Weymouth Harbour Christmas Day Swim - 2012

It never ceases to amaze me what people will do for charity! Yesterday morning, hundreds of people - competitors and spectators alike - turned out for the annual Christmas Day harbour swim, organised by the Weymouth and Portland Lions Club.The swim used to be a serious event organised by the local swimming club (read more here) and 20 years ago when the Lions started running it as a charity event there were about 20 entrants. This year, there were 239! Most were swimming for charity (there were some medal races, too) and many took part in fancy dress.

After a very wet start to the day when we arrived at the harbour at 10.45am (the first race was at 11am) the skies had cleared and the sun was shining brightly. The registered swimmers, who were racing in batches of 50, lined up on the temporary pontoon on the shady side of the harbour, most of them looking very nonchalant and (probably) pretending not to be cold. The air temperature was about 12 degrees C and the water around 8 degrees. Two boats ferried bags of the swimmers' shoes and clothes across to the other side; several people's belongings in each bag – it must have been fun sorting those out afterwards!

Then they were off! Some diving in and powering across the harbour like they were in the local heated swimming pool. For others, the shock of the cold water halted them temporarily but, as far as I could tell, they all made it across to the other side and, apart from a few words of encouragement, the assistance of the canoe-based lifeguards were not required.

One by one they all made it across and emerged onto the other pontoon in glorious sunshine.

With registration fees from the competitors and collection buckets for the spectators, I hope the Lions Club managed to raise a good amount for their work over the coming months. If I find out I'll update this post.


Thinking of fundraising, I was very moved yesterday when I watched the BBC documentary of Martha Payne and her family's trip to Malawi. Martha gained fame when she started a blog called Never Seconds when she posted a photograph of her rather meagre school dinner. The blog went viral and Martha realised that she could use the blog to raise funds for charity. To-date, through the blog, Martha has raise over £125,000 for a charity called 'Mary's Meals'. You can watch it (in the UK) for the few days on iPlayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ndyy3

Merry Christmas!

A very Merry Christmas to all our family, friends and anyone else who stumbles across this blog. This is our first Christmas in Weymouth and we've thoroughly enjoyed our first few months here. Looking forward to welcoming our visitors in 2013!

Santa Chase-the-Pudding

Around 120 assorted Santas, elves and even a Christmas cracker turned out to take part in the annual 'Chase the Pudding' 5km Santa Fun-Run on Sunday 16th December on Weymouth beach. Dozens of entrants, of all ages, human and canine, dressed up and joined in. There was an initial warm-up by Jodie from 'Healthy Habit' before the runners set off along the beach.

All proceeds from sponsorship and collections on the day - about £2,000 in all - went to the British Heart Foundation.

The weather was extremely kind - particularly as December has been very, very wet - and there were only a few spits and spots of rain during the warm-up and, as you can see in the last picture, the sun even managed to come out for a while.

After the race the competitors were invited back to Weymouth Pavilion near the race start for a mince pie and mulled wine.

Next... the Christmas Day harbour swim and no, we're not taking part in that, either!