More rips

This time it's a rip current.
I went down with the cycling lads to Treyarnon for the weekend, arriving at the hostel just in time to take a swim at sunset. The water was bracingly cold although no worse than the Lake, but close to the shore was a scary rip. I was swimming steadily north along the shore and the current was dragging me slowly south and out. Not nice. I changed direction to escape and was fine, but it was a salutary lesson in tides and something that I'd not experienced before.

Two days later a bunch of us went for a mid-morning swim from the same beach, just below the hostel, and although Andy and I went straight across the current two of our party who were just behind us were swept along and out, so had to be rescued by the coastguard. Frighteningly, neither Andy nor I noticed the action as we were looking in the opposite direction. If the coastguard hadn't been there, it might have been nasty.

Strangely, half an hour later the tidal conditions had changed so much that the water was benign, good for body-boarding, and quite safe. We should have waited.

:o/