Best Intentions

Just returned from a gentle swim at Seaton with Joe, in the water for 9:30am with the plan of an easy hour, just to stretch off and assess. The normal build up of grease and walk into the sea, it rarely feels warm, infact it actually felt cold today until we got on with it. High tide had been and gone so the normal northerly route was a ‘no go’ due to exposed rocks and other risks, we stood in chest depth water deciding our destination when up popped our friend Sammy Seal! Great…I really did not want to have a meeting with him and his presence always put me on edge. Once upon a time I would have exited the water at this point, today we decided to ignore him making our way out to sea towards the dreaded buoy…

Around 15 minutes later the big orange buoy came into view (you will recall it is easily visible from the car park, however it gets lost in the swell when at swimmers eye level) Joe had the bright idea that we should circle the buoy before heading closer to shore. Off he went…I had no opportunity to complain. A quick sprint and I was level with him, I could sense that Joe was pushing the pace, I didn’t want to push too hard as my neck and back are far from 100%, a few minutes later we had rounded the buoy and were heading back towards shore, a little spooked but very safe…phew!

The surface temperature was a little higher in the deeper water, with the days average being  59f /15c which was comfortable enough after 5 minutes or so, the cooler patches were a bit of shock to the system but I was inwardly hoping the cold would be of benefit  to my injury. A few stops later and the hour was up.

Swimming through the surf we were soon in shallow enough water to walk the last few metres. Then, to our surprise we noticed two uniformed Police Officers making rapid progress in our direction, what had we done now?, we chatted between ourselves, we hadn’t done anything wrong, so continued heading for the dry bag further up the beach.

Before we got there we were stopped and spoken to by the ‘bobbys’  it turns out that a local workman had called the police, explaining he had seen two swimmers heading out to sea but they could  no longer be seen, it was genuine concern for our safety so we should be grateful, the fact that the police helicopter was on standby is a bit more worrying,  but we cant exactly call the police everytime we go for a swim can we?, it’s a different matter when the lifeguards are in attendance who we always brief on our intentions.