Sea Dog

Early this morning I went for a short run while Gavin went for a much longer run - its a pleasure to run here as it is so flat, not like the hills of Surrey! 

Sailing along the coast of Great Britain is determined by the tides, and this weekend there is a very high spring tide (with a 9m rise). On such a flat coast as north Norfolk the tide comes in very quickly and goes out again rather quickly, and so sailing can only take place in that window of a couple of hours around when the tide is high. We had planned to go sailing this morning, as high tide was at about 10am. Everyone knows I am not a sailor, I hate sailing as I get seasick, but on a day like today when the weather was perfectly hot and sunny, with a gentle breeze, I was up for it as it was one way of keeping cool in the temperature of 32C today.  

We took Xena and she was rather nervous at first, she was sticking to my side like glue (her breed are not called velcro dogs for nothing!) but I think she eventually relaxed and enjoyed the slight breeze in her face. Gavin took this photo of us, my hand on the tiller steering the boat - in reality not knowing what I am doing! (What do you mean you pull it left to go right?!! ) There is a lot of faffing around when sailing, you have to get the tender to go out to where the boat is moored and it all seems like a lot of effort to me for about 2 hours sailing. When the tide is high the harbour is a frenzy of activity with (mainly) Landrovers reversing into the water to launch their tenders (we walk there and just pull the tender boat in) and some idiot forgot how high the tide gets and when we arrived there was his BMW parked with its trailer attached and the water was halfway up his car doors. You can tell it is high tide just by all the cars lining the road as the parking at the harbour is full. In the first extra you can see the view of the harbour as we sailed back in again.

After the sailing we relaxed at the house, had lunch, and then we were going to see the queen for tea at Sandringham but decided to rather go down the road to the RSPB Reserve at Titchwell instead (sorry Lizzie, next time!). It was so hot we thought the reserve would be the better option. They have had a record number of Avocet chicks this year (Avocets being the birds that are their emblem), and I have added an extra of one of the water areas with avocets there. My 500mm lens is not close enough for birds, but I did photograph a bird that when I got home and could look at on my computer, I managed to identify it as a Bitern. They are known to frequent this area but are extremely elusive so I was very excited with getting that photo.

Xena came with us and it was maybe a mistake as by the time we got home she was so hot she did not know what to do with herself. We showered her off with a cold shower to try to cool her down and then she slept for the rest of the afternoon. 

Tomorrow....37C! Crickey that is going to be even hotter.