Solstice/Lunar Swim 11pm-3am

This was always going to be the swim to separate the men from the boys and the soup sippers! The water was 9 degrees and the air 4 degrees. The sky was crystal clear - before we lit the fire! - and the moon shone brilliantly through fine striate of thin clouds.
Attendees were Jim, Fergal and Mike, who enjoyed a cornucopia of mince pies, yoghurt coated peanuts & raisins, Turkish delights and fudge, washed down with hot tea, and enhanced by good conversation and the glowing embers of the petrol-powered log fire!

Winter Solstice

 

Sunrise on the (ahem) Solstice

Single figures

9.5 degrees in the sea today. Winter drawers on as my granny used to say.

Seal pup rescued

The Rescue Team of Pinnipeds is happy to announce that we have successfully rescued Bob, an underweight grey seal pup with a very green snotty nose ( well, get out of his way when he's sneezing!!!) from Shankill beach. Bob is recovering at the Seal Sanctuary: eating lots of fish to put on weight, sleeping a lot and getting flu medication :-) Watch this space for release information in 2008.

The blog is dead...long live the blog!

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhmhqlqlcwid/

One Hundred Aspects of the Moon

The blog is not dead - Lunatics Arise! Here's something to interest ye: Chester Beatty Library – One Hundred Aspects of the Moon

Seal eating conger eel

Spotted by a morning dipper - a seal struggling to kill and eat an enormous conger eel, with birds wheeling overhead for scraps.

Dead seal at White Rock

According to our roving reporter, a dead seal was found on the beach at White Rock. This fact was relayed via our communications network to the Pinniped Rescue Team which, after an investigation, discovered that the seal had been shot.

Dangerous place, that Dalkey Island!

Myself & Judge will be wearing bullet proof vests on our next paddle to the Island, after reading the following recent newspaper article:

The Times, July 30 1828.

It's reassuring to know not only that the price of oak bark is soaring, but more importantly, that the Island is now fortified against those Normans:



The Times June 10 1805

The Moon and Venus

 If you get up early enough, or go to bed late enough, and the Irish weather isn't misbehaving, the Moon and Venus are spectacular.

Memorial mass for Tim

Another mass is scheduled for Tim, in Dalkey Catholic Church on Saturday the 15th September at 6pm, as his name was not included in the previous mass due to an oversight by the priest's secretary.

Lucy In The Sea With Diamonds...

... or perhaps emeralds! She has been blowing our minds at the vico for the last few nights, with her spectacular green phosphorescent light show.
The following description of the phenomenon is from the Trinity Education Centre:

Dinoflagellates are microscopic single-celled algae which float freely in
oceans and waterways throughout the world.  They are a major part of the
phytoplankton which is at the base of most aquatic food chains.

Not all species of dinoflagellate are bioluminescent but some are.
Normally there are so few of the bioluminescent species in the water that
we do not notice that they are there.  However, dinoflagellates sometimes
produce blooms in which a particular species overproduces and becomes very
very abundant.  We don't know exactly why the aquatic ecosystems become so
over-balanced and this is an area of 'hot' research.  In some cases it
appears that the blooms may be the result of excess nutrients in the water
from human activities.

So they may provide further proof of the "human activities" floating by at the Vico from all those nappies!
(c.f. Richard Shakespeare quote in Irish Independent from the Seapoint Raped Of Blue Flag post.)

Seapoint Raped Of Blue Flag

"All the time, it was...we finally really did it!!
You maniacs! You blew it up!
Ah, damn you! God...damn you all to hell!"

Irish Independent Wed 5 Sept '07

Horizontal red line is maximum allowable pollution!

Subsequent readings also failed to comply.

What can you say, only it's not surprising!

