Day 191 - Thursday 17th February 2011

Plan for today was basically nothing on the exercise front because I had a 7am meeting in the diary, followed by report writing and meetings throughout most of the day. However, late last night my 7am meeting was moved to 8am tomorrow in London (which stuffs the one long swim I was planning for tomorrow! Gotta just write this week off I think).

However, as I had a window this morning come free it gave me the chance to get down to the beach; thank the lord (or thank Neptune might be a better way of putting it). I had a very restless night as Mia refused to sleep in her own bed and when she sleeps with us it is sideways! So I was basically being prodded, kicked and spluttered on from midnight onwards. Then Asher turned up at 1am and I had to set his bed up in our room; soon of course followed by Jesse; simply at this point there was no room for me! So at 2.00am I was alone in Mia’s bed, which is a childs bed of course, and it was a case of lying awake until it was sufficiently late enough to get up; which this morning was about 6am. So a slow and tired get up ensued, with me reaching the beach by 7am. Having missed it all week it seriously was great to be back. Being off for a few days you really do appreciate it when you get back. Not many of us there; Little Bob, Mike, David, Martina and the lovely Bella. The air temperature was around 4 degrees and the sea still a very cold 6ish degrees, but at least the sky was brighter at last. Apparently this was the first day that any one could get into the sea this week as it’s been dangerously rough with a very strong pull; so it seems I have missed nothing after all. The sea today looked fairly calm and an untrained eye would have felt it was safe as a safe thing. But that is the thing about the sea, what looks safe is invariably dangerous. There was a very strong swell that basically meant that once you were out in the ocean you were fine, but coming in you had to be very careful indeed. I would estimate that the single waves that came into the shore, and basically it was one wave every minute or so, was about 10-11 feet high and very powerful indeed. Getting in was OK by timing it, although Mike being the first in managed to get it just right and was taken safely up about 11 feet on a wall of water and managed to come back down safely water side; it was an incredible thing to watch happen. We then all also safely got in, but luckily on smaller 4-5 foot swells. Coming out maybe 10 minutes later was a case of really being sensible and timing timing timing! This was not a sea to turn your back on and certainly not a sea to be on your own in. Mike and David got out safely first, but when Little Bob got out he reached the beach fine but was then pulled back by a sudden swell and ended up on his bum with cuts on his legs; no more “stocking modelling” for him, I’m afraid Miss Selfridge are going to have to find a replacement this summer!

Watching the waves very carefully, Bella, Martina and I waited and waited and then made our move. All safe and sound on the beach a few seconds later it was interesting to turn back to the sea and simply look at an ocean that from the beach just didn’t look dangerous at all. All non sea swimmers should beware of Neptunes sense of humour!