Mass start

A group of Shandwick Sea Swimmers, plus assorted partners, went down to Inverness today to support three of our number in doing the Kessock swim. This involves swimming from the slipway in South Kessock, across the waterway to North Kessock, around two buoys and back again. The very fastest did it in just 20 minutes. Our merry crew (see extra) took between 35 minutes (M) and 40 minutes (Lu and Lo). They were understandably giddy afterwards (see second extra). The last few swimmers were still coming in exactly on the hour (which is the official time allowed) and there was still one last person out in the water when I checked on progress. They were surrounded by three kayaks, making steady progress back towards the slipway. I don't think they were being threatened with being hoiked out although the tide would have been ebbing by that point.

The "girls" did a brilliant job of organising the event. M organised the borrowing of the Alness Community minibus, which her husband T drove. Lu had booked a large table at the Black Isle brewery bar in Inverness, for excellent pizzas and beers afterwards. Lo had a large and very full cold bag full of fizz and white wine, and snacks, enjoyed inter alia on the rather raucous journey back from Inverness to Kildary, where we collected our car and returned Lo and A back to their houses in Tain. Not only was there a minibus full of people, but also assorted other supporters came down from Easter Ross to support the swimmers, as well as various work colleagues of Lu, who works in Inverness. The organisation of the event itself was also excellent, although it was unfortunate that the weather broke and the first part of the afternoon was accompanied by quite heavy rain. But it had cleared up by the end of the swim.

By the time I started swimming, the entries had already sold out for this year's event, but I am *definitely* going to enter next year, with the benefit of another year's practice. While I would be amongst the very slowest swimmers, I reckon I could do it within the cut off point, based on the practice I have had recently, and based on comparing my swimming speed with that of those who did it. The things that might put me off would be the general murkiness of the water and the fact that the water was a bit bumpier out in the middle than it appeared from the shore. But it is evident that the buzz is huge! This year the oldest participant was 80 years old. Way to go for me.

In the morning, I went swimming myself, in the sense of spending a chatty 30 minutes bobbing around in the water at Shandwick Beach with some other sea swimmers. I didn't do much actual swimming.

Update: for the record, a really nice article on the BBC website, showing a picture of M: as a picture of determination (second picture, left hand side).