Balmoral Swim

Saturday was a beautiful morning about 15 degrees when we got to Balmoral but by the time we came out it was a comfortable 25 and clear. Water was 18.5 and compared to the previous couple of days smoke haze was at a minimum. 17 swimmers turned up for a swim and only 2 dressed in the wuss suit and Viviana braved the water in her Tri suit to test it out for Noosa. Vlad was out on the ski, the floating feed station was out at the buoy, Viki was keeping me in check and the boys – Shimmi and Fredo were on puppy minding duties with Chino.

The course was our regular long loop times 2 which involved heading to the beach near the Balmoral Baths and back into where the feeding station was, then heading up to Chinamans beach and back to the feeding station. The idea of coming back into the feeding station each time is to allow us on the beach to check things are OK and also to prevent those with a tendency to head to NZ on the way to Chinamans and back from heading out to sea. Makes it a wee bit safer.

We had a few who did just one loop but this loop for them was the first time they had swum that far in open water. Congrats to Wendy and Emily. Rob got out as his forearms were cramping due to we think a big week in the pool especially with Paddle work. The others finished off the 2 loops in times ranging from 2 hours 10 mins to 2 hours 20 mins.  ! A loop is between 3.5-4.0 km so most would have done 7.5-8 km for the 2 loops. Not a bad workout for a Sat.

Afterwards the guys doing the channel had a meeting to go through the plan and a few logistical bits and pieces. I’ll do a summary of what we went through for those involved.

Congratulations to everyone for a great swim and look forward to next Sat which will be at Bondi