The Last Weekend of Winter

Early today I set off for my final swim of winter in thick fog. As I arrived at Coogee, the sun had just begun to burn off the worst of it, but it was still a little misty out on the ocean.

The water is back to 17°C again after dipping down to 16°C last weekend. The water seems to have stayed warmer this winter. These temperatures are so mild, that we've even had some bluebottles (portuguese man of war) drifting in on the unseasonal onshore breezes.

The water was very clear. There were scores of small fishes swimming alongside and below me. I did 20 beautiful lengths avoiding the occasional  bluebottle.

A Wintry Day At Wylies Baths

Yesterday, it was blue skies and bright sunshine, and a perfect Winter's day in Sydney. The baths were gorgeous, and some people were even sunbathing on the wooden decks.

Today is a different story. The skies were grey, the breeze was cold, the rain drizzled down and the top temperature for the day was 15°C. 

According to the board, the seawater temperature was 17°C, but it seemed cooler than that. After I finished my 25 lengths, the hot shower felt like it was scorching my skin. I haven't had that feeling since the 14°C water in San Francisco last year.

Winter Swimming At Last (and only three weeks left)

The notice board at Wylies Baths tells the story. The seawater temperature has finally dropped down to a winter level. Last weekend it was 18°C; this weekend it's 16.5°C. I doubt that it will drop much below this temperature now. In a little over three weeks it will (officially) be Spring.

I swam my twenty lengths in clear, sparkling water. Though the temperature is a bit cooler than recent weeks, it's still mild enough to swim in just a pair of speedos and no swimcap.

There seem to be a lot more people swimming right through the winter these days. There also seem to be fewer people using wetsuits. 

Finally - A Little Calm

Swimming in the sea has been difficult these past couple of weeks, even at low tide. The swell has been very big (up to 4½ metres some days). Wylies Baths has been closed to swimmers on and off over the past few weeks. Last weekend I didn't get a swim at all. So, it was with relief that I read about the swell dropping during this past week. As the weekend approached the seas flattened out, and I was able to turn up at the pool for an early morning swim, even though it was just after high tide.

It was a glorious morning, but the air temperature was a wee bit on the cool side at 9°C. On the board it said that the sea temperature was 18°C, but I'm somewhat sceptical about that. The first length felt colder than I've been used to recently. Still, three years ago it was about 15° at this time of year, and it got down to 14° during early August. In any case, the water was clear, clean and refreshing. I swam 20 lengths through several small schools of tiny fish, then sat in the sun until I started shivering. A hot shower and a hot mug of tea soon fixed that.

About a fortnight ago, I was swimming here in rough conditions at low tide, when I noticed that one of the two posts that stick up out of the pool was missing. It had been buckled over and bent under the water by the force of the waves. The image below shows the two posts, which is how Wylies has looked for the 25 years that I've been going there. In that time they've been used to rope off a wading area for small children in the summer, but nobody seems to know what they were originally intended for nor how long they've been there.

Big Seas

Last week I had a pretty wild swim on high tide at Wylies Baths. Nothing too unusual about that. This week there has been a big swell off Sydney, so it was too dangerous to swim while the tide was high. But, even at low tide, it was a wild old time in the pool.

All of these photos were taken at low tide. Actually, two days ago it was probably even wilder. Even today, some big sets were crashing into the pool and washing up over the concrete platforms at the base of the cliffs.

Twenty lengths seemed like thirty today after struggling against the swell.

Strangely, though, the water temperature is back up to 18°C.