. June 2019 .
Hello!
A little earlier this month.
We'll all be away over the next couple of weeks (more on that later) so thought we'd throw together our exploits for June. Most of them involving water!
Swim meets, sea swims and diving pretty much fill in the month! Maybe a little bit of Gaelic and a quick trip to Jamaica...
Read on!
Swim Bits
The Stingray Swim Club had a meet in early June. It was over a few days so involved a bit of swimming. Michelle officiated as usual.
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| Stingray team chilling in the shade between races. It was very hot! |
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| Sam off the blocks |
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| A fairly casual-looking warm-down/up |
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| Jake takes off under the watchful eye of the Referee... |
The annual One Mile Sea Swim was also held in June. As part of the build up, the local swimming association arranged an Olympic Distance Swim Coach to come and have a session with the distance swimmers from the club. Hopefully Jake picked up a few tips!
On the Saturday it was time for the mile. The weather was cooking!
We all took part. Michelle had missed the last couple of years but was back for 2019!
The race started at the Ritz and ends a mile down the beach at the Royal Palms. There was just under 1000 swimmers this year. Swimmers have 75 minutes to complete the swim, so it's manageable for most swimmer....even Dave!
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| Pre Race pic |
Sam and Sarah and a few other swim team members find something cute!
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| This is probably the only pic where you would see all four of us... |
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| You might see Jake in this one if you look really hard! |
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| And they're on the way! |
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| So, as you can see, Jake did pretty well! |
The first two in were a current Olympic distance swimmer, and a local Olympian. Alex is in the team with Jake and Sam. Pretty good company!
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| Jake and Alex |
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| Sam wasn't far behind. 22 mins in 33rd place overall. Very happy to come in ahead of Coach! |
Jake and some of the guys from the team after the Mile
Getting his trophy for the Top 4!
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Michelle was a little further back in 170th place (29 Mins).
Dave was just slightly behind Michelle (46 Mins. 612th). He did beat over 300 others though!
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| The top four place-getters |
Here's a random video of George Town(<==Click)
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| Dave was pretty happy to get a Beer-garita after the swim. Thirsty work! And proudly showing off his new hairdo! |
Speaking of Mexican drinks....
Well, not really, but sort of. Michelle and Sam popped over to Kingston, Jamaica for a couple of days to get Sam's US Student Visa for when she starts at Ohio in August. The process involves a face-to-face interview and Jamaica was the nearest place for that. They were told they had to stay for a couple of days to await the return of the passport but it turned out that after waiting for 3 hours for a 5 minute interview, Sam got the passport returned to her so that she could travel back - by that time it was too expensive to change plans so they slummed it by the pool and in the spa for an extra day.... Although, Sam did train one day with one of the local swim teams in a 50m pool which was a bonus.
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| Sam, Not training by a pool |
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| Margarita's are popular this time of year... |
Father's Day is in June in these parts. Sam and Jake cooked Dave breakfast and then took him out to Macabuca for a dive followed by a late lunch. Meanwhile, Michelle, who had forgotten about Father's day (oops!), had booked herself into a Spa for a few hours (using her Mother's day voucher).
She did join us later for lunch though, thoroughly relaxed!
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| Jake in control of the camera. |
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| Sam wanders about |
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| Squidward |
The dive was nice and easy, until they turned to come back and found quite a strong current to swim against. It was tough going but they made it! Hopefully Jake would still be OK for the 10k swim the next morning!
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| Post-dive lunch! |
The next day (Monday) was the 10k Sea Swim. Jake was entered in that. Not sure he was all that keen though. 5k was probably more acceptable in his view. Anyway, he got to do two 5k's I guess! Bargain!
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Michelle volunteered to help with the 10k.
Here they are getting instructions from Danielle on how to Hop like a Kangaroo.
It's an Aussie thing...
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It was a long swim but Jake settled in with the front group of swimmers (including a couple of legends) and stayed with them for the duration. He swam a strong swim and came in in 4th place (again!) in 2 hours 23 Mins. He was the first Local Swimmer home, which was pretty good, and he was right up there with the big boys. Nice job!
As you may be aware, this was Sam's last year at High School. She's off to Ohio University in August to become a 'Bobcat'. They had the leaving do/prizegiving last week.
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| High School Officially finished! |
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Some of the guys she's been at school with since arriving here in 2009.
All growed up!
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The Gaelic Finals day was held last weekend. Michelle's team won the league this year so automatically made it through to the Semi Finals. They played that on Saturday, early afternoon, and had a great game, managing to come away with a one point victory in a tight tussle and make it to the final.
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| Into the final! |
The final was played around 4pm. It was another scorcher.
Michelle's team played well and were a point up at half-time. Unfortunately the wind came up and they struggled moving the ball against it. The opposition took advantage and scored a few more points than Michelle's team in the second half to come away with a convincing win. They were disappointed but still, they had the Trophy for the League winners, so that was good!
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| A pic with Coach! |
Sunday was the annual Stingray Swim Club end of season lunch, and prizegiving.
It was also a farewell for some of the Senior swimmers who are all off to College in the US or UK. Sam is one of them. There were a few tears!
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| Random sunset from our front door |
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| Down at the waterfront |
Michelle and Dave went to beach on Sunday afternoon, after the Stingray lunch. It was pretty hot!
The sky was very hazy as well which made for some interesting photos.
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| Water level |
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| Standing in the sea to cool off (a little) |
So, that's it for June!
Wednesday this week, Jake heads to Barbados (again) for the CCCAN Swim meet. It's another step up for him against some seasoned opposition. Swimming starts on Friday for Jake in the pool, and then he has the 5k next Tuesday. Good luck!
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| Here they go! Barbados bound this afternoon. |
On Saturday, Michelle and Dave head off for the south of Spain. This is in preparation to watching Sam and the Island Games in Gibraltar from about 8 - 12 July. They are doing a week in Spain first and will hopefully be able to catch Jake's events online.
Sam and her team will leave next Wednesday for Gibraltar. The same day Jake gets back from Barbados. They might get a chance for a high-five at the airport if they're lucky!
We'll let you know how they get on!
Bye!
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