Sea Swimming and Coastal Fog - A warning

paulksnn

I was down Enistymon direction to see some friends and it being a lovely day and all, I said I'd take an hour and swim up and down lahinch.

The Fog appeared about halfway to lahinch from enistymon.
I thought nothing of it, I wasn't going for a walk in the sun anyway.

The water was a bit choppier than normal so I ended up swimming slightly further out than normal. Not a problem, I could still see the beach.(I'm short-sighted and didn't have contacts with me).

By the time I got to the far end of the beach(where the river is), it's very shallow, so I swam a bit further out (still less than a metre deep).

Got a bad shock then :eek: Couldn't see the beach, and couldn't see direction the waves were breaking either.
Anyone ever see the film "Open Water" where scuba divers get left in the middle of nowhere. The same, except I could stand up.
The momentary calm of the waves finished and I saw waves breaking towards what I thought should be the beach. But I also know waves can end up coming from the river mouth at high tide(almost full high tide when I got in) - away from the beach.

Barely made out the sun through the fog, and decide to go with the waves anyway. The direction seemed right.
About 2 minutes later, the water got even more shallow and I started walking(knee height). Took me another 2 minutes of walking to get out of the sea.

It was stupid of me to be swimming and not to be able to see the shore. That's not in doubt. Apart from not going in, are there any other open water techniques to use? Anyone.

And aside from that, be careful out there everyone.

Seaswimmer

If swimming in waters you are not familiar with (especially on the west coast!!) I would always tow a "torpedo" buoy. These are the ones you see the lifeguards with or the ones that Pamela Anderson had on Baywatch!!! I have one on a 10 -12 ft length of rope with a strap that goes over my shoulder and chest. They sit very high on the water so dont slow you down much. At least if you get tired/cramp/lost it will give keep you afloat until you sort yourself out.

paulksnn

Thanks Seaswimmer.
I think the problem is that I am fairly familiar with that beach.
And I generally don't swim out of my depth.
Pure stupidity that I didn't consider the effect the fog would have.
I'll keep an eye out for the torpedo.

agrajag

paulksnn wrote: »

Thanks Seaswimmer.
I think the problem is that I am fairly familiar with that beach.
And I generally don't swim out of my depth.
Pure stupidity that I didn't consider the effect the fog would have.
I'll keep an eye out for the torpedo.

my folks have a place up on the hill towards doolin, they can see right down into the bay, and they said they'd never seen anything like the fog before - they described it as covering the beach and the near-shore for about 100 metres out, but the rest of the bay was clear. crazy.

OP, you didn't happen to notice what sort of accommodation the lifeguards had? i don't think their new tower is supposed to be ready yet?

D

paulksnn

Conditions were bad alright.
As for the lifeguards, they still have the wooden shack. They've got the roof on the new building, but it's still in a fairly raw state. I don't know how they managed to time it like that but it'll be a month or two before it's ready. At least

agrajag

paulksnn wrote: »

Conditions were bad alright.
As for the lifeguards, they still have the wooden shack. They've got the roof on the new building, but it's still in a fairly raw state. I don't know how they managed to time it like that but it'll be a month or two before it's ready. At least

it's taken CCC over 30 years to put some decent facilities onto the beach, you could hardly expect them to have it ready for when the lifeguards are actually on duty they've only had since last September after all!