The Swimmers

Low Tide 04:37 (0.50m)
High Tide 10:52 (2.60m)
Low Tide 16:51 (0.60m)
High Tide 23:04 (2.70m)
Sea temperature: 7.1
Sea conditions: Surfable - see pictures
Weather: glorious
Joined by The Poet and The LE
Topics of conversation:

We were joined by a surfer this morning, that's not a good sign. If the waves are good enough for surfing they are not great for swimming, but as neither The Pirate or I had been in for a while I decided to try it out, as did DK and The Poet. It was 'doable' but not safe and we talked about becoming more cautious in the last year. The Pirate seemed to be intimating that this was a bad thing, it is not. The problem today was not actually the strength of the waves as much as the trough, which has developed just at the point where we go in. There was talk about moving further north, where it is shallow and where Heather swims, sometimes for up to an hour. She swims everyday too, in the afternoon and is often mistaken for a seal by visitors. She has autism and the water brings her a level of release from her struggles, which is beyond anything we experience, even The Pirate. Perhaps we will take a leaf from her book and try the shallows tomorrow, as the forecast is ghastly.

The LE sent me this yesterday, from her diary, suggesting that it could be our winter sea anthem:
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

But then, whilst I was trying to film the surfer getting up on his board they all seemed to be singing show tunes, I just can't keep up once DK and The LE are in 'theatre mode'!
We stood and contemplated the water for longer than usual today, having moved us to the late winter swim time of 8am DK was basking in the glory of the sunrise again. Being 'The Sunrise Coast' (according to Lattitude Festival PR types) we do get the rays before most, but according to my tide app we won't have the sun above the horizon before 8am for a while. We are hoping that those of us who have to be at our desks by a certain time once the holiday period is over will still manage to make this doable, otherwise we've agreed to take it back to the 7.45 slot. It's amazing how much difference it can make. We will make sure TBC is kept in the loop, she's been poorly recently (get well soon, and make sure you are proper better before you get wet again!) and sometimes forget to let everyone know, now that there are so many of us.
DK and I usually take our 20mins to meditate after the swim, he's later than me and I might try changing my timing so that I am not in such a rush afterwards. He's reading David Lynch's Catching the Big Fish at the moment and thoroughly enjoying it, I discovered that it is on You Tube as a full audio book so here's a link for The Artist, who has not be up to coming down to the beach recently and wouldn't even need to turn the pages to feel inspired: Audio Book and some more photos of this morning for her and TBC.