Goodbye January!

January – the grimmest month for winter swimmers is OVER!  Having spent most of the month asleep I was pleased that I still managed to achieve 23 swims out of 31 days.  This is the month when willpower really matters and teeth have to be well and truly gritted to get into the water.  On the plus side we had some terrific storms swims, culminating in Saturday’s nutty Sound of Jura “sprachle” which involved taking Capt Duggie’s yacht out into the Sound of Jura and throwing ourselves off into 80m of green and white wave topped water.  This was a new experience which required much forward planning (by the captain) and an immense quantity of neoprene, warm clothes and (of course) food.  Seeing the yacht pitching and rearing up out of the water from close quarters was certainly eye-opening!  Having practised getting back into the dingy before setting off, it proved to be slightly more difficult while being bashed by waves and I ended up getting clonked on the head and shoved underwater while righting the dingy (Duggie found this most amusing).  I bounced up pretty quickly and we got back on board, had the usual battle with our wetsuits and swiftly moved on to my favourite part: scoffing hearty bacon sandwiches, hot juice and home made gingerbread cake.  See a wee video here: