The Sea

The sea has been wonderfully cold the last week or so.

Swimming in it has been incredibly life affirming and incredibly cold on gloved / booted feet. Hitting colder temperatures than last year, regular ice swimming (where I believe the water temp is 5c or less). Today the forecast looked like it was going to get even colder, no clouds last night and a biting wind. The only problem was the onshore wind that was forecast.

The result was the video above and pictures like below:

Last Wednesday it was quite choppy / rough. The swell felt pretty strong as we were coming in, making it pretty hard to get onto the slope and out. As I’d get close to where I wanted to be in relation to the slope, the strength of the current / energy in the sea would pull me in the opposite direction from where I wanted to go. With all of this in mind swimming got called off today, which is why I had a look at the sea to see what it was up to. Not disappointing to watch and definitely one to stay out of. It’s easy enough to get in, but getting out is a completely different matter.

Tomorrow (if no teaching) looks far more hopeful, calmer in terms of wind. Sun still out and temperature around 2C. Cold and still – great winter swimming conditions.