Low Tide	03:44 (0.90m)
High Tide	10:15 (2.40m)
Low Tide	16:21 (0.70m)
High Tide	22:52 (2.30m)

Sea conditions: very calm, rippling waves
Sea Temperature: Not taken
Weather: Had been sunny but clouded over, no wind to speak of
Joined by: 2 LOTVs and Mertz

Topics of conversation:

The dangers of retrieving lost inflatables at sea, I'd tried on my evening swim to grab a large rubber ring making its way to Holland and failed. In fact it was a bit of a break through as I would not normally have turned back with the goal so near, but decided that I know the sea better now and couldn't trust it so I let a man in a kayak fetch it for the small person, who was very grateful.
Cape cod - can you catch cod there? Mertz asked the question as DK will be fishing there in a couple of weeks and the temptation was too great. As DK hasn't fished in Cape Cod before we speculated about what he would catch and upon other coastal place name possibilities: Haddock Bay, Cape Kipper etc.
Proper swimming and how getting in and submerging yourself up to your waist in calm water cannot, repeat Mertz, cannot actually be called swimming.
'This is your Life' experiences, DK and I had both been involved in filming episodes for different reasons. My back stage involvement was in attempting to keep Keith Floyd sober and in the right place to be handed the red book whilst DK guested with various Goodies as well as with Barry Cryer. Apparently Bill Oddie, almost refused to take part, in fact he did refuse when surprised by Eamonn Andrews whist bird watching (unsurprisingly) but was persuaded to take part by his daughter, who threatened to leave home if he didn't. He ended up having a lovely day.
Embarrassing TV watching experiences. The Pirate recalled asking one of the nuns if they could watch The Goodies at prep school only to be horrified by the first scene which involved suggestive comedy fumbling under the sheets. The TV went straight off again. It reminded us all of that uncomfortable time, watching TV with parents when you suddenly become aware of the jokes which had previously been hidden to you in children's programmes - put there for the sole purpose of keeping the adults amused. The Pirate had this in reverse with his kids, when watching The Simpsons and finding humour where they didn't.

Bizarrely, having just been discussing Barry Cryer's 'This is Your Life' we then bumped into his son as we left the beach. He's is staying in the village on holiday. Things like that happen here. Odd.

No song today :(

Low Tide	02:58 (1.00m)
High Tide	09:31 (2.30m)
Low Tide	15:32 (0.90m)
High Tide	22:05 (2.20m)

Sea temperature: Not recorded but it felt cooler
Sea condition: calm, drag southwards
Weather: overcast and misty
Joined by: 2 LOTVs 


Topics of conversation:
The merits of the rucksack with a seat, not to be searched for online as "stool bag" as The Pirate found, to his disgust. DK has leant one of his spares to a regular LOTV and she discovered the delights of putting swimming shoes on without falling over for the first time. I've got a cheap and nasty one which is not particularly stable and I do sometimes wonder if I'd be better off sitting on the stones as I'm lulled into a false sense of security.
The success of the 49ers - DK and Legs won a pub quiz last night, £75 prize money and glory. Their host was an Aussie drag queen and there was a section on the US, which may have given them the advantage, Legs being American - not the drag queen bit.
Jewish teens at risk - one of the LOTVs is responsible for blogging on behalf of concerned parents and has just remembered that she's supposed to be setting up a new blog, on instruction from the Rabbi, during the summer holidays. She hasn't started yet so she's bringing her laptop round later for some help so that the group can start to access articles, identify potential risks and give each other support. A worthy project.
Beard filtration - both DK and The Pirate have beards and I was fascinated to hear that different lengths can act as filters for the scum on the surface of the sea (and presumably the bath)*. The Pirate recently had a beard trim for his son's graduation ceremony - I was in his bad books for not noticing - so apparently this has an effect on the filtrations process. Perhaps as it grows back he'll be able to catch small fish and could even develop a Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa style beard with tentacles.
Nuns and their cruelty in boys' boarding schools, especially The Pirate's teacher Sister Philemina, who always accused him of looking for sympathy and helped to put him off teaching in schools.
Still no sanskrit, he'd looked it up but couldn't remember it and we decided that an approximation was probably worse than nothing at all, so we wait....


Song of the day: *Beard Filter, sung to the tune of Goldfinger

Low Tide	02:09 (1.00m)
High Tide	08:43 (2.30m)
Low Tide	14:41 (1.00m)
High Tide	21:08 (2.20m)

Health and sea conditions allowing, for the past year or so I've been swimming in the sea with DK and The Pirate. On occasion the swim is reduced to a baptism by rough seas and winds, but generally we get wet and manage to lift our feet from the sand and shingle.

Recently, due to the good weather, we've been joined by friends, villagers, (LOTVs) and visitors. When one of them commented that overhearing our daily conversations akin to watching a niche 'fly on the wall' documentary about english madness I thought I'd start a new blog so that I can recall the wonderful insights, views and stories I'm lucky enough to hear whilst contemplating the sea. I'm privileged to be able to swim in the sea each day and even more so that I have the good company and moral support of DK and The Pirate.

First Post:

Sea temperature: 18 degrees
Sea condition: calm, tide receding, not too murky
Weather: overcast and grey, gentle breeze, sun trying hard to break through over the sea
Joined by: 2 LOTVs (ladies of the village) inc. Vicar's wife.

Topics of conversation:

The Pirate's tardiness

DK's birthday cakes and the kindness of the Summer Theatre troupe

The Pirate has a good working knowledge of sanskrit but has forgotten the word for tomorrow, he has promised to look it up for a week now. He also explained that there are 2 kinds of plural in sanskrit, e.g. you have a word for elephant, another for elephants but a special word for 2 elephants. I like that.

Sprollies - a dog that is a mix of a springer and a collie, I met one on the way to the beach, it was a beautiful looking dog and we discussed the merits and otherwise of dogs with brains, assuming that the sprollie would have more that its fair share. There's an English Setter that usually passes us each morning and The Pirate claims that they have brains the size a a pheasant's, on balance I think we decided that brains may be more challenging in a dog, but ultimately more satisfying for an owner. Which lead on to discussions about dogs habits and...

The derivation of the word 'scatological' due to the black dog's behaviour on the previous day, DK was disarmed that whilst being the prime user of scatological language, The Pirate was not aware of it's meaning. I looked it up: 

The study of fecal excrement, as in medicine, paleontology, or biology. 2. a. An obsession with excrement or excretory functions. b. The psychiatric study of such an obsession. 3. Obscene language or literature, especially that dealing pruriently or humorously with excrement and excretory functions.