I love swimming in the sea. B is not so keen. Except when she is and she has a ‘going crazy in the sea’ day… there’s not much swimming involved. Lots of splashing… and some novel solutions. Then we find the best natural swimming pool ever – and everything is wonderful. Finally we have an encounter with natural waves while waiting for the tide to come in…

201 – I swim… B throws balls for me to fetch.

Saturday 14 June. Sun and showers. 19°C

It’s Saturday morning and I’ve had a week with very little exercise.

Me: “Ok, how about we go down to the sea, and I swim and you can muck about?”.

I’m half expecting to be told to get lost.

B: “Ok”.

It’s really nice. On the way down we see the lifeboat coming in from practice sessions. There’s a few people swimming and a lot of dogs. B has brought a ball and has a glint in her eye. She’s refused to bring her swimsuit and wetsuit. She’s got other ideas.

I head into the water and she throws the ball for me to fetch. We’ve done this before and it works surprisingly well so long as I’m not hoping to actually swim much. The dogs like the ball too – that’s ok. She likes dogs and makes some new canine friends (after checking with the owners). We lose the ball completely at one point and B is sad. She tries throwing stones but it’s a tad dangerous and not as fun. Then, as the tide goes out, the ball reappears, stuck in the slats of the lifeboat ramp. Cue more fun.

194 – Taking a dog to the beach

Saturday 21 June. Sun. 24°C

A week on and it’s really hot. Both B and I want to take our paddleboard to the beach but we get a plea to dog sit so we ditch the board (too much stuff) and go with the pup.

We’re right about the stuff. The biggest issue is the logistics of carrying everything and where to leave it when we get there. We have brought his balls and our wetsuits, lots of water and towels for all. He runs over everything and gets sand everywhere and it’s all a bit frantic.

On the upside B does go in the sea. She gets adopted by most of the dogs of the beach when they realise she’ll throw balls for them. Our dog gets his ball pinched and is sad. While we manage the chaos, B spends quite a bit of time in the water but neither of us really notice. Neither of us swim and both of us are frazzled enough not to be able to remember what number we’re on for the photo).

Dog has a lovely time. We’re not sure. Next time we’ll go alone – though I suspect B will be happier with the sea and may appreciate being able to enjoy it without canine interference!

159 – Watching the sea wash the sand off the chalk

Saturday 26 July. Cloudy. 20°C

Another morning Saturday swim for me and B has come along again with the balls. She makes more doggy friends and learns a bit about currents (the tides going out and there’s a treadmill effect going on where I swim and swim and don’t move). She’s brought chalk for the challenge.

B: “I’m going to put the numbers on stones and then see how long it takes the waves to get it off”.

More fun than it sounds. First attempt the waves get there before the camera does and washes all the stones through the slats of the lifeboat ramp and into the sea. Try again. We get there on the third attempt. B putting them a way from the water line and then moving them closer. The sea is quick!

144 – Race you to the buoy and back

Sunday 10 August. Sunny. 23°C

We’re on holiday in West Wales and it’s HOT. B is finally about to go swimming. The water’s chilly and she squeals as she goes in but we slowly edge out to the deeper bits. We play with a ball, throwing it back and forth. Then we try something new:

Me: “Bet you can’t beat me back to shore swimming”…

And we’re off. B can never resist a challenge. Once we hit the shore we look for something new.

B: “Race you to the buoy… and back!”

She wins of course. She’s very quick when she forgets she’s cold!

120 – Exploring a natural swimming pool

Friday 29 August. Cloudy with some rain. 18°C

Finally, a few days after it feels like summer has ended, B and I have our best swimming encounter EVER. We’ve headed back to explore the little river on the beach we found paddle boarding a few weeks ago. Then it was packed with kids. Now it’s almost empty and a lot colder. We’ve left the paddle board behind but taken our wetsuits. I’m not sure it’s going to go well. It’s very chilly and B’s water shoe is rubbing her heel.

Turns out an amazing natural swim spot changes everything. We wade cautiously across first… keeping to the right, away from where we remember the deep water, we get to the sand bank on the other side and we head off first to do B’s favourite thing of jumping over the waves… we edge into the sea and run away from them next… trying to get to shore before they catch us. Then I edge round to explore the swimming bit…

I shout to B and she watches as I walk down into the water which descends from shallow to too deep to touch the bottom in about a metre. I’ve got her interest now. I swim around a bit. It’s all deep. I head out towards the sea and after about ten metres I can touch the ground again. B is hovering at the edge

B: “Shall I jump?”

Me: “YES!”

And she does. With a shriek of glee. Then she’s out of the water to do it again. I suggest we race over to the rock on the deep side. Half way across she panics.

B: “I can’t stand up”

She’s not had that in the sea before. I tow her back to the shore and she giggles and jumps in again. Then we explore the edges, working out where the shallow bits are and where it’s deep. Another family, with little boys and a paddleboard, are exploring too, jumping off the rock and gigging.

It’s too cold to stay long but we DID IT!! B swam and we both found somewhere very amazing. We head home sad that it’ll be next year now before we get to do it again and wondering why on earth we didn’t go sooner.

114 – Waiting for the tide to come in … and WAVES

Saturday 6 September. Sunny. 21°C

The weather is a lot colder suddenly but its sunny today and we’re going for another evening at the beach… on our own this time. We’ve got the paddleboard, a little tent thing and buckets and spades. High tide is at 7pm and we get there about 5pm and set up the tent on the high tide line.

A look at the sea suggests it’s not paddleboard weather. I thought the wind was from the land side but I was clearly wrong. There’s quite large waves crashing on the beach. B is fascinated and goes to explore. All the waves we’ve met over the summer have been fairly small. This is something else. She skirts at the shore line.

I’ve got other things on my mind. I want to build a sandcastle with a moat which can fill up as the tide comes in. It’s one of my favourite beach things but we’ve not done it yet this year. I do the moat first, getting the hard work done (and dug) and hope B will come and fill in the details for me. Then I go to explore the waves too.

They are pretty high – but not scarily so. I venture in past the crashing bit and find myself in deep water, being lifted up by each wave, like happens with a wave machine at a swimming pool. It’s REALLY fun. B wants to come and do it too but can’t get through the white water. I try and help but a wave crashes down on top of her and she runs back to shore. She’s scared but keeps trying, cursing that she’s not bigger and taller.

Then she notices the tide. While we are officially waiting for it to come in it still took us by surprise. It’s almost reaching the moat an hour before I thought it would. We start frantically building castles as the water crashes closer and closer. When it arrives it works well and we get quite a while with water in the moat but not touching the castles… then it gets higher and sweeps them all away. At that point B points out that our tent and picnic blanket is about to be in the sea… it’s clearly a higher tide today than it has been. PANIC fun.