From Carol Cashell and Angela Harris:

To coincide with the Pieta House Darkness into Light Events, (See their page here) we are holding a Darkness into Light Swim at Myrtleville (as an alternative to the 80 runs being planned that morning!).

Meet by 4:45am & Swim at 5:00am on Sat 9^th May (Twilight is at 05:10, Sunrise is at 05:50).

Some Notes on the Swim:

• There will be a donation Bucket for contributions to Pieta House.
• Meet by 4:45am
• Safety Briefing at 4:55am (and we will number everyone’s hands for check-in/check-out)
• TITW (Toes in the Water!) by 5:00am
• Swim a Max of 30mins (for safety reasons, please adhere). Whatever your speed, turn back after 10-15mins. 5mins is also an acceptable swim time.
• DO NOT swim on your own, swim in 2s/3s, stick with your swim buddy so you can talk to them to check in with each other, don’t swim in huge groups, you’d be calling names all the time and your voices will travel over the water!. There will be less stop/starting with smaller groups.
• Respect the time of day, arrive quietly, avoid shouting, slamming doors etc, common sense really, just be mindful of the sleeping residents.
• We will meet at the bottom of the steps at 4:45, away for the houses to make sure we are all glowing.
• As the colour of Pieta House is yellow, if you have a yellow hat, or a hat with yellow in it, wear it, it’ll be our nod to the Cause.
• Remember it’s only May, expect the air to be cool at that hour. Have the layers of clothes ready for after the swim, and of course the Hot Flask for a cuppa!.
• Bring a Flash light, you’d be surprised what you can’t find in the dark in the car!
• After you get changed, and have your cuppa, and are wrapped up warm, enjoy the sunrise 🙂

As this is a night swim (to start), swimmers must have glow sticks on their hats and togs/wetsuits.

There is a link below to show you what the disposable single use glow sticks are like. These are an ideal alternative to the pricier reusable light (but that does have hundreds of hours light on it). It’s worth it to buy a batch of the snap&glow sticks if you will be doing more night swims over the next year or so!

There are cheap jewellery disposable versions in EuroGiant/Dealz etc, but these are not very bright out at sea and they tend to not stay in place too easily (they are not really made for sea swimming!). These should only be used as fun top-ups to the better stronger glow sticks. Plan ahead, do some research online, pair up with someone to share the costs of buying the glow sticks (share shipping costs etc).

Check these out on Amazon as an example of what you are looking for, for one time use, glow sticks.  There is also an Irish Website that sells them.

The reusable night lights for your goggle straps are Called ‘Guardian Adventure lights’ (they can be bought in Centra Crosshaven or CH Marine, Cork). If you want to buy them online, just Click!

Finally, I shouldn’t have to remind you, but as always, this swim is weather dependent :-

And Really this is a Finally, If anyone is willing to help out and stay on the beach while we swim and count us in/out, we’d love to have you, and also, anyone willing to kayak, we’d love to have you there too.. We’ll feed you coffee and cake (well, maybe not cake at 5am, but the offer stands!).

It was only a matter of time.  With Eddie missing for months and Jumpin’ J skipping rehearsals for jaunts to Ballinspittle and Spain (equally lovely destinations, of course) there was clearly a gap to be exploited.  As Denis says, leave it to the mnás.

With careful planning and protestations that they just happened to be buying new togs, Carol and Breda got ready with the moves.  On Monday night – Voila, The Seaweed Shuffle.  Serious candidates for the new Myrtleville troupe – costumes and all.

I believe it was inspired also by Aisling Barry’s new wave (get it?) Harlem Shuffle solo at the weekend.  I think Marie was supposed to make it a duo but got caught by a warm one.

As Mr. Finbarr says – it’s all happening in Myrtleville.

Thanks very much to Eilis Burns for an excellent talk last night.  Those who didn’t know her got an insight into why she’s the best coach around and those who did know her still learned something new – or got told they couldn’t swim, like Bernard.

Eilis with the audience fully engaged! Thanks also to Yvonne for tech support.

Eilis & swim model Cashell show how it’s done.

Eilis refused any money for the night but insisted on a T-Shirt – ‘priceless’, she said.

Bernard Lynch looking delighted to have found a new master salesperson in Ros O’Brien. Ros is now in charge of all T-Shirt sales!

Pat Higgins and Tom Bermingham – sorted for the Summer with new T-Shirts.

Some similarities in fashion sense beginning to emerge.

Unusual one of Siobhan in front of the camera – with Breda Maguire and Barbara-Anne Richardson.

What did I learn tonight…?

The venue is the Coastguard Station in Crosshaven.  If you don’t know where it is, it’s opposite the entrance to the RCYC on the way in to Crosshaven or view it on Google Maps on this link:

Location:    http://bit.ly/1wZM7p0

Don’t be late for this woman – even if she is 🙂

From Carol Cashell and Angela Harris:

To welcome the change of season to Spring and daylight saving, we are proposing a mini series of swims over Easter Weekend. The Idea is similar to the Turkey Swims, it’s all about the craic (and Cake)!. No payment, No prizes, just times to add to your Diaries that we can have groups swimming. The Sandycove times are from the schedule and Myrtleville swim 08:15 every Sat and 18:00 every Monday (from Easter).

In BOLD I have ‘Bunny Times’ where we will try and get a good group to swim together and have a chat (maybe no cake on Friday!, but other days will be fine) I have also listed other times if people can’t make a Bunny Swim Time. (There is a good chance to catch the sunrise on Good Friday @ 7am!.)

So pick what suits you, hopefully weather will behave and it’ll be inviting enough to get people back in the sea after winter hibernation, and the seasoned winter swimmers will have company for a change.

Remember, if this is your first weekend back, be smart, don’t stay in too long, swim with someone for company, and wrap up warm afterwards. This weekend schedule is all about starting to reacclimatise and the social catch-up!

Suggested garb for swims.