Its been difficult getting in the water:last week the tides were right but the weather wrong, this week the tides and weather are right but I have my 2 grandchildren to stay, aged 5 and 8. I can't exactly abandon them on Hackley Bay beach and swim for half an hour. I was then told about the Bay swim, part of Peterhead Scottish week and something to give me a taste of swimming under pressure if I could find someone to look after Joe and Ellie. So Claire, their adored auntie stepped into the breach, for once she was not working and agreed to to do the necessary.
The swim was at 6.30 p.m. and details were sparse. Registration was from 6pm at Peterhead Sailing club. A boat was to take us to the start somewhere in the Bay at Peterhead. We were then to swim back into the Marina;no information about distance, rules, entry fee or age limit . I decided that I would go , with wetsuit and decide when I got there but first I had a whole day to spend with Ellie and Joe so it was off to Hackley Bay for a picnic , scramble (on the rocks) surf jumping ( the children), and generally butterfly (6 flavours) , damselfly (2 flavours), plant (loads), birds (loads) spotting. Not to mention the crabs and the dead seal pup ("aawwh granny how did it die?"). We picked up Claire ( auntie) on the way back and headed for Pizzahead (Joe's understanding of where we were headed) Sailing club ( 15 miles north of me).
At the sailing club there were loads of youngish people of all shapes and sizes milling around with towels. Generally these turned out to be the parents of the swimmers. I was by far the oldest and the only one as far as I could see contemplating using a wetsuit.....but wait there was a man in a wetsuit (and shades...was he here for the surfing???!!!) who was a tad older and slightly nearer my age. So I collared him and found out that a) there was no entry fee, b) we were swimming from the green buoy just outside the marina wall (not far at all) c) Anything goes for costume but he would really, really like it if some other woose wore a wet suit. That was it, when George arrived to take our registration details I was in.
On the walk down to the Marina and the lifeboat (yes, nothing like coming prepared) that was taking us to the start (an orange buoy is now mentioned beyond the green one) the shady guy (46 years) with the wet suit reveals he is an ex Royal Marine but gives me the best advice of the day, i.e. board last ( swim first). Even with this as the rest of the swimmers are obviously current competitive swimmers average age 16, I doubted if I would finish anything else but last. As we boarded I noted a couple of other wetsuits, one that looked like it was a few sizes too big for its wearer.
20 minutes later after a 10 minute wait out in the bay as they cleared the course of jet skiers, speed boats etc we were told to come to the stern. I turned out to be 2nd up and found that I had to dive in (what other way was there?). No time to dither and I was in the diesel coated waters of Peterhead bay. I struck out in front crawl and was amazed at how quickly ...... ..................everyone else went passed, the ex RM included swimming breaststroke. I seemed to be inhaling pure diesel every time I took a breath so I gave up and went over onto my back, horrified to discover that the lifeboat wasn't any further away. Still there were some swimmers behind me. I continued on my back, admiring the clear blue sky until shouts from a support vessel warned me that I was heading for the breakwater rocks. I dropped back a few places to get back on course, tried a few more mouthfuls of diesel, then again onto back stroke heading for the crowds that had gathered on the beach. The lifeboat was still just behind be and I finally realised that this was because it was following us in.
I finished 17th ( I think) out of ....20 with at least 2 wetsuits behind me including the extra large one. (RM way in front). I have no idea of the distance (200-300 m maybe) or the time I took. The grandchildren had been to the funfair, had a great time and somewhere ( although I didn't wait around the extra hour for it) there is a medal for me.
Main lessons, the adrenalin wasn't too debilitating, I haven't lost the ability to dive off a boat ( last time circa 1970), the Corryvreckan won't be full of diesel fumes.
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