Brown Sea at Tinside

Flooding, gales, biggish wavelets…we decided to have a look at the Hoe before swimming today, and worked out that the incoming tide and the flow from the Plym were pushing water towards the dodgy area from where untreated sewage might flood. The water was brownish, and there were a couple of areas of flotsam and ripped weed but we only saw one log, and that was of the wooden variety. I sniffed carefully, and there was not even a whiff of poo. So Richard, Rosie and I shot in, swam out a little way, bounced around, and swam back in with absolutely no heads under the water just in case. 

Nippy Tinside

A wonderful swim this morning in a pale turquoise sea that suddenly transformed to the colour and texture of mackerel skin as we headed out to the buoys. It felt cold, and no wonder – it’s a mere 7.3°c, the coldest so far on Pauline’s sea temperature graph (see the Devon and Cornwall Wild Swimming Website link on the right of this page). I had a proper cold water tan, and got the biggest after-drop of the year having stayed in for longer than was perhaps sensible. Luckily I was able to shiver my way down to Corinthians where I sat on the radiator and consumed a large cream tea.