Great day for a swim

It feels like an exaggeration to call it rain, but it’s definitely precipitation of some description. More than mist. Drizzle perhaps. Light drizzle. It’s enough that we need the windscreen wipers on as we drive to the beach; enough that I can feel it on my bare arms as I walk down the path to the water; enough that the guy we pass on our way says with a smile that we will be wet before we get in.

Out beyond the rocks the sea is wild and churning but in the enclosed bay it’s calm. The sky is grey. I leave my towel and walk to the water’s edge. Dip my foot in. It’s cold. I already have goose bumps on my arms. There are a few people swimming. Not many. ‘Great day for a swim,’ a woman says to me as she walks from the water. We both look at the sky and laugh. ‘Yeah, great,’ I reply.

Okay, I’m doing this, I tell myself.