Low Tide 03:30 (0.50m)
High Tide 09:52 (2.50m)
Low Tide 15:48 (0.70m) 
High Tide 22:00 (2.60m)
Sea temperature: 6.5
Sea conditions: calmer
Weather: Cold, light wind, some sun breaking through as we got out
Joined by: The Usual Suspects
Topics of conversation:
Forgive me blogosphere, for I have sinned, it has been 11 days since my last blog. There are reasons/excuses/mitigating circumstances including: being away, having food poisoning and being disinclined to blog when I haven't been in the water, even though I've been down to the shore whenever I've been able. Yesterday we stood, again, and contemplated the water and discussed whether the weather really has been that much worse or whether we have become more cautious since 'The incident'. My feeling is that it's 10% more cautious and the rest is wind, waves and currents being stronger this year than for the last 3. Certainly looking back at the blog for this time last year we were in the midst of sunny days with thick snow on the ground, thick enough to make snowmen. One of the main purposes of this blog is to record the conditions so that we can make these comparisons and we certainly hadn't been sent home by the wind as much last winter. Yesterday DK and The Poet dipped in but said it was scary, with 'the strongest current of the year', which I think meant the winter.

The Pirate contemplating the current yesterday

By contrast - today's sunrise

Today was a different matter altogether, beautiful weather, calmer, but still deep sea, and I went back in for a quick dip. The Poet was late and apparently he could hear me squealing with delight on the other side of the dunes, I have no recollection of this. It was good to be back, but I kept it short as I'm still not 100%, so I really felt the cold and was glad to have my electric hand warmers.
The wind had changed direction yesterday, we seldom have it coming straight off the sea and it whips the water up when it does. The Pirate's bedroom is dual aspect and they had woken to hear the wind and rain on the window as he has many times of late, only to realise that is was coming from a different window. Yesterday, Luna and I sheltered in the hut, Willow and Raffi hunted in the dunes. They have become almost feral since they have been living together again for the last 2 weeks, Raffi regularly presents me with 'breakfast', be it fur or feather, and they have developed clear roles of search and attack. He's also claimed my Father's old chair, which he's not normally allowed to do, but he just looked so comfy.
Shame they didn't get the large pheasant on the common yesterday, before it flew through The Architect's window. The Poet and I were doing our weekly stint with the volunteers when I received a text from Legs who had cut through his garden and seen a sodding great hole in his kitchen window. As she approached to see what the cause was the pheasant flew out of the kitchen, back through the hole, scaring the living daylights out of Legs, Mabel and itself. We met The Architect, who then had to spend the next couple of hours clueing up the broken glass and crockery and birdshit and trying to find a glazier.
We are at a stage of everyone being on different episodes of The Bridge, so talk must be of the characters and the actors, The LE had seen them on breakfast TV and told us about the chemistry between the leads. A clip can be seen here: The Bridge double act
As I type the rain is lashing against the skylights, the wind is gusting, keeping the usual evening flyover of geese away and it's cold enough to have the fire lit early, but the BBC forecast for tomorrow afternoon and Sunday is great.