While some might have thought it was Thelma and Louise heading down the highway to Mt Martha, it was actually Tracy and Sandy transporting precious cargo (Jaye) down to the MMAD swim. Meanwhile Vito had dumped Anthony and instead spent the night with Raoul, carbo-loading on a beer or two (evidence provided).

The conditions on arrival to Mt Martha were close to perfect. Quick tip number 1: when you get there early it is REALLY easy to get a car park. The Beluga flag was swaying in a very light breeze, as the boys (Owen, Raoul, Anthony, Paul (underwater) and Vito) entered the water for the 5 km Crazy swim; a 2-lap circuit. Five minutes later Jaye took to the water (in a wetsuit, but we allowed her to) as the female contingent in the 5 km race.

Conditions were nice for the first lap (well they looked good from the shoreline), but the wind started to pick up and you could see the fun factor wasn’t quite as high on the second lap, but still the pace was hot. Owen gave us a good lesson on how to exit the water at the finish line, by dolphining a bit soon (sucking in his opponent), who then did the same as Owen went back to his stroke and snuck past for 3rd place. (Mental note, the shoreline is steep….just keep swimming, swimming, swimming….).

As we waited for the rest of our brave, strong 5 km swimmers to finish, in amongst the blue swim caps, was a pink cap, and yes we recognised the stroke, it was Jaye! What a scintillating swim. She beat four of the guys in (granted no wetsuits) who started 5 minutes earlier. Jaye’s time (1.18.28) had her in the top 20 overall. It was unanimous that we gave Jaye the BB swimmer of the meet (but after the 1.2 km swim was swum of course). Solid swims by all the 5 km Belugas who all swam without wetsuits. We breed them tough in Brunswick!!

The ladies next (Doris (wave before), Janet, Judy, Tracy, Sandy) all cleverly decked out in their wetsuits, lining up for the 1.2 km swim start, which unbeknown to the swimmers just started, no warning, just go! The course was good, but reminded us all of the Eastern Freeway funnelling in to Alexander Pde: bit busy, lots of people to have to get around, but once you got clear water there was no stopping. There were mixed feelings – some had good swims, others didn’t like the crowds, Janet wanted to keep swimming (prefers the longer races), but overall, another good day for the Belugas.

Before I sign off, quick tip number 2; don’t file your nails at the start line (cough, cough, Doris, cough, cough), nobody will notice you have a broken nail, and Sandy did hers the night before anyway, because according to some bloke at the start line at the last race, long nails gives you extra leverage on your stroke, but they also tears holes in your wetsuit, so pick your poison.

Well done to all the Beluga representatives in the Crazy 5 km and MMAD 1.2km races, and thanks to Anthony for the results.