the fifth day of summer

[hawkwing_lb]

I've done my first ritual jump-in jump-out (repeat three times, until actual swimming takes place) of the Irish Sea.

I was stiff, before that. Not anymore.

Fish and chips, and walking, and some time in the back garden reading a chapter of Richard Horsley's book on Second Temple Judaism, and now I eat M&Ms - many M&Ms - and relax.

Because, really. This weather isn't going to last.

Comments

[davefreer.livejournal.com]

water temperature ? 10 c? and no wetsuit? Is this a common Irish practice? Is this where the 'mad irishman' legened was b..b...born?

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I don't know the water temp. I'd say it's probably somewhere between 12-15 degrees - by August it might reach as high as 17. But, you know. That's a guess, really.

And depends on what you mean by 'common': I've been doing this since I was very young, as has my mother, but it does not appear to be an exceedingly popular pasttime among the population at large. Some sections of the coastal-dwelling populace, yes, but not so much everyone else. Unless there is a heatwave in June or July. :)

(Swim early, before the jellyfish descend. Because they keep coming earlier every year.)

[davefreer.livejournal.com]

well this not that precise - http://www.weatherzone.com.au/climate/indicator_sst.jsp?lt=global&lc=global&c=sst
but I happened to have it open
where are those strait jackets? ;-)

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Strait jackets? You foreigners are all wusses. :P

I'm sane. I don't swim through the winter, or even do the Christmas Day dip, unlike some really crazy hardy folk.

No, they don't use wetsuits, either.

[davefreer.livejournal.com]

complete wussies :-) especially me. -The boys do/did 'polar bear' -which means a dive into the dam every tuesday at 6 AM. - we've had -13C at that time midwinter, and yes, they did break the ice. They ARE crazy. Me I love wetsuits. I have a 3 mm I use even when the water is 24. I also have a 7mm and 5mm hooded vest I used to use when I did a bit of commercial diving in the Cape west coast in 10C. I had 5mm farmer john and a 5 mm jacket I used for crayfishing there.
If we got to live in Tassie - I am going to have to get a new 7mm. I dived there this last winter and the water was 15. Beautiful dive, just hell on hands and feet and ears. But catching spiny lobster, spear fishing or even abalone means spending a long time in the water.

[davefreer.livejournal.com]

-13 Air temperature at night

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't swim when there's ice on the water.

But it is odd, what seems normal to one and strange to another. I've swum in the Caribbean* in November, and had raised eyebrows. In Gozo in March, the locals asked me wasn't I cold? when I went swimming. It was so warm.

So, you know. Mileage varies. :)


*One holiday, when I was ten, which I shall remember fondly forever, and not just because it was my first overseas holiday.