This article is, once again, a variation of the most popular question here: “What temperature of water is too cold to swim in”?, which I’ve written about before. The temperature at the Guillamene last Sunday week (October 16th, 2011) was about 13° Celsius (55° F). That’s far warmer than what most people will imagine, not…
It is a fact widely acknowledged that the BBC makes the best television nature and science documentaries. David Attenborough’s name has become a global watch phrase for excellence. But it is always the whole BBC team bringing in the best nature writing and filming and locations, in this series using the Planet Earth Polar camera-man,…
EDIT: Yes, this post has been published twice. There was a backend problem on WordPress. Sorry. NASA just released a cool new map of the world’s ocean’s salinity. I wish we could see the North Atlantic in better detail. It’s still early days for this though so there’ll be more to come. I look forward…
Some weeks ago I had an idea for a series of posts that led me to taking more video (with Dee´s video camera). The idea hasn´t worked but I ended up with a lot of video clips as a consequence. At the start I was trying to capture some specifics, and I would talk as…
From a quick check on the M5 buoy, I knew what the conditions were. But when I neared the coast for a new swim, the mist and fog closed in. I knew it probably wouldn’t be better right on the coast, and such was the case. Visibility was about 500 metres. Not too heavy but…
The famous map of Great Britain we often see around the place is John Speed’s 1610 map. Have a look at the west coast of Ireland and the “sea monster” there. In Irish mythology dragons were called peist (pronounced: pey-ssht) and were typically water monsters, whose abode was primarily lakes and rivers. I like that this…
I swam toward the promontory, passing various unsurfable reefs, the vertical cliffs high and bright in the southerly sun, reminiscent of Dover and the White Cliffs, except red and ochre, and my own. About three-quarters of the way down, I stopped to listen. To the sound of swell. You know what waves sound like. But…
Courtesy of another search that brings people here, and following Hurricane Katya last week and the synoptic chart that I linked for it. So we’ve started with that same synoptic chart again. In this chart we have a low pressure area, Hurricane Katya, north west of Ireland, in sea area Rockall, right in the centre at…
The subject of open water fears has come up here and elsewhere occasionally, and I often get asked about dealing with it, whether it’s fear of deep water, jellyfish, cold or sharks. Particularly sharks. And anytime I ever mention sharks, you all go for it like people for whom the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week just…
When you are in Dover weather is the beginning and end of everything. We felt we had a better handle on the coming storm to hit Ireland as we were trying to get a good of idea of what coming toward the Strait. Everyone in Ireland today knows it’s windy (but really unusually it’s dry,…
I’ve watched a lot of water and I’ve been in my share. Heavy waves on Crab Island, 11 metres swell in a cross wind on the west coast, Pacific Beach in San Diego and San Francisco, howling onshores on the north Scottish coast, the North Sea and Cornwall and I live on the Irish South…
Reflections on Project Copper. I’ve swam about 54,000 metres to cover the 25 kilometre coast, which were swum as a series of out and back swims, so every metre of coast was swam twice. With the experience I’ve gained of the various currents on this stretch of coast, I now know there are longer swims…
I love this video. Director Lorenza Fonza shot it over 17 days as passenger aboard a cargo ship going from Shanghai to Los Angeles. (There’s a brief interview here). It’s about 10 minutes long and well worth it. I love the title also but I wonder if I would now be able to do a…
The Guardian published this map a few weeks ago. According to them it’s “every location”, so of course I went to my usual locations and discover neither Sandycove nor the Guillamene is marked. So this applies only to locations that are entered for the European Blue Flag scheme. But it’s still useful. You’ll have to visit…
Ocean. Green. Pelagic. Friends. Deep. Tide. Littoral. Headland. Cnidarian. Warm. Crab. Flood. Saline. Surge. Slipway. Gull. Springs. Diverse. Reef. Sand. Cove. Wet. Cetacean. Current. Ecosystem. Island. Clear. Lighthouse. Calm. Dream. Breaker. Dark. Coral. Foam. Neaps. Seal. Turquoise. Bay. Blue. Cape, Solo. Fun. Dive. Sprat. Aquatic. Wild. Thalassic. Swell. Glassy. Fish. Beach. Bio-luminescence. Grease. Offshore. Frigate Bird. Spray. Rock.…
I’ve been sitting on this news for a few days until it was officially released. So I’ll start with what Steve reports on Daily News of Open Water. The Investigation reported on Facebook (of all places): As organizers of Penny Palfrey’s Bridging the Cayman Islands swim, the Flowers Group launched an investigation into the reports…
If you were interested in the Penny Palfrey story yesterday, then it is important you continue to follow it. I said yesterday I had seen a lot of vitriol thrown online at Penny and crew and I said we needed to wait for the full story. Apparently even that was unacceptable for some, it’s always…
This is the post I’d written for yesterday before the shark-killing post. Famous virologist Jonas Salk (developer of the Polio vaccine) once said that our greatest responsibility was to be a good ancestor. And you’ve probably heard the American First Nation’s belief that the Earth actually belongs to the seventh generation following us. These are…
EDIT: updated. EDIT 2: See the results of the investigation here. This may be the biggest subject in OW swimming this week. Here’s a long story about killing of endangered (Oceanic White Tip) sharks during Penny’s swim. Here’s the follow-up with comments from Penny’s husband. Here’s Steve Munatones article on it. I recommend reading the comments…
“To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour.” – William Blake About a spoonful of sand taken today from Newtown Cove pier. The small beach is only larger stones, so this sand was water-borne to arrive…
It was my first night swim since the EC. Like many sea swimmers I love night-swimming. Just after midnight on Sunday morning, 16 experienced Sandycove Island swimmers took to the water in three groups to do a full lap of the island. The water had been cold in Waterford all week, from 9.5C to 11C. The…
Ok, if you’re a regular here, you know by now I have an interest in these feckers, partly because we get a lot of them in Tramore Bay, I’ve been stung more times than I can remember (first two very minor stings of the year yesterday), AND they are fascinating. On one hand I like…
It’s essential you click on the picture and look at it at full size. ‘Y’ha-nthlei is deeper than you know’. See here for the original story, important to my lifelong H.P. Lovecraft obsession.
As you bounce around the net, you’ll occasionally encounter images like that on the right. It will be presented as the ideal of clear and clean water. And if you swim in the North Atlantic, you may look at it with longing. Or often its white sand atolls glittering in an azure blue Pacific. Or…
Yes, our friends the jellyfish have returned. The other day I saw Common (aka Moon ), Compass (pictured) and Blue Stingers. The Common (Moon, below) is completely harmless, but all jellies cause most people to have a small freakout. So knowing when not to be afraid is useful. I mentioned previously about the late spring/early summer arrival,…
LoneSwimmer 