Week 31 Saturday 29 December 2012 to Friday 4 January 2013
The Willy Dolphins had their annual breakfast in late December at the Rotunda Cafe on Williamstown Beach.
Once again the group’s poet laureate Kevin Moran summed up the year with an ear for rhyme.
Here are some extracts from Kevin’s 2012 poem, The Year That Dolphins Surfaced…
THE beach at Willy runs east-west, but to swim year round is the test
The group has varied as we know; I’ll list them all as we go:
Andy, Clive, Dan and John; Karin, Keith follow on,
Kevin, Lester, Mark and Mike, who comes along on his bike.
Pam and Paul and Roger too, and Teresa, who has since shot through.
Tom and Vin and by all reports, Digger and Kimba are canine escorts.
Many others do come by, some to swim some just say ‘hi’…
The team is growing as the good word spreads, the simple rule is no clashing heads.
Speeding cyclists on the bend, calls to council for the practice to end
They oblige and a sign they erect, shows an abductor in actions suspect
Tom went in the corporate teams, on Australia Day it seems,
he swam like hell in a relay split; and fell over the line to finish it.
The Big Bay swim saw some action, three Willy boys the main attraction
An older one picked up first while one dog owner quenched his thirst…
By Summer’s end with all the fame, the team was in a winning frame.
The swimming group needed a name and suggestions freely came
Some were witty some were lame some were rude others tame
Ideas flowed back and forth, with all and sundry having sixpence worth.
A polar fleece to keep out the frost, with simple design to keep down the cost
Willy Dolphins was the name embossed; while Chilly Willys just got tossed
As the winter months grew near, a few of the team seemed to disappear
Teresa sought another clime and headed bush before winter time.
Attendance levels were an ebb and flow certain folk were just no show
Colder days, absences noted, while in Broome and Corsica they floated
Or up in Noosa where it’s warmer, recovering from some imaged trauma
Even Kimba had a rest, with his good keeper way out West.
We lost a buoy off Willy beach, it drifted off out of reach.
VicParks said all was fine, they would replace it with a marker sign.
A marker post has been installed, most of us are now enthralled
A 5 knot speed sign has been fitted, and boating vessels are not permitted…
The council promised a new carpark, when it’ll be done we’re in the dark
First they put a fence around, and then they knocked the dunnies down.
Vegetation was removed quite quick, then they did a magic trick,
The graders moved up and down as they dug up all the ground.
Replanted palms with fonds stripped bare, stand like sticks in the air
Alas, the car park is yet to appear, and this has been going on all year.
But now the year has reached its end, we greet each other as a closer friend
We wish all folk far and wide a happy and wholesome yuletide.
– Kevin Moran
(My dips this past week were Urquhart Bluff, Eastern View, Moggs creek, Sunnymeade (Aireys Inlet), Williamstown and Jawbone Sanctuary.)
365 swims 