Baywatch 3/Sep/07

The Vico board was once again used to offer assistance to a swimmer who had gone a bit too far out and been carried towards the island by the streams. The swimmer, who would probably have been fine, was very glad to take a rest on the back of the board and be towed towards home for a short distance while recovering his strength.
This blogger has placed an order for a can of red surfboard paint and some tight fitting red T-shirts, with expandable waists, following the swimmer's friend inquiring if i worked there!
Seriously though, had the board been up the hill were Mick Dunne suggested it should be "hidden", the launch of this operation would have been much slower, with possibly a worse outcome for the unfortunate swimmer.
My point is that we really MUST have group solidarity if the council decide to relinquish their disinterested stance on the Vico again, and insist that the board be removed.
Individually, we are but the links of a chain - join us together though, and we can anchor that board to the Vico.

A Few Friends in Dalkey 27 Jan '07

Bren, Steve, Fergal, Santi, Rabha, Dermot, Jim, Tamara, Tim (Late), Francis (photographer), Mike (off in the sun!)

Two Umbellifers

Yarrow and wild carrot - both with umbrella shaped flowerheads.

Dipper Mailing List

I've set up a dipper mailing list for team members to be informed of new postings on the blog.

What's this flower?

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On the old path up by the tunnel.

Jellys fight back!

After years of tyranny at the cruel net of evil Vico dictator, Dr. Death, the jellys have finally initiated a retaliatory suicide stinging campaign, that would strike fear in the hearts of Mossad!
The Jelly Jihad became manifest last night, when a precisely orchestrated land-based attack was executed to effect maximum injury upon Dr. Death, in the supposed safety of his bullet proof armoured car.
The plan involves what we must assume to be but the first of many jellys pulsing towards the callous murderer's net of martyrdom.
The aspiring martyr castrates his tentacles upon entering the glorious net and smears them around the tool of terror, in the hope that they will enter the dastardly doctor's secure vehicle.
As the dying lion lies listlessly in the lush vico vegetation - fertilized by the death of his ancestors - he unleashes his coup de grâce, exploiting the little understood phenomenon of quantum entanglement, which allows him to control his severed tentacles from a distance.
The scheme was executed with near perfection last night, when the evil doctor's eyes were subjected to a torturous attack by the remote controlled tentacles, with near fatal consequences on the tyrant! Will he change his ways???

Sea Data

Some good Irish sea swell wave and temperature data (here):

My previous S##T post refers...

Well as sort of suspected, those lovely sleek yachts belonging to the rich and aimless, that are often found occupying our little bay on a sunny day, may also be contributing to the water pollution. Have a look at section 3.3 of the Dun Laoghaire marina booklet (here);

Craft not fitted with holding tanks shall not discharge sewage directly into the marina or harbour.

The inference being it's OK to discharge anywhere else?

Craft fitted with holding tanks may discharge sewage at the sewage discharge facility ... There will be a charge associated with such discharge.

The pollution in our water, after these boats have paid us a visit, suggests to this blogger that the greed culture, which endowed many of these sailors with their yachts, may dominate their thinking when their "tanks are full" - to our detriment!

Dalkey Island swim

In aid of the Kisiizi Hospital Fund (Uganda), the weather was cold and windy, but everyone made it. Later in the afternoon we had a beautiful sunny day.
Photos here.

So the s*#t isn't just from coliemore...

An extract from chapter 12 of the development plan says that;

Shanganagh Sea Outfall Works
• Construction of an upgraded sewage treatment plant to
eliminate the discharge of untreated municipal sewage
from the Shanganagh and Bray sea outfalls to meet the
E.U. Urban Wastewater Directive, 1991... This scheme is at preliminary design stage and is due to open in 2006.

Consulting the project website (here), they say that;

A new wastewater Treatment Works ... will provide secondary treatment and biosolids treatment. Currently only basic preliminary treatment is carried out at the Works and untreated effluent is discharged to Dublin Bay by a long sea outfall. Secondary treatment removes over 90% of organic pollution and suspended solids from the wastewater, greatly improving the quality of effluent being discharged to the Bay.

Unfortunately when asked when this 2.5 year project will commence, they can only say: sometime in 2008! However, considering that for the Coliemore pumping station it was: "anticipated that the contract works will commence in late Spring 2002, for a period of one year" according to council meeting minutes (here), we should expect to be swimming in s##t till 2012 at the earliest!


