Nice waves, shame about the current

During the last few years of winter swimming I’ve made a few mistakes; forgotten to wear my nose clip, left my swim buoy at home, didn’t put my water bottle on my bike - to name a few! However, today was a new one. I got the time of the tide wrong and ended up swimming on a very strong and high incoming tide. The first half of my swim went well - way too well and it took my three times as long to get back, not to mention a significantly greater effort than usual. Although the temperature was 7.3 degrees I was swimming for almost 17 minutes, which is longer than my usual time by about 5 minutes. The post swim experience was fine though so maybe, just maybe I may not be too old for the next level up - the Apprentice Jedi Bear (seriously).