High Tide	05:34 (2.30m)
Low Tide	12:10 (0.80m)
High Tide	19:00 (2.30m)

Sea temperature: not taken nut we all agreed that it did feel as if it had dropped overnight.
Sea conditions: Still dragging north with strong waves
Weather: Bright but not sunny 
Joined by Sara and The Poet and The Man on the Beach
Topics of conversation:
manonabeach.com Over the last 2 days we've been joined by The Man on a Beach, who hails from Cornwall but is currently The Man on the East Coast. He blogs about the sea, the beach and the local environment, asking people from all walks of life what the beach means to them and then uploads little clips and images for each location. He started doing it just over a year ago and it has already taken over from his 'proper job' so now he is a professional blogger. I got the impression that he rather enjoys his new job! He very kindly linked to The Swimmers blog and he seems to have found a local reprobate to ask "what does the beach mean to you?"

Alfa Romeos - we are a 2 Alfa household now and as The Poet grew up with them he was very understanding when I couldn't start the new one outside their house late the other night. The very nice man from The AA (do they still run that line I wonder?) had diagnosed a battery fault, which had actually been impacting on the whole car since Mertz had picked it up. Although it meant a day of total chaos as he wouldn't let me switch the ignition off and I had to drive my student around with me all day he was right and now I have the new, new car (also fully shined and valeted) for the foreseeable future as Mertz doesn't trust it, result! The Poet's mother had a similar experience with one of their Alfas, its brakes would stick on for no reason but the garage wouldn't believe her as it never happened when she took it in. After a while she developed a second sense or the ability to tune into the sound of the car that enabled her to predict when it would happen. One day this feeling took hold so she raced down to the garage where the brakes seized as she pulled onto the forecourt and screeched to a halt right outside the doors. This caught their attention. 
The Inventor is unwell, my student's father was rushed into hospital last night with what his daughter thought might have been a stroke, due to some memory loss, but the signs are now that it is less serious but that his gall bladder needs removing. The pain had caused him to become confused but the hospital were brilliant and had him straight in for scans etc. There were deep mutterings from the assembled group about memory loss, and how it didn't necessarily mean a stroke... did it?! Most of The Swimmers know The Inventor as he is a fair weather super-swimmer and so we are all concerned for him as he has had serious health problems in the past and we are wishing him well. As his father was a Proper Actor (capital P, capital A) this led to a long conversation between The Poet and The Pirate about The Wasteland - T.S. Eliot, which The Inventor's father had recorded. I've never heard the whole thing read, in fact I'm ashamed to say I've never had the strength to read the whole thing, perhaps listening to him read it would be my way in. I shall put my name down on the list to borrow Sara's copy or listen to it on her poetry app.
Wet suits and other swimming expenses - folowing on from our previous retail therapy splurge Sara had taken delivery of an extreme O'Niell suit, full length with a detachable hood, seriously thick and seriously cool but she couldn't find a zip... it didn't have one! Apparently you are supposed to squeeze into it from the top. Squeezing out of it on the beach was never going to happen so Sara had tried the concept of walking home in her other wetsuit, to see if this would be a possibility with the new one. It won't be. Apart from feeling awkward she found that after a while all the water held in the suit dripped down and filled her boots, so the new suit has been sent back. I'm thinking we should be a test bed for swim suits, wet suits, hand warmers, clothing etc. Perhaps that way I too could make a living from blogging!

The Man on a Beach with a local

I've just returned from a late dusk walk, where I dumped into The Pirate's Wife and their house guests, apparently the youngest is planning to join us in the morning. I do hope that the sea has calmed a bit by then as the wind has changed direction and is whipping the water up. I can even hear it over the keyboard...