a (little) swim in the ocean

taking off after a quick intake of water and gu!

i got to be on the crew boat again for another swimming first today ... christie and a mate of his, chris, from townsville, were swimming from sth molle island back to airlie beach - a total of 17kms ...
starting at 9:48am .. finishing at 1:46pm - a total of 3hrs 58 minutes ... quicker than last years 14km swim from whitehaven to hamilton island ....
after a week of super yucky weather - rain,  wind and mugginess ... conditions, werent quite so bad today, no rain AT ALL - w00t! starting very choppy and windy though ... a couple of sections where they had to fight the tide, but, then fairly as ideal as you could ask for with a swim in the ocean, facing the elements ... the closer to the coastline, the calmer the waters, being protected but there was not a lot of area for that ...
the intake along the way ... ? chris. 1.8 litres of carb water, 5 gu's and 2 panadols! christie. 1.7 litres of plain water, 9 gu's.
amazing to watch it unfold! inspiring effort - a big congratulations to both swimmers, christie and chris, and to ross, the kayaker as well - (no more touching the shark stayaway'er'er's :D ) no sharks. it must WORK! :D

all photos can be viewed here

rope system for 'feeding' ...