We drove to Thurlestone in howling gales and torrential rain, past broken trees and debris on the roads. Was this going to be one of the wildest swims ever? On arrival at the beach we were virtually blown off the cliff. And yet, because the winds were from the NE, the sea was actually quite flat, though the surface was constantly patterned by rogue gusts of wind. To our surprise,
when we got in the water the visibility was brilliant; swimming off from the shore we travelled over the beautiful shingle shelf, and out towards the Rock, which stood firm, its chunky legs straddled across the water. Drops of rain fell like little diamonds. When we got to the arch the wind decided to play with us, pushing us back and forth, and unceremoniously spattering us with showers of surface water. Afterwards, doing a Houdini-style change in an increasingly steamed up car, and warming up with tots of brandy, we reflected that the sea was definitely the place to be on such a wild and wet day.
I've been in Morocco, dodging waves in the desert surf, so was looking forward to some calmer seas for swimming
explorations back home. I haven't been to Thurlestone Rock for ages, so
Anna and I set off, planning to swim over the reef and out to the
Arch. I'd looked on the webcam, and all looked calm, but when we got
there it was pretty lively, with a westerly wind creating white horses
across the bay. We got in to lovely lukewarm bathwater temperature
sea, and swam around channels in the reef, admiring the seaweeds' coats
of many colours before heading out the the Arch where it started to get
quite lumpy. The swell was exhilarating though and as it pushed me
'through the eye of the needle' it was just wonderfully exciting to be
dwarfed by the majestic rock towering above me. Once through I was in
shadow, but swam around back into the sunlight to do the whole thing all
over again. 
