Last Sunday I emailed Joni Storer, letting him know my open water plans for the coming week; I had been working nights on Monday and Tuesday followed by a quick return (onto afternoons) for Wed and Thursday, as a result of which, training has been a little bit of a squeeze. Figures are okish but I had still been looking forward to a Sea Swim on Thurs.
From my bed on Wednesday night I could hear the wind and rain against the windows, I feared the worst for the following morning. Sure enough it was still raining when I dragged my self up to try to eat before a scheduled 10am swim at Seaton. After sending Joni a text (to confirm his attendance) KGB and I were enroute.
On arrival at the car park rendezvous I approached Joni’s car, where he tells me he had nodded off ! The rain was pouring; it was a completely miserable day. Joni wound down his window and said something along the lines of “Its not too nice for this ..there are other options you know!” I told him it was just something we had to do… Before long we headed off to the water, quite a walk today as the tide was more or less at its lowest. Stripped and ready for action the conditions were far from ideal. It seemed like a marathon to get from the dry kit to the waters edge. The breakers didn’t look too bad from a distance but upon closer inspection, we found them to be around head height. No sooner were we waist deep than we were under water, due to the swells. That in itself actually helped matters since it did not allow for any messing about! We breast stroked to a point beyond the worst of the breakers and then got straight on with some freestyle.
Joni and I swam a reasonable distance out to sea; with a constant eye on KGBs location in order to keep my bearings, I swam with Joni boy in tow (more or less). We stayed out for twenty minutes again at 44F (about 6.7C according to my watch), my hands and feet were frozen by the time I exited the water. I walked out to find Kelly, soaked to the skin looking colder than a frozen pizza! She again, took it upon herself, to take our guest under her wing and helped Joni into his leather shoes which were full of water, up the beech and to the cars.
Once seated in the car, with hot drinks to hand, I got a fit of the giggles and couldn’t help but laugh hysterically at Joni as he tried to don his cotton shirt and jeans! Once I calmed down, I gave some advice regarding ideal clothing and footwear, for use in future. This clearly had the desired effect as shortly after our arrival home he text me with his new purchases. Well done today Joni, even KGB has warmed up now. Twenty five minutes next week so make sure you are dressed accordingly!
Unfortunately, KGB was unable to take photos today due to the conditions. It wasn’t necessarily the rain which prevented decent shots, just her frozen stiff fingers! Need better gloves fit for the purpose next time, not fashion accessories!
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