Sea Swimming Blog #47

Day 86 Sea Swimming.

#47 of the blog.

As you may have seen the snow finally showed itself in the late hours of yesterday evening… just before I went to bed I popped outside to see exactly how much had fallen and thought that if it had carried on at that rate we might be in for a fair amount by the am.

Before my alarm went off this morning I was woken by the sound of a howling wind… the curtains were closed but it seemed as though there was a glow…. the glow of epic snow?!

… errrr no.

Schools were open but fearing that this mighty blizzard might cause chaos on the roads we’d left a little bit earlier than normal making sure we got there on time before I headed to St Aubin to meet the bravest of the Bluebelles.

I arrived a little early and soon realised that the only snow that was visible had been brought there on my car… a quick few photos later and my hands were already starting to get cold before I spotted an area slightly sheltered from the wind where a huge snow drift had settled… on the end of a tiny seashell.

Whilst snow would not be joining us for this mornings dip the wind certainly did… whipping in from an easterly direction at speeds of 35mph… making getting changed a fairly fresh experience!

The fact that the tide was on the way out meant that we had to walk down the beach for about 200 metres or so before we got to the water - these are the days that make the investment in a dryrobe invaluable and I was grateful for having got one for Christmas from my wife.

Torn once more between photos and water, I decided to capture what I could of Jenny, Leila, Lynda and Julia (as anyone willing to take on nature in the extreme like this needs proof of their escapades) until I got to the point where my fingers wouldn't work the camera.

I considered putting on my neoprene gloves before getting in the sea myself but by that stage it seemed a pointless task… so in I went to join them on what was probably my fastest dip (it was definitely a dip and not a swim) of the last 80 odd days.

Thankfully the sun was out and it was actually beautiful (except for that f’ing wind!) with the sea producing small, manageable waves for us to jump over, under and into.

Having done the full dunk, I bobbed around for a little bit before deciding that I may as well capture some more images of the ladies whilst the light was nice, so I ran ahead (which was a bit like running in treacle) back to my camera, just about managed to get my dryrobe on (with fingers that felt like they’d been blasted by a Bunsen burner) and tried to focus on them as they exited the water… getting some funny shots along the way (so worth the temporary pain!).

We normally have a bit of a chat whilst getting changed but I wasn’t going to hang around today, getting straight in my car - still wearing swimming shorts, hat, goggles and booties as well as my dryrobe over the top - I turned the heating on and drove home once my fingers had returned to some kind of normality… gaining a couple of funny looks as I let the pedestrians cross at the zebra crossing opposite to co-op.

“Warning: beware of dryrobe wankers”

- Anti-dryrobe poster in Dublin Bay, Ireland

(google it!)