Day 90 – 8th September 2010

Today is my “tide” story day!!

An interesting thing about the sea, which may just be Brighton of course, is that when it is raining the sea tends to be calm. I’m not sure why? Maybe it’s a “pressure” thing, but anyhow that’s how it seems to be. This morning it was grey and raining and not pleasant, however, the sea was calm and not too cold; so believe it or not it was nicer in the sea than on the beach.

I got to the beach at about 6.30am and spent 25 minutes on my own just walking the pebbles and thinking about life in general. I always start my day, every day, thinking about all the amazing things in my life; my three beautiful children and all the things they do that simply make me laugh out loud, my Wife who remains my rock, my Mum, my Sister, My two Brother-In-Laws, my In-Laws, my friends, the house we’re building, my Company, the Trust, my Channel swim and of course my Dad who I still miss every single day. It’s really great to start the day and end the day thinking about people and things you love. It’s not a religious thing, as I’m not a religious person, it just sets up your day and ends your day so nicely to think about those people and things you love; it brings positivity to what could easily be a negative day if you let it.

Anyhow enough of that drivel, let’s get back to he point of my blog; the swimming!! Bob turned up at just before 7am and we pretty much jumped straight in and got swimming. Leo turned up soon after wearing his Captain Birdseye hat; a great look only he could carry off! The sea was coming in which meant that the tide was heading towards the Marina. So we set off against the tide and swam to the West Pier. It took “exactly 30 minutes” to swim from the Palace Pier to the West Pier. However, the swim back to the Palace Pier took “exactly 15 minutes”. If one considers that we would have less energy coming back as we had already worked very hard on the first leg, it is astonishing to think that it still took exactly half the time to get back. This was not even a fierce tide. Once again it goes to show the power and strength of the sea. I need to really try to learn more about the tides as I am about to do some long solo swims in the sea and knowing the tides will be vital to stop me swimming to stand still! Also, not to sound really really boring, I have just got to start eating! This morning all I had before our swim was a glass of water – how rubbish is that for a long swim!