I think Chad brought the Wellington weather back with him from New Zealand as, after a glorious week, we woke up to a wet and windy Sydney. A call to the event organisers confirmed that the race was still on; after all, this swim is a celebration of Sydney’s water quality (as part of Sydney Harbour Week); so, a little bit or a lot of rain wasn’t going to stop it.

I must say that the Sydney Harbour Swim was well worth getting up for. The opportunity to swim in Sydney Harbour is a rare one, and one I recommend all swimmers to experience. I felt very lucky to be swimming out to Fort Dennison with Lady Macqaurie’s Chair on my right, then turning and heading towards the Harbour Bridge, then into the Opera House. Truly, it doesn’t get more picturesque that that!

Although Sea’s the Limit didn’t have many swimmers in this event it was good to catch up with a few other regulars, such as the Mollymook Sunday Swimmers, Oceanswim.com, some swimmers from Norths AUSSI (Kylie Elbourne and Lilli Matthews) and the guns like Deke Zimmerman and Josh Santacantarina. 

The field managed to spread out over the course, I only had an encounter with one swimmer, who after tapping my toes, proceeded to come straight over the top of me and then clunk me in the head. It was Chad. I thought it was a joke as I recognised him, but he didn’t even know it was me! I think he had a bit to give the swim after a week of waiting for good weather in New Zealand….

This swim also saw the launch of the new Sea’s the Limit swimming costumes.

Chad and I both narrowly missed out on placing in our age groups, but exerted enough energy to warrant a lot of sleeping for the rest of the weekend.

~Clare~