Finally - A Little Calm

Swimming in the sea has been difficult these past couple of weeks, even at low tide. The swell has been very big (up to 4½ metres some days). Wylies Baths has been closed to swimmers on and off over the past few weeks. Last weekend I didn't get a swim at all. So, it was with relief that I read about the swell dropping during this past week. As the weekend approached the seas flattened out, and I was able to turn up at the pool for an early morning swim, even though it was just after high tide.

It was a glorious morning, but the air temperature was a wee bit on the cool side at 9°C. On the board it said that the sea temperature was 18°C, but I'm somewhat sceptical about that. The first length felt colder than I've been used to recently. Still, three years ago it was about 15° at this time of year, and it got down to 14° during early August. In any case, the water was clear, clean and refreshing. I swam 20 lengths through several small schools of tiny fish, then sat in the sun until I started shivering. A hot shower and a hot mug of tea soon fixed that.

About a fortnight ago, I was swimming here in rough conditions at low tide, when I noticed that one of the two posts that stick up out of the pool was missing. It had been buckled over and bent under the water by the force of the waves. The image below shows the two posts, which is how Wylies has looked for the 25 years that I've been going there. In that time they've been used to rope off a wading area for small children in the summer, but nobody seems to know what they were originally intended for nor how long they've been there.