Swimming day 385 - Thursday 8th December 2011

Fear factor kicked in today, which was quite annoying.

The sea was not like yesterday which meant we could get in, however it was still really windy and the sea was chopping up minute by minute.  Again only a few of us at the arch; Sean, Yvo, Martina, Charlotte, Mark and Mike all did a micro swim and Shoichi went to the silver ball and back.  Big Bob and I headed West to the thistle.  Getting in was interesting as Bob went straight in whilst I was adjusting my goggles and in those few seconds the sea raged up and I was standing on the shore trying to find a break to get in for about 2 minutes; I just couldn’t find a gap safe enough to let me in!  Eventually when I made it in we headed away from our beach, staying as close to shore as we could without being taken in by waves, and got to the thistle very quickly.  At this point Bob seemed happy to go a bit further, however my heart was racing and I just wanted to get back to our beach as soon as we could.  The sea was really starting to rage and it was still very dark out there (even at 7.25am) and my goggles kept steaming up; it was like driving completely blind on the M25 in a stormy windy day; not pleasant.  Luckily getting back was as quick as getting there and in minutes we were back in our area and heading to shore.  I was ahead of Bob as he was doing breast stroke and as such when the next big wave hit he was behind me riding it up hi and I was caught in it’s hands as it hit the shore.  In milliseconds I was under the water not sure what was up and what was down; fortunately I was close enough to shore that as I was spinning I was also heading inwards and when my hands touched the bottom it allowed me to push myself up to standing enabling me to quickly walk out.  As Bob surfed out behind me shouting in delight I noticed two people standing high up on the groin, no doubt wondering what on earth we were doing; I was wondering the same!

No idea what the temperature was as it was the last thing on my mind.  I would guess at 8.5 degrees again; certainly cold.