I’m the almost invisible dot between the two kayaks.
It was a pretty tough swim back along the headland, particularly when we reached Curl Curl beach. As we came round the headland we were about 800 metres offshore and the strong westerly wind was whipping into us. We headed over to the headland at Harbord to try and take some shelter from the wind beneath the cliffs. Once there, the conditions settled down again, but it was a tricky swim over there straight into the wind chop.
It was a four hour round trip to Dee Why and back. At Shelly Beach, we topped up the drink bottles, Millie packed up her kayak to go to work, and Margie and I headed off to the northern end of Freshwater and back, hugging the beach most of the way. There’s a beautiful rock shelf off of the headland at Queenscliff which I’d never swum over before. That lap took another two hours, so there was only one hour left, which we filled with a swim up to North Steyne and back. I started to feel a little tired physically at about 6.5 hours, possibly because I knew the end was close, but mentally I was fine the whole time, quite content in the knowledge of what I had to do, and not particularly cold either (the water was probably 17.5 – 18 degrees, so I only shivered for five minutes after stopping for a feed but was quite warm the rest of the time.)
I was pretty tired on Saturday evening and a bit sore in the shoulders. I think we covered about 23 km. Margie and Millie were incredible – to offer so many of their weekend hours to watch me plod away in the ocean is amazingly generous.
Sunday morning and it was time to do it all again, this time down at Coogee for a change of scenery. Millie was paddling again, with John in the other kayak, and Anna swimming alongside. Incredibly, while I felt a bit stiff, as soon as I got back in the water, my arms just kept moving like they knew exactly what to do and nothing was hurting.
Again, the weather was beautiful – the sun was out and the sea was pretty flat. We headed up the coast to north Bondi and could see the bottom most of the way. There were plenty of Port Jackson sharks around, some gropers, and lots of fish. It was spectacular. It was a 3 hour round trip to Coogee, where we re-filled the drink bottles. I was having an absolute blast out there – the conditions were magic.
For the second lap up to north Bondi again, Anna was in the kayak while Millie and Chad swam alongside. As I headed across Bondi Beach over to Ben Buckler, the westerly was blowing pretty strongly and it was head on. It was a tough stretch across the beach and took quite a bit of effort. On the way back across the beach, I started to feel pretty tired mentally. I had a bit of a whinge to my kayakers: "I’m feeling a bit tired." "Yeah, whatever," they said, and just kept on paddling. Right, no sympathy to be had there then.
I had forgotten to order some more of my beloved Maxim powder so my drinks were fairly diluted in order to try and stretch what I had out over the weekend, and I could feel I didn’t have enough carbs in my system as we headed back down the coast to Coogee. Fortunately the swell and wind were behind me. Anna had a spare carb gel on her kayak so I got that down and it gave me a bit of a boost.
Just past Waverley Cemetery, as we reached the headland to Clovelly, I noticed the fish beneath me swimming very quickly in one direction. Usually, fish amble along in different directions and the only time they all swim like that is when something is after them. I looked around for a diving seabird but couldn’t see one. On I swam, noticing more and more fish swimming quickly under rocks. Whatever it was they were swimming away from was behind me. I noticed the kayaks stayed very close to me on either side; I didn’t stop to ask them what they’d seen. Afterwards on the beach, I mentioned the mental fish to John and he said that just off Clovelly he saw a ‘large grey shape’ nearby in the water. Thank goodness for the Shark Shield.
When we reached Coogee beach, I had been in the water for 6 hours 21 minutes (less 7 minutes on the beach to top up the drinks halfway) and covered about 19.5 km. I felt great – I hadn’t been too cold, too tired or too grumpy. The last 5 km had been a bit tough, but if that happens 10.5 hours into my Channel swim then I can cope with that. It’s all a matter of pushing that wall further and further away with each swim.
My support crew – John, Millie, Margie, Anna & Chad – was brilliant. John was really the only person who hadn’t had a choice about taking part in the weekend; everyone else volunteered their time without me even having to ask. As John said at the weekend: “Your friends are amazing.” Yes, they certainly are.
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