Winter Solstice 2024, welcome to the shortest day of the year

They greeted the shortest day of the year with a swim at Nobbys Beach just before sunrise.

Braving outdoor temperatures hovering below 10 degrees, they submerged into the ocean that currently sits at a balmy 19.6 degrees.

While many welcome their days in this fashion regularly, some of Friday’s morning bathers were inspired to join others at Newcastle’s iconic beaches to kickstart Winter Solstice 2024 – the shortest day of the 2024 calendar.

Sarah Gentle, aka @Newy-blue, captured the group of swimmers as they swam from Nobbys to Cowrie Hole and back to mark the occasion.

The hobby photographer is an “unofficial member” of the Newy Sandrays, a group of swimmers that regularly greet the mornings with an ocean swim at Newcastle Beach.

They were joined by members of the Bar Beach Seahorses, Merewether Mackerels, as well as a those from Nobbys SLSC.

“This was the first time all of the groups have met up to swim for Winter Solstice,” Sarah explains.

“It happens a couple of times a year, at Easter and Christmas, but this was the first one of its kind at Winter Solstice.”

Swimmers ranged in ages from early teens to mid-to-late 70s.

“Captain Joe Clayton thinks there were about 80 of them in the water,” says Sarah.

“And, they stayed in for about 20-to-30 minutes.”

From her patch on the beach, Sarah says she was reminded it was an early winter’s morning.

“On the shore line it was freezing, I had to keep putting my hands in the ocean to warm them up. It felt like an eternity,” she explains.

The precise time of the Solstice was at 6.50am, just as the sun was rising.

Solstice is the point when the earth is on a -23.4 degree tilt and rather than travel around the sun in a perfect circle, it orbits in an eclipse at a time when we’re furthest away from the sun.

After Friday, each day’s total sunlight hours will get a fraction longer than the previous day until Summer Solstice is reached on 21 December. 

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