Also, ever wondered just how bad Coliemore is???
Well check out this extract from page 35 of the Clean Seas Project, Harbour Survey Report (Ireland), from December 2001 where they say;

Comments:
Coliemore is a scenically stunning, historic harbour. Sewage is bubbling out of the pier wall and there are real water quality problems. A bleaching substance was also observed to be running from a small pipe down the slipway on two visits.

They also make the following;
Recommendations:
1. The area needs sewage treatment badly.
2. In the interim a warning sign not to swim or touch water in the harbour should be installed to protect public health.

Ah the beauty of Eire - the land of saints & scholars ... and seas full of s*#t

Distances as the cormorant flies

From	To	metres
The Steps	Pink House	285
The Steps	The Point	400
The Steps	White Rock Pier	640
The Steps	The Old Tea Rooms	1200
Forty Foot	Bullock	600
Forty Foot	East Pier	1040
The Point	Dalkey Island Beach	615
Coliemore	Dalkey Island Beach	420
Coliemore	Howth Head	10000
The Steps	The Kish	13.7km
The Steps	Holy Island (Caergybi)	95km
The Steps	Shanganagh S**T Pipe	2431
The Steps	Bray S**T Pipe	5532

Gardai offering new service

Overheard this morning:
"there was was a garda checkpoint in Glenageary - they were checking tax discs - I don't know if they had any of those blow jobs"

Flowers of the Vico

Black Knapweed and Creeping Thistle - these are remarkably similar - both Compositae (members of the daisy family). A large spider is using the thistle as an umbrella.

A SWIM TOO FAR

During the aftermath of Hurricane Gordon, when Ireland was buffeted by extraordinary gales , one woman found herself in grave danger

The call came on 21 September 2006. As she cleared the shelter of the harbour and entered Killiney bay, Dun Laoghaire’s Trent class Anna Livia met winds gusting storm force 11. The sun was going down when the crew noticed a man standing above the landing steps frantically waving a torch to attract their attention. A woman who had been swimming with companions had been swept by a flood tide 250m from the landing (a popular spot for swimmers) to the top of the bay.
Although her friends had managed to reach the shore to raise the alarm, worryingly, the remaining swimmer was caught between the outer breakers and the steep shelving rocks at the base of the cliff. The Dublin-based Coast Guard helicopter had already been summoned but because the cliff and houses were so close, it was unable to intervene safely. The only solution was for the lifeboat to go in. This was particularly difficult, not only because of the shallower water, but because recent work on the sea defences had resulted in stray boulders lying scattered on the seabed.

Skill and bravery
Coxswain Ken Robertson said: ‘As we launched and headed for Killiney Bay we could see the weather deteriorating. Rounding Sorrento Point, it was clear that pulling the swimmer straight from the water was the only solution to a rapidly worsening situation.’ He carefully steered the lifeboat towards the shore while trying to avoid hazards. The nearest he could get was 10m from the swimmer. Crew Member Wayne Farrell was ready on the foredeck in a drysuit with a heaving line firmly attached. Surf was breaking over the stern, making standing difficult. At the Coxswain’s instruction , and without hesitation, Wayne jumped into the sea and swam towards the woman in difficulty.
Ken manoeuvred the Anna Livia astern into the breaking seas to gain more depth. Second Coxswain Patrick Boyd, the Navigator, judged there was less than 3m of water between them and the seabed. With a draught of 1.4m, any approach closer to the shoreline could have been disastrous. In the meantime, Wayne had caught hold of the woman and hung on tightly as Crew Members Chris Watson, Gary Hayes and Rory Bolton hauled the pair back to the lifeboat. Wayne commented after: ‘This is what we train for and jumping in with a line didn’t cost me a thought other than I had to get to the swimmer before her luck ran out. I had complete trust that ken and the crew would get us back safely.’
The relieved swimmer was taken into the wheelhouse and made comfortable. When safely back in harbour, she was handed over to the awaiting ambulance and coast guards and the lifeboat returned to station. Despite her life-threatening ordeal in the water, which had lasted over an hour, the woman recovered well and returned to the station on her birthday a few days later to thank the crew.

