After my trips west and being totally spoilt by the swimming opportunities there I needed to get my head round finding a place locally. There is a Triathlon group that meet on Monday evenings at Knockburn Loch but this is a 40 mile car journey away on the other side of Aberdeen.I am only free alternate Mondays. Living 3 miles from the North Sea Coast you may think that I have endless opportunities to swim but that doesn’t take account of the fact that I am a woose and am feart of zipping out to sea on a rip tide. Also I do have a few principles and try not to go on too many unnecessary car journeys (what about all those trips to the West Coast I hear you say? And you would be right). Then I remembered Hackley Bay on the Forvie Sands NNR.
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From my house there is a 3 mile cycle ride to Forvie Centre followed by a 25 minute walk to the bay. It (as you can see) has my ideal conditions. The sand gives easy access to the sea without having to slither and slide across slippy rocks or hurtful shingle but there are rocks on either side to lessen the sand load in the knickers when getting dressed. It is a sheltered as you get on the N.E. Coast of Scotland and today, sunny! There were a few eiders (Forvie has the largest population of breeding eiders in Britain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sands_of_Forvie) making their wonderful disapproving noises but otherwise a lack of idle bystanders making adverse comments. I repeat I am a woose. The distance across the bay is about 160 m so 7 lengths should be my complete swim.
Today I set off from home a good hour after I intended at 12.10. I had to be back home by 3.00 p.m. to give me time to get ready for work at Peterhead at 4.30 pm.
In the event this gave me about 20 minutes swimming time plus 10 minutes chatting to Annabel (warden) and Bill (contractor) at the Centre. I did the equivalent of 3 lengths (2 full then half way across and back) in 15 minutes which would give me a time of just over 34 minutes for the full distance of the Corryvreckan crossing. This is a good 10 minutes slower than my pool time and a bit too close to the time of 40 minutes I have to do the Corryvreckan in for my liking. Still think positive, I have 3 months to go and am only 2 months on from when I started. I am now swimming front crawl happily with the stops getting fewer and fewer.
Today I also learnt that if I am fully warmed up when I get in (as I was today) it is so much easier. Before I started this “adventure” I read somewhere that it was not a good idea to warm up before open water swimming. This seemed contrary to all other advice that I have ever heard on exercise and if my experience is anything to go by not helpful. Still I have now signed up to the Outdoor Swimming Society. Its free but appears, like many of these national groups, more relevant to southern residents of the UK.
No photo today as each time I load it, half my blog entry disappears. I would also really like to hear feed back from people reading this blog. Don't be shy....
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