peteg's blog - noise - beach

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Mid-afternoon swim at Gordon's Bay, against a graying sky.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Early evening dip at Gordon's Bay. Quite pleasant, some surf.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Leisurely early evening swim at Gordon's Bay. Loads of cars down at Coogee.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Late afternoon swim at Gordon's Bay.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Early evening swim at Gordon's Bay.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Late afternoon paddle at Gordon's Bay. Loads of people there, some even in the water.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Late afternoon dip at Gordon's Bay. Some people took one of the row boats out. No bluebottles in sight.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Tried to go for a late-afternoon swim at Gordon's Bay but ran into some things that looked suspiciously like blue bottles. Can't properly tell without my glasses...

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Mid-afternoon swim at Gordon's Bay. Beautiful weather, quite calm.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Mid-afternoon dip at Gordon's Bay. Beautiful day for it.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Managed to get in a quick paddle around 1pm at Gordon's Bay, before the thunderstorm. A little rough, a little cooler than earlier in the week.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Quick dip at Gordon's Bay around lunchtime (and then a late lunch).

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Noonday swim at Gordon's Bay. Not as hot as the BOM's forecast led me to expect.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Swim in the early afternoon at Gordon's Bay.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Swim in the late afternoon at Gordon's Bay.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Swim around 6pm at Gordon's Bay.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Early-evening swim at Gordon's Bay. Oh yes, if you want to go snorkelling in Sydney then that's the place to go... and Clovelly, and Little Bay.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Quick dip at Gordon's Bay late in the afternoon. While it was hot around noon, the wind cooled things off by the time I got there.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Quick late-afternoon swim in a surprisingly cold Lake Coogee. The place is filling up with accents. Incredibly flat surf.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Big trek over to Centennial Park for a coffee and newspaper perusal, then off to Gordon's Bay for a lazy late-afternoon paddle. A beautiful day in Sydney, supposedly 22 degrees and dry enough not to raise a sweat.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Quick swim at Gordon's Bay in the mid-afternoon, trying to beat the rain. (It didn't show up until nightfall.)

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Quick late-afternoon swim at Gordon's Bay, as the front passed through.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Went snorkeling with Rob at Camp Cove, from the beach there, along the rocks, around to (the infamous nudist) Lady Bay Beach on the harbour side of HMAS Watson. Got a bit sea sick after a while, and there were heaps of little white jellyfish in the water. Beautiful day for it.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Quick swim at Gordon's Bay after work, at 6:30pm.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
A dangerous surf warning sent me scurrying to Gordon's Bay. Full of crap after the recent rain, more bluebottles than I've ever seen strewn on the beach.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Tried swimming at Coogee with Ben (up here for APLAS) but it was too rough. Off to Gordon's Bay for us.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Again, too many bluebottles for me at Coogee, circa 5:30pm. A dripping Scotsman promised me there were plenty out there, that the sting lasted for but a wee minute. I figured that Gordon's Bay was worth a try, and so it was, even if there's not much happening without the snorkeling accoutrements.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Aborted the circa-5:30pm swimming attempt due to bluebottles. Truckloads on the sand, at the edge of the receding tide. I'm way too blind to play that game.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Another late-afternoon swim. More decent waves. It's still a touch cold, difficult to stay in for more than half an hour.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Swim in the late afternoon (isn't daylight saving grand?). Some big waves (purportedly 2m), all classic neck breakers.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Quick swim in the late morning at Coogee. Flat as, a little cold.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Quick morning swim at Coogee, a big swimming pool. A little cold.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Drove up to Queenscliff, just for some variety. If Surfcast can be believed it was about 19 degrees in, with some fairly small "one metre" waves. Beautiful day north of the Harbour.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Went for a swim late-morning at Coogee. By about 11:30 the classic shore (read neck) break was in operation, and getting out was (relatively) hard yakka. A little cold but so damn hot out. Fortunately the sand isn't yet scorching my feet. Coogee: a big swimming pool one day...

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Dr Gonk popped over for lunch, and we went for a swim at Coogee before that. A bit cold with the standard dumpers. He's off to England come December 1. Lunch at Coffee and Things, a beer at the Royal.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Quick swim at Coogee, late morning. The classic dumpers rolled in the whole time, and were a bit stronger than they have been recently. A bit chilly.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Swim at Coogee, late afternoon. Supposedly the max was nineteen degrees, but I'm sure it was warmer at midday. A bit choppy with a persistent off-shore wind, bloody freezing getting out.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Went for a snorkel with Rob at Gordon's Bay around 11:30am. Started out quite flat and warm but descended into some whitewater when a blustery north-easterly sprung up. Didn't see much. Had lunch at Paris Seafood at La Perouse.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Yet another swim at Coogee circa midday. Some surf, a bit warmer. Quite a crowd for early October, perhaps due to the school holidays.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Swim at Coogee around 11am, hardly anyone about. Some waves relative to the past few days, a bit warmer, quite comfortable.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
A quick swim at Coogee around midday. Pretty cold, about the same in as out. Some waves, hardly anyone else at the beach.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Dave was up for the long weekend, attending a dance party at the lake out the front of Fox Studios. We went for a swim at Coogee in the mid-afternoon. Incredibly flat, a trifle cold.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
A quick swim at Coogee, early afternoon. Not as busy as one would expect on a warm Sunday arvo. Flat as, slightly cold in places.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Another swim at Coogee, flat as a flounder. A bus had rammed into the side of a car at Alison / Carrington, cops attending.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Another swim at a Coogee. The waves were bigger but no stronger than usual, and the crowd thin. I reckon it was warmer in today than on Sunday.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
So I've been swimming at Coogee for the last four days straight. The water is still cool to cold, but with the land being thirty degrees and more with a blustery northerly it's actually harder to get out than stay in. Today's waves were the biggest yet, large but without power. No necks snapped in the time I was there.

First swim of the season.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
I braved the supposedly 19 degree water (if I'm reading the BOM's sea surface temperature map correctly) and early Irish tourists at Coogee in the early afternoon, sans wetsuit. Quite pleasant, once I got the shoulders in.

Second snorkelling effort for the season.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Rob and I headed down to the south side of Little Bay. Finally all my gear seems to work OK. Not much to see.

First snorkelling effort for the season.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link

With Rob I finally managed to buy a wetsuit at the Surf Dive 'n' Ski at Bondi Junction: an O'Neil spring suit (short arms and legs) that seemed to fit well. It cost $229.95.

After a lot of flaffing about — mostly in suffering delusions about buying such a thing at Bondi Beach — I lasted all of five minutes in Gordon's Bay before one of the lenses in my goggles fell out. I expect that some fish with a -3.5 eye can now see properly. Not happy! The wetsuit and gloves (purchased in Melbourne last weekend) worked fine, though.