Sea Swimming Blog #71
Day 438 Sea Swimming.
#71 of the blog.
Air Temp 10 degrees - Sea Temp 9.1 degrees
After yesterday’s incredible atmospheric weather, I woke up a bit earlier than normal for a Saturday, just to be sure I could make sunrise should it look promising.
It was grey - as we’ve seen for much of this month - and didn’t look particularly special.
But even if it was likely to stay that way I thought it’s best to show up and see what happened.
My most regular swim spot in recent weeks is Belcroute but I thought that as I’d have the camera with me I’d should try a change of scenery/backdrop.
The night before I’d figured out how to use the ‘camera wifi to phone’ setting which I thought might help me get something cool as instead of sticking the camera on a timer, running into position, having the camera take a single frame, then running back to check if it’s any good.
Now I would be able to see the view from the camera via my phone which is a much more efficient way of doing it, and while I’m sure it still looks weird for onlookers, at least I can be done fairly quickly rather than having to repeat the process time and time again… prolonging the embarrassment.
I decided to opt for Ouaisne as my swim spot as I love the rugged cliff face and coastline and thought that this would make an interesting background to shoot against.
The backstory of this cliff face - that it’s believed to have been used by Neanderthals to drive mammoth over the edge and to their deaths is also something that adds another layer of historical interest to this spot.
But regardless of the added bit of history, the fairly dull and unexciting weather meant that I knew that whatever I shot today would feel like a bit of a let down compared to yesterday.
After considering to scale a fairly large rock (then realising it was incredibly slippery) I toned the idea down and settled for a medium sized one a little closer and more accessible, set the camera up on the tripod, tried for several minutes to sort out the camera to phone connection then took the shot… meh… I took another just as a seagull flew overhead which made it a little less ‘meh’ but still not particularly satisfying.
You can’t win them all.
As light drizzle began to fall I saw a rainbow briefly appear over the coast in the distance so I packed my gear up from the rocks and headed back up the beach as the clouds were looking a bit meaner - like they were ready to launch into a downpour… not ideal for the camera.
I looked over my shoulder as I was walking up the beach and saw the rainbow back again so I snapped a quick shot before putting my camera bag in the car then headed back down the beach for my swim.
The tide was receding so the sand was wet - which meant the underside of my bag would get wet - and with the clouds above looking more and more ominous I pretty much accepted that everything would get wet… wrapping my stuff up in my dry robe to try to offer a bit of resistance.
The water felt cold but at this stage in January you expect nothing less… I swam across the coast a little then headed back to where I’d started from.
Taking my hat and googles off, I noticed that another rainbow had appeared but due to my change of perspective it appeared to have moved and almost looked like you could touch one end of it by the rocks that separate St Brelades Bay and Ouaisne itself.
It was a definite camera moment, so I took a couple of strokes inland towards my bag on shore to grab my phone before realising that the transient nature of these things meant that it would disappear before I would have been able to get a shot.
Nevermind… sometimes you just have to enjoy things for what they are… so that what I did… bobbing about in the beauty of nature until it slowly faded away and the rain began to fall on my head and on my belongings on the beach.
“I am Iris,
Goddess of the Rainbow,
the Sea and the Sky,
And a messenger to the Gods”
- Tracey Morait