Mid-afternoon swim at Gordon's Bay, against a graying sky.
Early evening dip at Gordon's Bay. Quite pleasant, some surf.
Leisurely early evening swim at Gordon's Bay. Loads of cars down at Coogee.
Late afternoon swim at Gordon's Bay.
Early evening swim at Gordon's Bay.
Late afternoon paddle at Gordon's Bay. Loads of people there, some even in
the water.
Late afternoon dip at Gordon's Bay. Some people took one of the row boats
out. No bluebottles in sight.
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...
Mid-afternoon swim at Gordon's Bay. Beautiful weather, quite calm.
Mid-afternoon dip at Gordon's Bay. Beautiful day for it.
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.
Quick dip at Gordon's Bay around lunchtime (and then a late lunch).
Noonday swim at Gordon's Bay. Not as hot as the BOM's forecast led me to
expect.
Swim in the early afternoon at Gordon's Bay.
Swim in the late afternoon at Gordon's Bay.
Swim around 6pm at Gordon's Bay.
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.
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.
Quick late-afternoon swim in a surprisingly cold Lake Coogee. The place
is filling up with accents. Incredibly flat surf.
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.
Quick swim at Gordon's Bay in the mid-afternoon, trying to beat the
rain. (It didn't show up until nightfall.)
Quick late-afternoon swim at Gordon's Bay, as the front passed through.
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.
Quick swim at Gordon's Bay after work, at 6:30pm.
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.
Tried swimming at Coogee with Ben (up here for APLAS) but it was too
rough. Off to Gordon's Bay for us.
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.
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.
Another late-afternoon swim. More decent waves. It's still a touch cold,
difficult to stay in for more than half an hour.
Swim in the late afternoon (isn't daylight saving grand?). Some big waves
(purportedly 2m), all classic neck breakers.
Quick swim in the late morning at Coogee. Flat as, a little cold.
Quick morning swim at Coogee, a big swimming pool. A little cold.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yet another swim at Coogee circa midday. Some surf, a bit warmer. Quite
a crowd for early October, perhaps due to the school holidays.
Swim at Coogee around 11am, hardly anyone about. Some waves relative to
the past few days, a bit warmer, quite comfortable.
A quick swim at Coogee around midday. Pretty cold, about the same in as
out. Some waves, hardly anyone else at the beach.
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.
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.
Another swim at Coogee, flat as a flounder. A bus had rammed into the
side of a car at Alison / Carrington, cops attending.
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.
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.
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.
Rob and I headed down to the south side of Little Bay. Finally all
my gear seems to work OK. Not much to see.
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.
