Sunday 20th Feb

My apologies that the posts have been a bit sparse of late (in fact none).

The last set of tides (15thy to 18th Feb) came and went with the Wellington wind consistently over 15 knots.  Maximum for a strait swim to start is a forecast of 10 knots variable or better.

I am now second in queue for the set of tides from 25th Feb to 1st Mar.

I will not be travelling to Wellington to wait and see if I get a swim but will wait and see when the allocated swimmer goes and then be prepared to travel down on the late flight that day if conditions are still good on the following day.  I am unlikely to know for certain until about 7pm the night before the swim.

The consistent easterlies we have had in Auckland lately have been hard work but good training and I have been trying to keep swimming 40km + /week. this is usually made up of 10k Saturday, 10k Sunday and 20k 1 day midweek as well as the beach series sprints at Takapuna and Kohimarama on Tuesday and Thursday.  These usually end up about 4km each including a bit of a warmup.

Last Saturday was the Bean Rock swim (3.1km) in very rough conditions and I was quite pleased with 7th place overall.

To set the record straight the Helen who has been pacing me on many of my longer swims is Helen Adams and not my wife Helen.  My wife Helen thanks all those who have commented so favourably on her new found swimming prowess.

It's The Corsair Classic at Christchurch on Saturday 25th and (Wife) Helen and  I will be flying down on the Friday.  If all goes well we will be returning via Wellington.

Monday 7th

It has been a bit quiet on the blog front over the last week but I have not been resting. 

I got in 4km Tuesday, 3km wednesday 20km Thurday 6km Saturday and 10km Sunday.  Thanks to all of you who paced me on these swims, specially Helen who went well beyond the call of duty doing 3 laps on Thursday
It was frustrating not getting away on my set of tides but looking on the bright side as you will see from the temperature chart the surface temperatures in the Strait have risen 2 to 3 degrees over the last week.

I am second in line for the next set of tides which start Thursday or Friday this week.  I will not know until 7 pm the night before and will be hopping on the late flight to Wellington for a (probably) early morning start.

It is now in the hands of the Wellington weather.

I plan to do the beach races on Tuesday and Thursday and a longer swim on wednesday evening.  If the swim doesnt happen in the weekend I will probably do the Bean Rock swim.

Watch this space