Day 132 – 17th November 2010

After two very calm days, this morning the wind made a triumphant return. As friends, the wind and the waves really go everywhere together; and boy oh boy were they here together today.

This was yet another first for me; this was the first day we could “not” get into the sea due to the weather. Usually on a day like today we would go onto the “girly” beach; being the one on the East side of the Brighton Pier as it is usually not as mad because the pier blocks a lot of the movement. However today the girly beach was more like a lady with PMT; ANGRY and unforgiving!! There was no way one would attempt to even step near the sea on the that side. So there we were, maybe 8-10 of us, standing on the edge of the sea on our normal beach, just trying to see where/how we could get in. The waves were so big and powerful that just looking at them made you wonder on the madness of going in. After a few attempts by a couple of people it was clear that going in would be very difficult, if not suicidal, but coming out would be potentially bone breaking; I am “not” exaggerating. I’ve been in some very rough seas of late, but really haven’t seen waves as powerful as this before. We did try a few times to get in, making our way almost to the foot of some monsters, and in the process getting soaked by waves much taller than us, but it was just simply too dangerous. You would have thought at that stage we would have all turned around and headed straight back to the warmth of the Arches and dry clothes, but oh no, this is the Brighton Swimming Club, such common sense could never prevail. Instead, like a bunch of eccentric fools, we simply all lied down as close to the edge as we could get and let the waves crash over us! Just how crazy would that have looked from the seafront! We were simply like a line of adult pilchards along the sea shore; crazy, but huge fun. Just lying there and letting the waves go over you was actually extremely hard; not just from the cold water, but from the strength of the pull. You had to literally dig your legs into the stones and push you palms as far down as you could, otherwise you were sent rolling down the beach, being scratched and turned on the Brighton pebbles as you went; which happened a number of times despite your best efforts to hold yourself in place. A lot of fun in a lot of respects as it really made you forget you are an adult with a shoulder full of responsibilities and let you just feel like a kid again; however, once is enough as we were there to swim and swim was what we wanted to do.

Hopefully tomorrow will still have some challenges, but fingers crossed we can get in and out safely. Once again what a difference a day makes!