Swimming day 498 (nearly 500!) - Thursday 14th June 2012

I managed last night to get all the kids to bed at a decent hour; 7.40pm and all were asleep.  After a mammoth ironing session, dinner and a short gym workout I headed upstairs to my bedroom at 10.45pm and look what I found – two kids in my bed.  It gets to something when they get into my bed even before I do; at least Jesse stayed in his own – 1 out of 3 staying put isn’t good, but could be a third worse!  They did let me take them back before Sharon got home at 11ish and none returned until about 4am; so some sleep was had thankfully.

The morning started with the sun shining and no rain clouds to be seen; apparently as the day goes on that will change of course.  The arch this morning was once again very quiet in terms of people; Big Bob, Little Bob, Me (the third Bob) and David.  Paul F and Shoichi were leaving as we were going in and then Fiona and Bella were going in as we were coming out.  So 8 in total, which seems average these days for the morning sessions between 6am-8am, sometimes different names, but the numbers seem to be the same.  I think there’s maybe another 10 who come and go during various times in the day, but that still only leaves about 20 in total for the day, which in a City the size of Brighton is not even a recordable percentage.  Of course if you had seen the swim Bob and I did this morning you can understand that!

We did the same as yesterday, buoy, around pier, buoy other side, back to buoy our side and in.  However unlike yesterdays calmness, today really started to chop up as we were half way around.  By the time we got to the head of the pier we had lost each other a couple of times and were being washed around by a very fierce and bumpy westerly tide and wind.  Coming around the pier and heading back down the east side we had to swim diagonally just to avoid being dragged into the pier; getting across to the buoy  was a challenge in itself.  Despite all this action and his age & health, David was still out there with his fishing bamboo and floating around the pier on his back hunting for his breakfast – the man is quite incredible.

A strong swim, definitely not for the faint hearted or the inexperienced.  Sadly, and I mean this with as much sincerity and sadness as I can muster, the Red Roaster let us down afterwards.  Unusually we decided to join LB for a coffee afterwards (not usually a Thursday treat for us) to warm up and talk about our mighty braveness.  Apart from waiting the time it takes for the tide to change to get our coffee, when it came it was flavourless and milky.  A disaster of epic proportions!  First time ever the Roaster has not performed to Olympic standards. We will of course head back there tomorrow for our Friday treat and I hope for everyone’s sake that today was just a blip in an otherwise tremendous record of achievement!

As for the rest of today; apart from a short gym at home after work, it is off to City College for a Hells Kitchen event in aid of the Starr Trust – very excited about that. 

Then tomorrow apart from my morning swim and afternoon gym I was meant to be joining my Relay team for a 5.30pm sea swim to the West Pier and back.   However the forecast is for the wind to keep picking up and by tomorrow apparently we will have 50mph winds and rain and crazy waves and tide.  The likelihood is that this swim will be cancelled, which will be a real bummer as it was hard enough to get everyone to be able to agree a date in the first place.  But I guess that’s the point when you are doing a sport that involves the elements; the control is simply not yours; it lays in the hands of a greater force!!