THE brave, some would say foolish, Narooma Nunutz winter swimmers laughed in the face of the supposed Antarctic vortex and swam out through the bar on Sunday morning.
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Getting into the water was the hard part for the 24 swimmers who took the plunge when the outside temperature hovered around the 5-7 degree mark.
The water was not much warmer with an outgoing tide resulting in the thermometer reading 15 degrees at Bar Beach.
The swimmers drifted out with the tide, through the bar and then swimming back to the beach on the northern side of the northern breakwater.
The real cold part was clambering back over and down the breakwater to get back down to the shark net to do the last leg back to the towels and warm drinks on the southern end of Bar Beach.
After more shivering than normal, the swimmers then retired back to O’Briens Hotel for the warm fire and a chunky veggie soup.
This was definitely the coldest swim of the season but nothing like the all-time record coldest water temperature for the swimmers of 11 degrees.
Later on Sunday, heavy snow falls were recorded at the top of Brown Mountain making Sunday feel even colder!
