Day 78 – Monday 23rd August 2010

What a morning it was! Last night the heavens opened and the wind clearly had a great night on the tiles!

Getting to the beach at 6.45am you could see from the seafront that the sea was really rough, with waves breaking out as far as the end of the pier; it was basically white horses everywhere. The waves were everywhere and were easily topping 15 feet; a very daunting prospect. At the Arches there was just Bob, Leo (crazy man!) and myself. Bob wanted to stay close to shore and play around in the sea and practice strokes, but Leo wanted a bigger challenge and suggested we walk to the West Pier, go in and swim back to the palace pier. Of course we went with that!

If you were near the seafront at 6.50am you would have seen a funny sight – the three of us, in our swimming trunks, carrying our hats, goggles and swimming fins (need them in this swell) jogging along the seafront to the West Pier (about a 15 minutes jog). Along the way we passed the British Military Fitness club training on the grass; they looked at us with a mixture of horror and awe – funny!

The three of us popped on our fins, hats and goggles and waded in. It must have taken a good 15 minutes just to get in as the waves were so strong and way way above us; it was literally like swimming uphill and being shoved back just as you near the top. We completely lost Bob; it transpired that he stayed as close as he could to the shore and fought his way back to our beach. Afterwards he said that the sea kept pulling his hat and goggles off and he ended up in a bit of a panic and basically just did everything he could to get back to shore; which thankfully he did.

Leo and I swam out, trying to get past the breaking waves, but they were breaking out so far it was impossible. We got back to the Pier and were out at the end. He decided to go around the pier and end up on the other beach, which is a much better beach to land on as it avoids the groin and the steep slopes of the beach; I decided to head straight back in. As it turns out, Leo was right (of course) and it would have been a safer option to swim around the pier, as around the head the waves are blocked by the pier and then you can try to body surf back to shore. However, I did it my way of course! I headed in to shore, catching every huge wave behind me pushing me in, so I was back very quickly. However, the sea had dragged me right up to the pier and I was heading into the groin at a fairly alarming pace. I tried to swim away and back towards our beach to land as usual, but the sea and waves were simply too powerful. I was how pleased to find at no time did I panic or worry or even feel my heartbeat rise. I simply took a decision that the safest option would be to wait until the next three waves (they tend to come in 3’s) came in and then swim under the pier as fast as I could to avoid the next wave throwing me into the pier (that would be game over!) and then emerge onto the beach the other side. I sat out the 3 next waves, getting much to close the groin than I wanted and then swam under and caught the next wave pull on and rushed into the beach,; nice and safe.

At the Arches Bob was waiting for me all showered and dressed and pleased to see me alive! Leo came in about 10 minutes later full of the experience (quite rightly).

Once again it shows how you have to respect the sea; it is all powerful! However, for me the experience of total lack of fear and clarity of mind in those conditions was really satisfying. Bring on tomorrow!!