Week 42 Saturday 16 March to Friday 22 March
The Sirens restaurant is at the eastern end of the Williamstown beach. I’ve got a hunch – based on no evidence whatsoever – that it might be more popular with visitors than locals. It was a dilapidated, abandoned, vandalised building – change rooms, I guess – for many years. About 20 years ago it was the location for a ghost-story in the children’s series Around The Twist.
About 100 years ago this part of the beach featured private hot sea baths, until a sizable storm in 1922 huffed and puffed and blew everything down.
I’ve been snorkelling a little off Sirens lately. Just mooching around, not expecting to find anything.
This week’s dips:
Saturday 16/3. 7.30am. Chicken Channel, supposedly reserved strictly for old blokes -especially skinny old blokes wearing a snorkel – is invaded by rubber-men, triathletes churning up the water. Busier than Bourke St.
Sunday 17/3. 7.30am. High tide. Big southerly winds. Beach all to myself. Where are you rubber-men now? Where are your wetsuits and your watches and your caps and your perfect techniques?
Monday 18/3. 12.50pm. Low tide. Fairly clear.
Tuesday 19/3. 6pm. A little choppy.
Wednesday 20/3. 4.30pm. Low tide. Clear. Mooching about near Sirens.
Thursday 21/3. 4.30pm. A howling cool northerly. Serious wind. But the water is relatively calm. Almost flat. Rain spatters the water. Get happily soaked riding home.
Friday 22/3. 4.30pm. Calm. Pottering around off Sirens.