Ink everywhere

Proud boat owner

This past weekend we took advantage of the sunny warm weather to take the new upgraded boat out for a spin up in Pittwater.  We bombed around with our new faster motor for a while checking out some different fishing spots and trying to catch some squid.  

this would be perfect kingie bait

Much to our surprise, after casting our jiggs around for a while we actually saw a squid follow mine up from the weeds and then grab onto the jigg!  We got it closer to the boat as it started squirting ink and water in all directions.  Of course, as soon as we got it right next to the boat in the net, it treated us to a huge squirt of ink all over and into the boat.  Who knew that squid ink was so thick?!  

if I don't make eye contact maybe it won't fly away

After several hours of boating and fishing, complete with Chris trying to entice an eel to take his lure by dangling it right in front of it, we headed back to the ramp.  As we were gettiing ready to pack up the boat a massive pelican landed next to us and started walking towards us. 



inching closer....

What you don't realize when you see them sitting on a dock or out in the water is just how large these birds are.   

We ended a great day out in the boat (really, how can you have a bad day out in a boat), with some fresh caught squid for dinner. 

There must be some trick to this to avoid completely ink covered hands!

Of course it also had to contribute some ink to the fish bag, although we thought for sure it must have already shot it all at us, but most importantly, we've proven that you don't have be fishing at 6 am to catch squid.

Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead



ferrari hat makes you run faster

While Chris was enjoying taking pictures of the wild seas and ridiculous winds, I dragged myself out of bed extra early on Sunday morning to participate in the City2Surf, a 14K run from Sydney to Bondi.



Manly beach in the morning, great day to stay in bed

 After a restless night waking up several times to the wind splattering the rain against the windows and thinking about how miserable it was going to be running in this weather, I was greeted by gray skies but no rain on my walk to the ferry.
   

It's going to be fun right??

After a rocky ferry ride from Manly I met up with the team in the CBD.  As a group we peer pressured each other into doing this together and made it a team event.  We huddled together a bit for warmth and watched the first two groups take off before we lined up with our group for the start. 

ridiculous number of people willing to race 14K

With about 69,000 people running the race it was a game of dodge and weave through the sea of people.  There were also prizes for "fancy dress" (costumes) and I spotted a few supermen, bananas, and most excitingly someone dressed as Waldo.  Along the course there were plenty of people cheering and music blasting to keep up going.  Best sign from the crowd - "Worst Parade Ever".

It's all worth it for a medal

The run itself went a lot better than I'd expected, and the infamous Heartbreak Hill was not nearly as bad as I'd feared, although some people were calling it Heartattack Hill as we were running up it.  The worst part was not realizing that the race actually wrapped around part of the beach until I'd already put on my final sprint only to see another 500 meters to go!

James and I gutted it out together, still smiling at the end

James and I pulled each other along and managed to finish in just over 82 minutes, not a bad effort for our first attempt. 

Bondi beach at the end, never as great as Manly



we survived!

After the race we were lucky enough to be able to go to the other James's apartment in Bronte (of course at the top of a hill) for some much deserved bbq and beers.  We've now also decided that the best post race recovery food has to be Tim Tams, washed down with a beer of course.
 

every race shirt needs a good motto

After a few funny days at work while the whole team walked around gingerly, the plans are already starting for what the next team race should be.






Wild Windy Winter Day

This past weekend we were scheduled to go deep sea fishing for tuna, which have a run up the coast during wintertime.  We unfortunately woke up on the appointed morning to face 40mph winds and 8 foot seas and quickly learned that the trip would wisely be cancelled.

The Freshwater/CurlCurl headland, usually you can walk on the submerged parts

When the clouds broke, I took a walk up the coast with my fellow photography enthusiast, Webs to watch the waves smash up on the rugged headlands.

We saw our ordinary haunts transformed into a maelstrom of pounding waves and driving winds.  At some points it was a struggle to just stand still and we had to yell to communicate.

The water was higher than we have seen it, there is a submerged walkway in here somewhere

Chaotic patterns in the water

Boom!  Waves smashing up on the way to Curl Curl

The walkway from Harbord Diggers to Curl Curl

Wild waves breaking on the way to Curl Curl

Water Draining off the rocks

A few weeks ago we were hanging out ar the Curl Curl pool, watching the surfers:

Here is the same spot this past weekend:

And the reverse angle:

As you can see, totally submerged, we wouldn't have stood a chance.

The waves put on quite a show, we were impressed by the number of people out and about, doing what we were doing.  Lots of people were walking around, some taking their kids out to view nature's fury.  It ended up being a cool way to salvage out cancelled plans and proved once again that the ocean is endlessly entertaining.