Monday 8th April 2024
Hiya folks
After another winter storm, Storm Kathleen, has blown through and we are left with windy sunny conditions today and a rather stony injured beach. The sands move a lot at Nairn and currently, we are hobbling over the rocks and stones to get to the water. But with gentler conditions the sands return over time and our beach fills up with sand again. Like the sands - the warmer seas and warmer temperatures will soon return. And don’t forget as the meditating monk says ‘there is always blue sky above the clouds’.
News and events
This weekend is the first racing weekend for the yachts and sailors at Nairn Sailing Club. The Craig Cup is on Saturday and the boats are a beautiful spectacle on the water if you want to get down to the beach to watch some sail racing (bring some binoculars). The dolphins were spotted at Nairn this week so you might see them too. The club is always looking for new members and has a great new merchandise shop on the new NSC website here.
My swim coaching progresses to week three this week of the 8-week block. This week we will be focusing on the pull phase of the front crawl. It is great to see two lanes of enthusiastic swimmers at the coaching sessions and more enquiries coming in to join our group and have 1:1 coaching. If you want to join our group sessions they are at Nairn Pool every Thursday, please email nairnbeachadventures@gmail.com and I will take you through the application process.
The swimming forecast w/c 8th April 2024
Another nice feature on the NSC website is that they have a live feed of the weather forecast with an obvious focus on the all-important wind for sailors. and its direction of course has a big impact on sea swimming possibilities. For example, even though we had storm-force winds at the weekend because these were broadly southerlies the sea state was relatively benign in Nairn. I joined about 8 other Nairn Selkies for a short sunny swim on Sunday.
Using the information on the NSC website we have a high tide today at 1235 and 4.6M which is very high. So the wind and its direction will have a big effect on the large high tides due this week. But the sun is out, although still breezy there is a great chance for a lunchtime high tide swim to start the week.
Swimming resources
I came across the FORM Smart Swim 2 Goggles this week. These retail at £229 so you wouldn’t want to leave them behind at the beach or in the pool locker but they have some amazing-looking data screens and other features built into the screen on the google. Personally, I use a £5.99 pair from Decathlon but I could be tempted to gear-test these if the folks at Form are reading this :) What do you reckon? Could you be tempted by the swim data these goggles provide for the price?
A lot of folks struggle with sighting in open water and subsequently not being able to swim in a straight line. This simple short video explainer on three types of sighting is great from Chloe Sutton. Hope it helps your swimming.
Swim on friends :)