Sea Swimming Blog #46
Day 85 Sea Swimming.
#46 of the blog.
Late one today… both in terms of swim and blog post.
With snow predicted around 4pm (and the tides being on our side around that time) I‘d waited all day for my dip.
I’d thought that if it did snow it would be good to share the magic of the experience with other people, so even though I’d missed my regular 9am Bluebells meet up, I knew I had to find some other like-minded souls so put a shout out on Facebook and within a few minutes had a reply from Melissa whose group of friends I had photographed a little while back at Plemont beach. They'd been a good laugh so I thought we’d make a decent little team to enjoy the swim and get some pics.
It had been 0 degrees most of the day, but on my drive down to Bonne Nuit (from about 500 metres away and onwards), the car was reading an outside temperature of -1… excellent! Taking it to another level!
After freezing my fingers off at Havre des Pas yesterday I thought that today’s dip would probably be a fairly quick one and there’d be no time for mucking about afterwards with fairly strong and biting easterly winds battering the shore.
I arrived a little early and just as I got there saw a guy in swimming shorts stood on the pier looking like he was about to jump in!
Nutter! Better get my camera out asap!
Now, I’ not here to condone, disapprove or pass any judgement (I’ll leave that to others ;) ) but you can read my post yesterday about the potential for cold water shock.
*As a little footnote, I just want to say that in each and all of the features I’ve been lucky enough to have recently (JEP, Bailiwick Express and Gallery Magazine) I’ve made a point of stating that this is not the safest of activities, you need to respect the sea, if you’re an inexperienced then winter is probably not the best time to start, and if in any doubt, have a look on the Jersey Long Distance Swimming website for advice… I have zero control over what the editors of each publication decide to include.
However, I didn’t know Aaron and it was only after speaking to him afterwards that it turns out he does this pretty regularly… we each have our own limits and whilst it’s important that we recognise them it’s also important that you don’t place your limits upon someone else (just 20 minutes earlier whilst at home I’d been watching Wim Hof take a class of newbie students off a waterfall and straight into a subzero lake, so again, whilst it’s probably not recommended to most, we are all different)… if in doubt (see above!!!)
A few minutes later Melissa, Nicola, Andre and Olive turned up - with Melissa and Nicole ready to join me in the churring February seas… Andre and Olive were there for moral support and actually did a great job with some of the pics and helping us get ready afterwards.
Having got ready (I.e. got undressed) I took a couple of photos but with the wind being so cold and cutting, I put the camera away and joined the ladies in the water pretty promptly… we stayed close to the pier to try to shelter from the worst of the wind and so avoid the swell that had picked up a little further out.
Swimming from the steps back to the beach was lovely (in a cold burn type of way) and myself and Melissa were able to last 10 minutes before we thought enough was enough and started to make our way out… a bit disappointed the predicted snow hadn’t fallen but having thoroughly enjoyed the dip none-the-less.
On the way I found an awesome bit of driftwood that reminded me of the staff the character in our Salty Sea PUPS logo carries so Olive grabbed a quick pic and then I got changed as quickly as possible!
Frozen fingers crossed that tomorrow might bring a bit of the white stuff.
“Cold water is merciless,
but righteous”
- Wim Hof