Wade in the Water

I have been filling my boots with sea swimming over the last four months of good weather. Including a double dip on the day of the eclipse with Penarth in the morning and a packed, sweltering Jackson’s Bay in the evening. Most of the splishy splashy fun has been on my own but I’ve had the pleasure of the company of lovely Helen Payne and also my equally lovely bozo brothers the Steve’s Ford and Dixon.

Dunno why but Penarth has been especially choppy over the last few months. There was one morning in particular where the waves looked so ferocious that I did hesitate about getting in, I did and got tumbled about for six exhilarating minutes. I am careful when I swim, honest. Three weeks ago I was swimming in Penarth and the tide was fairly far out so I went in from the left of the Pier, because there’s a long concrete ramp. I swam up to the Pier head where it got particularly choppy. I was effectively swimming on the spot when a strong current shoved me back. “Fucking hell!” , clenched my teeth and put some effort into getting around the top of the pier. As soon as I’d cleared it I saw that the Life Boat had launched. ‘Oh, the must be doing a training exercise.’ I thought , then they got closer. ‘Ha! Wouldn’t it be funny if they were coming out for me.’ then they stopped in front of me. “You’ve not come out for me have you?” I asked as we bobbed up and down. “Yes, we were called out cause someone thought you were in distress.” The ironic thing is the Life Boat was making waves which were pushing me up against the Pier and under the water. “Are you struggling?” I was asked from the Life Boat. “I wasn’t till now.” I replied, followed by a quick “No, I’m fine.” I refused the offer of a ride back in and swam back.

On the way back I was asked if I was swimming on my own and if my name is ‘Darren’. “Yes, I’m Darren.” so that’s my card marked. The Life Boat stayed out until I got out. Some people called down from the Pier asking if I was okay and there was also someone from the RNLI walking down to meet me as I got out. I’ve got to give it to them, they’re thorough. The RNLI guy was very good and after asking how often I sea swim mentioned that a lot of people who swim where I do use a Tow Float, and I thought ‘Yeah, now’s not the time to tell him that I’ve got one but I don’t really get on with it’. The chippy, Welsh valley part of me thought ‘Muh, I was never in any trouble!’ but the larger sensible part of me thinks it’s better that someone called them out when I didn’t need them rather than no one called the Life Boat out if I was in trouble. I do feel guilty that they called out for me so I have been using a tow float since and I’ve set up a monthly Direct Debt to the RNLI.