Day 356 - Wednesday 12th October 2011

Once again down my favourite place in the morning, the beautiful Brighton Beach (written without sarcasm).  No-one at the arch at 6.45am so I went in alone.  Still dark, but the light was coming up and the wind only about 30% of yesterday’s strength.  A low(ish) tide and a fairly strong but dealable tide to the east.

I went in middle of the beach and headed around the pier.  It was still a bit lumpy out there and I did find myself having some waves wash over me as far out as the end of the pier.  I really should have gone in near the west end of the beach as against the middle so that I could let the sea take me safely around the pier head. As it was I found that a couple of times I looked up and found myself facing one of the razer sharp stanchions; really heart stopping stuff, especially when you see it that close and you feel a wave behind you about to thrust you forward!  Coming back around the head I wasn’t sure whether to swim straight down and land on the safer beach or swim under the pier and head back to my beach; the tide was strong to the east and my beach is to the west.  Coming around the stairs I opted for going under the pier against the tide; my reasoning was that my shoes were on my beach and I was feeling too lazy to walk from the safe beach to my beach afterwards.  Of course that now seems like nonsense as it meant I had to battle very hard against the tide to get back instead of just letting the waves take me to shore – that is somehow how my mind works; very odd!  I swam hard, especially under the pier as the sea seemed to be coming straight at me at massive speed but eventually I broke through.  However no matter how hard I swam I couldn’t break free from the pier and eventually landed on my beach literally next to the groin by the pier; feeling rather nervous as the groin is not something you particularly want to swim into! Was nice to be back at the arch greeting my friends with all limbs intact!