Week 26 – half-way there

Week 26 Saturday 24 November to Friday 30 November 2012

39 degrees. 5.10pm. 29 November 2012

365 Swims has reached the half-way point: this caper started on 1 June 2012, so if my calculations are correct there are only 182.5 swims to go. Easy. It won’t get cold again til April or so, by which time I’ll be counting down the last 60 swims. Too easy.

The Half-Way Week had plenty of variety.

Illustration by Andrew Baird, from The Mariner, April 2002

‘Snorkelled at Jawbone Marine Sanctuary on Saturday, Sunday and Thursday. Hardly any fish, but it’s always cool and peaceful.

Image courtesy of Reefwatch

‘Saw a small banjo shark in the shallows  at Willi beach on Wednesday morning. Banjo sharks are also known as fiddler rays and banjo rays. I reckon they have the head of a stingray, the tail of a shark and the colouring pattern of, almost, a giraffe. Talk about an identity crisis.

This strange vessel turned up at Willi beach on Wednesday morning. Mysterious at first, by day’s end the riddle was solved. A new marker.

In the background, the new yellow marker. (I wasn’t game enough to swim out there and take a pic.)

The new marker has buoyed the spirits of the serious swimmers. No need to worry about the yellow buoy near the angling club floating away anymore. There’s now a large yellow marker with a sign and a cross, a solid post for all to see: swimmers, anglers, and %^&*% jet-skiers.

39 Degrees. 5pm, 29 November. Several hundred reasons for swimming at 6am.

Serious heat arrived on Thursday. Thirty-nine degrees heat. Snorkelling at Jawbone was a relief – from the heat, and from the crowd at the beach.

Willy Dolphins celebrate reaching the 365 Swims half-way mark. Photo courtesy of fortinbras/flickr