First Pictures and Thoughts

What a brilliant day it was on Saturday. Mind you, I don't think the the Coastguard Manager was thinking that at the time, with the surfing waves and a strong current. So - hats off to us all who plunged in the cold, brown water and survived - actually we all seemed to enjoy it - I've not heard that much laughing in the water before. We had 50 in the sea and 50 out - so a success.

Thank you everyone who came along and swam, paddled, waded. And a big Thank You to:

The spectators (quite a crowd pulling event it seemed);
Those who raised money and gave donations - in total £820 for our charities;
The RNLI lifeguards;
The RNLI Lifeboat crew with Helmsman Sean;
The Coastguard Manager and Team;
Cllr Gooding for setting us off and cheering us on;
Cllrs Gooding, Howard and Poskitt for their funding of the event;
My lovely Mablethorpe Mermaid;
Our Photographers;
Our Chalet Girls;
ELDC and Festival staff with the 'Insurance Question'!

And now for New Year's Day!

See here for a link on the event from one of our 'Tri' keen swimmers Mark: http://www.barracudatriclub.com/forum.php (click on Events)

The Great North Sea Plunge

WOW! What a triumph of event organisation for Nicola who pulled off a tremendous day for all involved.

Hockney-esque sea fences courtesy of arty six year old Fab Felix on photographic duties...

Here's me and uber wild swimmer Tina enjoying a big steaming mug of tea after the swim - thanks to Mum, Maureen and Trudie, our glam Chalet Girls!

Tina was one of the handful of stalwarts (not including me!) who managed to get past the massive breakers into sea that was deep enough to avoid being dragged across the sandy shallows. She clocked up the full mile accompanied by the RNLI launch and endured more than an hour in the chilly waves - Good Stuff Tina!

AMAZING! There's more than just me and Nic on the beach! Slightly overwhelmed by the turnout - thanks to all swimmers and supporters, another £800+ raised on the day....

So HERE WE GO!...Three Pools Challenge kicks off tomorrow night with the long, long journey up to God's Country for Dip #1 - KEEP TUNED IN!!!

We're on our way!

So here we go, beautiful clear cool day for the GREAT NORTH SEA PLUNGE at 2pm today. Sea swim will be lovely today; perfect conditions so far...


...can I take this as a good omen for the 3 POOLS CHALLENGE next week?





In my dreams all lakes will be as placid and inviting as this....

Standby for blog on the go!

Super Sexy Scarborough

Here's a post combing two of my very favourite things: Lidos and Trains!

I've just been watching a re-run of Coast on the BBC and they were covering the North East Coast from Tynemouth to the Humber and stopped briefly in Scarborough - the birthplace of sea bathing.

Then I came across a super web-site with railway travel posters and here's a beauty for Scarborough with it's amazing sea water swimming pool - 'artificially heated' - rather quaint turn of phrase and funny to think that 'artificial' nowadays would be a negative sort of word to use, but perhaps at the time of this poster it was seen as modern, go-getting and snazzy?

Whichever, I'm mourning the loss of this beautiful pool; and not least from a selfish point of view - being too young (ha!) to have had the chance to swim there.

I'm now forming another of my '3' challenges: an autumn sea swim in Scarborough, Filey and Bridlington? Well that's taken my mind off the terror of 3 Deepest Pools for a little while!

2 Little Boys....

Watch out world, the boys are loose on the education system! Little Leo is happily excited to be setting off on his first day at school, Big Brother Felix is pleased to have him along ... a landmark day for the Moran household.

On the turn....

WOW! Have been enjoying the air and light quality this week, particularly in the evenings. As I swam across the lake on Thursday night there were mini rainbows over my head dancing in the cirrus clouds - truly magical and I chose to interpret as a good omen for the upcoming trip....

The Final Countdown

16 Days to The Great North Sea Plunge

19 Days to The Three Pools Challenge

Am I nervous?

Damned right I am! Just at that "how the hell did I get myself into this?" kind of stage...oh yes, that's right, me and my big mouth again!

In my dreams, all lakes are benign and placid (and not TOO icy) - hope I'm not too disappointed?....

Gloomy Morar

Scary Wastwater

Bleak Cowlyd

Only joking!!! It'll be fine, we'll be fine, we'll live to tell the tale and come back with lots of stories of derring do and campside camaraderie....think of us and wish us well!