Auckland Harbour ... the red line is this season's course, from Bayswater, whilst the white line is last year's course, from Devonport. Spot the orcas!

And around Cockatoo Island from the Dawny pool. A spectacular course, indeed.

Sampling the water in Auckland Harbour.

Insular peninsula resident Glistening Dave got lost on his way to the Dawny swim, as do most northern beaches bums as they approach the City of Sydney. Dave reports: "Driving and looking through my front window, as I take a shot without managing to run into anyone else, or off the road (or get caught by the fuzz, Dave might have added: os.c), as I am about to cross the Harbour Bridge..... The day was not looking that crash hot!"

"Well, I missed the bridge and ended up in the Harbour Tunnel....... Tthat's what happens when you drive and take pics at the same time... Had to do a rat run back through the city, and onto the Anzac Bridge... The day was not getting any better."

Just to remind us, the scene at Dawny last year...

... and this year.

Glistening Dave and his clouds.

Yet again, in the cold of early morning, the hula girls were out to greet us at the start of the Auckland Harbour swim.

Bayswater, and the Auckland Harbour start.

Waiting.

More waiting.

In the distance, Auckland organiser Scott Rice is climbing onto the bonnet of a 4WD to tell us that, as the ferries had shuttled us across the harbour to the start an hour earlier, four orcas (killer whales) were spotted coming in with the tide. One ferry, Rice said, was waiting at the wharf to take back anyone who now felt they'd rather not swim. Orcas! Sheesh! We saw Free Willy. They're gentle and harmless, aren't they?

Wetties at three paces. She doesn't look bad, really.

1.1km mob shuffle out at Dawny.

Just getting the mind into the right space!

Auckland Harbour.

Out to the start at Bayswater, Auckland Harbour. Some people ended up under that bridge in the distance, apparently.

Auckland had four orcas in the harbour whilst the Harbour swim took place. Dawny had just one. One that Glistening Dave saw, anyway. While some had eyes for nothing else.

Waiting.

Orcas? What am I doing here?

The 1st wave start in Auckland Harbour. Some of those arms are very straight. Far too straight, indeed, for good swimming over a distance.

More of the mob.

Sums up how people were feeling.

The Auckland Harbour swim is an international event, as was Dawny, for we had Satit, from Thailand, and his daughter.

Pre-start, Auckland Harbour. Where are those orcas?

Uuuummmm,, a wettie!, even though the water was quite pleasant. (20 deg C, in fact.)

Yeah, just push them in, only way to go.

The 2nd wave starts at Bayswater, on the northern shore of Auckland Harbour.

"Damn, didn't win again!"

Master of ceremonies, Rob Duckworth, showed again why he is the best announcer on the ocean swimming circuit. Duckworth, a disc jockey with 2Day-FM -- that's the jacket he was wearing, anyway -- adds a dimension to the Dawny swim with his subtle judgement on what to say, when, and when to shut up. A delight. Helps to make the Dawny swim one of our favourite days of the season.

1.1km start. If you look hard, you might see oceanswims.com taking his pic (see below) from the wall of the Dawny pool.

As the mob left the water in Viaduct Harbour in Auckland, someone played the national anthem.

The time keeping system.

The The seagulls were enjoying themselves.

Tangled with the orcas.

Special mention at Auckland Harbour to Andre de Witt. Andre happened to be on the docks when this swim finished last year. He wondered, according to a note he left online with his entry, what he was going to do with his life. Andre started training, lost 20kg, and did this year's swim in a touch over an hour. Good boy, yourself, Andre! That's the spirit of ocean swimming. It's any mug's game.

Grim codger arrives for tough challenge. Don't make fun of him, though. It's old farts like this who really know what they're doing in open water. No sense of humour, though, clearly.

Melee at the start of the 1.1km swim. Who says they're softies!

No turning back.

Yes, there is a heavy chop in the upper reaches of Sydney Harbour.

The Dawny swim has a lot of water poloists, which probably includes this character, who seems pretty good at sighting, his head high and straight, whilst his leading arm still stretches flat in front of him.

Every year at Dawny, and at plenty of other swims, too, we manage to get a pic, just like this, of John Macleay taking his bearings. At Dawny this season, we found out why. We saw John coming from 50 metres off. Just as we suspect he'd spotted us well before we'd spotted him. And every stroke, John would lift his head to "sight", photogenically ...

Well, John, that's your ploy, and it's worked yet again.

"J-J-J ... are you in trouble?"

No, this isn't posed! Not for a moment.     The Dawny swim takes you through some of Stray'a's most stunning heritage urbanscapes.

It was cool at the Dawn Fraser Pool, but Lizi Simms did play it up just a tad.

"You boys, you're just that big ..."

It's as certain as night follows day, to borrow a line from Andrew Peacock, that Mrs Sparkle will covet whatever oceanswims.com orders. We think it's a girl thing. We've known other women who are just the same. We say to Mrs Sparkle, "Just one bite ... but don't leave girl germs on it!"

Spring colour at Bundanoon, on the NSW Southern Highlands. Why are these pics here? Because we were blown away with the place when we visited back in October.

Mrs Sparkle shoots the breeze with a new cobber at Bundanoon.

Mr and Mrs Tacoma Jim took a photo of themselves at the start. Doing the big swim this year is some triumph for Mrs Tacoma Jim, who is diabetic.

... so you have to wonder about this choice of dish for afters in Balmain ... but, no, this is Tacoma Jim's lunch, not the bride's. This is how he eats normally. You would, too, if you did as much swimming as he does.

Toot the Tug is moored just off the jetty by the Dawny pool.

More bloody seagulls.

Waiting for their free sausage rolls.

Tacoma Jim shooting pics of seagulls while he waits for bride, Mrs Tacoma Jim.

At the end of the day...only the bloody seagulls left.

Waited all day, still no-one to talk to.

A special award to oceanswims.com, made by organiser Peter Simms in sympathy to a pathetic old codger who never wins anything. Pete recognised that something special would have to be done, or we could go through our entire career without ever mounting a dais. Thank you, Pete, and Balmain Water Polo. The prize was a Balmain Water Polo hooded sweater. We told them later we were Rabbitohs, but we have friends who are Tigers.