Awards for all
Coxswain Ken Robertson and Crew member Wayne Farrell receive the Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum; Second Coxswain Patrick Boyd, Mechanic Kieran O’Connell and Crew Members Chris Watson, Gary Hayes and Rory Bolton are presented with Vellum Service certificates. Stephen Wynn, Lifeboat Operations Manager for Dun Laoghaire receives a Letter of Appreciation.

(from the Magazine 'The Lifeboat', Summer 2007, page 23)

The great Sea Temperature dispute

According to the official vico-dipper meteorological data (8am databuoy M2 temperature) the warmest sea temperature since records began (OK, they only began in Jan 2003) was 2-4th August 2003 when it reached 17.1
The max records in each year are:

2003	Aug 2-4:	17.1
2004	Aug 17	15.7
2005	Aug 16-17	15.5
2006	July 22	15.9
2007	July 31	15.5 (so far)

Pair of linnets

 

Compass jellyfish

 
Another nice morning for jellyfish but not for swimmers. There were many small ones of various species lurking for the unwary.

Source of pollution?

While not wishing to tarnish Bray's image even further, i can't help wondering if its harbour is contributing to the filth we sometimes see flowing by at the vico...

Bray Harbour spewing out something!

Death in Vico Friday 2pm June 8 2007

I am informed that a man died in the pool. It seems he had been noticed spending a long time floating on his face, whereupon some people dragged him out. An ambulance was summoned and arrived on the scene 15min later. Despite efforts to resuscitate him, the man was pronounced dead at the scene and his body was removed by the lifeboat. I am unaware of the identity of the deceased, but am informed that he was around 60 years of age and possibly of Polish nationality.

Please comment or email us if you have any further information about this incident.

Serendipity

JudgeJim's new sanctuary that was stumbled upon on Tuesday. Heavenly after the sun has set at the Vico, and so far, totally free of self appointed dictators, pseudo political analysts, jellyfish, faecal coliform, faecal streptococci and other sickening aspects of the Vico ... until we arrived!!!

In response to mm's question, they have a chart with regular measurements of the bacteria levels.
I suspect that it's proximity to the treatment works means it's more carefully monitored than other places.
I dread to think what the numbers would be at the Vico sometimes!

Flower identity request

Can anyone identify the flower in the photo?

Wind Rose

 
Anyone know of wind names used in Ireland? This one is in a language only a wetsuit would understand.

Wikihow to soothe a jellyfish sting

http://www.wikihow.com/Soothe-a-Jelly-Fish-Sting

Think bread soda sounds better than meat tenderizer!

Lunar calendar

Interesting article about the seasons from the Heathen Freehold Society:
The Germanic Lunar Calendar

Swimming Season Open

A big welcome to our new Vico life guard!

 
Judging the slipperiness of seaweed covered rocks ain't easy.

We seem to have just entered nights of perpetual twilight (the dark blue band), so fconn was right - it's not as dark as it was.

Addition from JudgJim: The program for creating this graph is freely available here: Download Sungraph

Gooseberries with your jelly?

 

Compass Jellyfish

Not a good picture, but just for completeness so that I can go for the world record - this was also seen today. 

What a selection of jelly! All on one day.

Diving tern

 
Tern diving for sand eels (presumably) against Bray Head. Don't know which type of tern - Sandwich, Common, Arctic or Roseate.

Dark clouds over the Vico

 
The end (of the drought) is nigh.

Swimmer Safety

For those who use wetsuits: wouldn’t a bright coloured model be safer than the dull black one? There are lime, yellow, pink, orange and fluorescent available! Check out this wetsuit website:
http://www.rubberjungle.com/Welcome.aspx?tabid=58

Judge sporting the latest post-swim thermal wear!