Day 296 - Tuesday 19th July 2011

Impossible to compare yesterday to today. Yesterday was a monstrous tide, howling wind and no chance of swimming; today was a calm sea, no wind and a perfect day for swimming. There is simply no way one can really plan for swimming days ahead, not with any real certainty.

Last night the kids were back to the norm; I had Asher up at midnight, then Mia up at 1am, then Jesse at 2.30am and then Mia again at 3.00am and finally Jesse again at 4.30am. Sharon was clearly tired as she slept through most of it, so I was solo on this one. Still despite this I was at the beach by 6.45am and in the sea with Big Bob and James by 7am. Despite being tired it was a beautiful start to the day; really fantastic conditions. The tide was just changing from coming in to going out, which meant it was fairly motionless; with just the odd small wave to give a little interest. The sky was blue and the wind had moved to another county. We headed straight out under the pier to the east and swam to the second buoy along, then we turned and headed out and back around the head of the pier to our beach and along to our two next buoys and in. Total swim about 30 minutes and about 1 mile. Nothing massive, but a decent swim in lovely conditions. Water temperature average 15.4 degrees, which is still too cold for this time of year, but not too cold for a short swim like this.

The weather is “expected” to change once again to storm and rain this afternoon; just what one expects from a good British summer. If it’s dry I’ll do a swim in the outside pool at Falmer, if not I'll have to brave the inside pool and the xtreme heat and chemicals. Gotta keep the pool up though as need the speed!!