In London With Helen For A Long Weekend! (at London)

We did a really fun hill walk today. This is Tinto Hill from the Wiston side. The walk was around 5km with 450m of elevation gain.

After this morning's open water swim the blood was rushing back towards the skin. I was on my own and swam 417m in 13:28. Highest tide coming in. Northerly wind onto the beach gentle breeze Force 3. Water temperature 8 degC #openwaterswimming #rwsabc #greenock (at The Royal West of Scotland Boat Club)

Today I had the privilege of organising the RWSABC Clyde Swim 2018. 31 swimmers who are pictured here completed the 3km swim from Kilcreggan to RWSABC. Thank you to the participants, the safety boat crews, the kayakers, those who did the barbeque and served hot drinks and scones and the committee of RWSABC. #rwsabc #inverclyde #openwaterswimming #kilcreggan #greenock #theclyde (at Royal West Of Scotland Amateur Boat Club)

Open Water Swimming along The Esplanade, Greenock - 7 January 2014

Happy New Year! 

This is my first Blog of the year.  I am working at home today to try to get some marking done.  I have done a reasonable job but there is still lots of marking to do.

Seeing as I was at home I decided to go for an Open Water Swim in The Clyde.  As normal I swam from the Royal West of Scotland Amateur Boat Club (RWSABC).  

The last time I was in was in December.  Today's weather was fairly mild with with the temperature around 9 degree C.  It was overcast with lite winds.  

I went in around 15:45 and stayed in 15 minutes.  High tide today was at 16:41 so the water was well in.  I much prefer to be swimming around high tide if possible.  The main reason is probably that you are walking over sand to get in the water.  Going in at a low tide means that you are walking over cobbles and larger stones to get in the water.  I am guessing I swam about 400m.  I never did put my face in and mostly swam side stroke.  After coming out I went into the boat club a took a nice hot shower.  I was still a bit shivery after the shower.

Having said that I am still on a bit of high from the swim.  It was great.

I didn't take a picture today but here is one from early December when the conditions were much the same as today.

I have spoken to a few people who tell me stories about people they know who made it a habit to swim in The Clyde every day.  I certainly believe them now.  Today's swim means that I have had at least one swim in The Clyde every month since April 2013.  I expect that to continue.  I would like to get in once per week but I'm not sure if my schedule will allow this.  

Happy swimming!

First entry into Tumblr

This is my first post in Tumblr.  This seems a nice system for writing blogs.  I have sort of tried Wordpress but it doesn't lend itself to short posts.  I will move the blogs that I have created so far to here.  I'm not going to put any tags on this entry.  - Note to myself - Only one entry per day.  I was following a blog on Tumblr called "Today I learned (TIL)".  With a title like that you might expect to learn one new and hopefully important thing per day.  No he/she seems to put things out every hour and it completely clogged up things.  I got fed up and stopped following the blog.

The Economist | Land-shackled economies: The paradox of soil via @theeconomist

Europe: Carnivore Paradise?

Bears, wolves, lynx and wolverines are flourishing in Europe, largely in humanized landscapes and not in parks. Can North America learn from the “coexistence model” that characterizes the continent’s approach to conserving big carnivores?

Heading out for a cycle around Cumbrae (at Millport)

This is where I've done most of my Open Water Swimming this week. This is a lagoon in Costa Teguise which provides a sheltered place for a swim. At high tide it us over 200m long. Water temperature a balmy 19.5 degC. #lanzarote #openwaterswimming #costateguise (at Costa Teguise Lanzarote)

A lovely night for open water swimming along The Esplanade in Greenock. 😊