Heading off in chase of Linda, we stopped suddenly as Sutho’s hawk eyes spotted a sea cucumber (forevermore known as Sutho’s Sea Cucumber) on the sea floor. A few strokes later, another abrupt halt as Sutho directed our attention to a fish that Bevan and Dave thought was a flathead, only to be advised that it was Aptychotrema rostrata. If you are guessing that Sutho didn’t say that, you would be right. Hedging his bets, he informed us that it was a shovel-nosed shark or stingray.
The Australian Museum website tells us that it’s an Eastern Shovelnose Ray. Check out the photo below. It grows to 1.2 metres or 4 feet. Wow! It’s camouflage was impressive. It blended with the sea floor as it stalked its prey (which fortunately wasn’t us).
Ok, enough with the distractions Sutho! We reached the post and set a course home via Gwen, down to the far cone, and back around the dirty cone. Sutho almost cleaned the barnacles off one boat.
Some facts about the swimming idiots winter season:
- Pre-dawn idiots Paul and Phil swam without wetsuits the entire season. Idiots! Linda also accomplished this feat.
- Real Idiots Bevan, Linda, and Judy have been the most consistent idiots swimming in appalling conditions throughout the season.
- Chris M. may have attained Real Idiot status.
- Dave has tried to be consistent but the Tour De France and a warm bed on particularly cold mornings had been too tempting to pass up.
- Seasoned idiots Mike, Warren, Ruth, Peter, Jim, Malcolm, Chris C., Di, Meg, Sally, Paul, Peter & Meryl, and.. (who am I forgetting?) have been regular attendees.
With Spring around the corner perhaps we will see the return of Stephen and Richard…
Geez….
It’s the first day of spring…. and I’m thinking to myself… what are the Idiots doing… and lo & behold…plenty!
It should be noted I have been seen very occcasionally by Linda having a weekend swim in a long wetsuit during the warmth of the day but will be back soon for a morning dippy dunker…… in a wetsuit until it hits 20 degrees thank you very much!
Surely my surfing at Balmoral counted for some Idiot status award… I have the cuts on my foot to prove it.
What time Friday morning…6.30 am … I just might be there?
Cheers,
Stephen
The summary report was so good I wish I’d been there for the winter swims (sort of)…spring has sprung and I dare say I may scare you with an appearance this month. Hats off to the real idiots for their Winter performance…madness!
Dave, what a brilliant wrap up and excellent research on the shark/ray. It was a great sight. I do have to question your observation of the Sutho Sea Cucumber, as when I looked on line, the sea cucumber is a slug like creature and what we saw, was a plant. I suggest we need to revisit my cucumber when appropriate. I also recommend you douse your googles with Ipana, as I now have vision like a hawk under the water. It was helped this morning with the incredible clarity under the water and quite amazing that we could see the ocean floor out at the post.
Can I also suggest we re-visit our t-shirt design for summer and order 20 or so for the idiots. I do like the line “SWIM WITH THE IDIOTS” and BALMORAL BEACH SYDNEY, so put that forward to get the ball rolling. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing you all at 6.30 munyana for another marine park tour out to the post.
Sutho’s Sea Slug” sounds slippery!
You’re right re: cucumber but I think Adele should be the only one with visitation rights.
I had a look on the Australian Museum website too and couldn’t find anything that looked close. I might send Dave the diver an email and see if he knows what it is.
Great idea for the t-shirts.
Corker of a day for the last day of winter!