I woke up this morning feeling pretty ordinary and being in one of these bad moods where I become such a charming person to be around. Luckily the kids and dog don't kop it from me like Sal does, so once I took the kids and the dog to the small beach at the Spit where I spend most mornings I started to feel somewhat better, and Sal, who had things to do, probably did best by not being around me.
The walk to and from the beach is...challenging. I have a dog who is hell bent on getting to and in the water as quickly as possible and a daughter who either runs like a nutter or dawdles. Daughter number 2, along for the ride on my back is currently far easier to take along. First stop was the bakery where I handed AJ the money to go in and get herself an iced snail and me a coffee. Then it was to the Harbour via the Gallipoli steps.
The steps are quite steep and Sal will avoid them if she can. They are also a shortcut, so I tend to take them. The trip down the steps today was enlivened by a woman and her Wiemaraner overtaking us half way down. We stopped to let them past; Rowlf, of course, wanted to play. Which was fun; a playful pup and 5yr old dog meeting on a precipitous set of steps, me with a 3yr old by my side and 1yr old on my back. The meeting went relatively well, and other than Rowlf wanting to take off after his new best friend the rest of the descent was relatively uneventful.
The beach is always a bit of fun. I split my time between playing with Alex, preventing Harrie from eating too much sand and throwing anything floaty as far out into the Harbour as I can so that Rowlf leaves me alone to play with Alex and prevent H from eating sand. Today was different only in that H is now walking. This week she decided it was time to walk and walking is the new sitting. So that was the start to the day; we popped into the kayak store so AJ could try on a lifejacket - the yak gets wet tomorrow - and then it was home to hand the kids to Sal while I did my weekly sweep of the attic for dead rats. Two this week.
A bit of food down the kids and then they had their naps while Sal went to Pilates and I decided to try and groom Rowlf; it's been a while and he is starting to knot a bit. It went not as badly as it could have. Then Sal got home...and I was given a free pass for the afternoon.
We'd had some rain on Thursday and Friday but not enough to stop me thinking about a dip in the ocean. The water has been silly-clear for the last week, even the Harbour at the spit looks fairly gin. I'm pretty much over my cold and I could clear my ears. The howling gale (ok, strongish wind) was blowing from the west, so the Bower should be OK. A quick look at the Manly Beach cam showed there was no surf whatsoever. I grabbed the has-been-packed-for-months bag of snorkelling gear (I can't really justify calling what I do freediving can I?) and headed for the Bower.
Before leaving I said to Sal I was not taking a camera, so it was probably going to be great...
Without a tank to worry about the parking is far easier and I found a spot a couple of streets back from the water. I geared up and took a quick picture of myself in a wetsuit, in case it never happens again. Then it was down and in. The water looked lovely. There was a kid in board shorts and a rah vest standing in the shallows. In my 3mm spear suit, hood, booties and gloves I felt pretty damn soft.
A couple of guys swam past in just their swimmers. Yep, I'm getting old and soft. That said, it felt chilly to me and I was glad of the neoprene. The water was fairly clear; a little "milky" but I could see the bottom, about 6m away, from the surface so i had plenty of visibility. It's not shark season and I didn't see any sharks. I headed out and south, over the kelp and small reef. Plenty of small fish about and a bossy Grouper hassling another kept me company. I dropped down to the bottom a couple of times but on the third time my left ear stubbornly refused to clear. I came back up a little, swam around at a couple of metres and then went back to the surface. Bollocks, thought I. On the surface it cleared, and on the next attempt it took a little coaxing but cleared and from then on it was fine.
The Shelly side was not yielding much more so I turned and head north to what JCJ called "Aztec City" because the large boulders brought that to mind. There are usually lots of fish over there and today did not disappoint. I passed quite a few Old Wives before I met up with the resident school of mullet. I had a swim around with them. I'd drop down a few metres away and then slowly come to the surface among them. They don't give a toss about me and tolerate my presence. Despite the shivering there was no way I was leaving now. Drop down, swim around a bit and then come up through the sun's rays piercing the clear water and a big school of fish. Is it any wonder I feel better in and after being in the water?
I swam over, around and between the rocks trying to find a Wobbegong or Port Jackson shark or maybe a giant cuttlefish, none of which put in an appearance today. As well as the schooling mullet there were plenty of wrasse, more old wives, seargant baker, big eyes...the usual suspects. As I went across another couple of rocks I spotted a huge school of yellowtail and headed slowly towards them. Like the mullet they tolerate people swimming with them. With the yellowtail a few metres off I upended myself and headed for the sand. And then I spotted something else, something that looked a lot like a turtle under a rock. I veered off to find that the thing that looked like a turtle under a rock was a turtle under a rock! Fucking hell! There's a turtle under that rock! On and off I have dived and swam in Sydney for 10years and this was the first turtle I'd spotted. All thoughts of looking for anything else disappeared and the remainder of my time in the water was split between swimming though yellowtail (packed so tight that I felt a bit queasy among them) and the turtle. He (she?) raised a flipper and had a look at me but was unconcerned by my intrusion.
I would have liked to stick around until he/she had decided it was time to breath or swim off but I was shivering controllably and was in no mood to start shivering uncontrollably. I had a final dive to spend some final time with the dude and then headed back to the shore, ending my dip with about 45mins in the water. I got out with stinging feet and fingers that were purple and yellow. I may or may not have my dad's looks but I certainly have his circulation. There is a coffee shop at the waters edge, so still in my suit and dripping wet I wandered in and grabbed a cookie and coffee. I stood for a while at the seawall, looking out over the flat ocean before heading back to the car to start warming up.
I felt a million dollars. Just being in the water makes me feel better, but a day like today, well...
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