Week 46 Saturday 13 April to Friday 19 April 2013
Good swimmers have a technique that is like clockwork: everything in the right place and everything moving at the right time. I’ve never owned a watch, which might partly explain/excuse why I’m no swimmer.
The Frank and Edith Becroft Clock at the Williamstown Swimming and Life-Saving Club is in no hurry to return to non-daylight saving time. It’s happily an hour behind.
Some swimmers arrive at the beach like clockwork: same time every day. All part of a rhythm, a routine, a timetable.
I usually arrive between 6.30 and 7 in the morning and even five minute variations will mean different faces. On Thursday of this week I didn’t get down to the water til after 9am. There was a scuba diver with his little floating buoy exploring the end of the western groyne. He emerged with his oxygen tanks and buoy and wetsuit as I walked in with my snorkel. And there was a bloke with a Magpies tattoo on one calf and bandaging on the other. He had some fishing rods. “I”ve got to spend 20 minutes in the water for my legs, so I may as well cast a line. You never know.”
Scoreboard: 322 swims, 43 to go.
Next week: Remembering Artie, ten years on
