Unfortunately we got late notice that actress, Rose Henderson, was coming down for a swim, so she didn’t get to meet any of our famous swimmers.  She says she’ll come back again with her autograph book.  Rose has lots of roles to her credit, but for anyone who loved Father Ted it’s hard to forget Sr. Assumpta – even though Dougal did, nearly.

She got a couple of pics anyway.  Before and after her swim.  The cold water does wreck with makeup and hair colouring.  Didn’t Siobhan Russell have the same colour hair one time?

We’re looking at getting a sheltered changing area and B. Lynch discovered that there was once a ladies-only changing area on the beach.  Men had to go around to Poll Gorm to change there.  A bit more searching on olden times led him to start thinking that a fixed structure might not be the way to go after all.  Options now being considered are individual shelters – but they still don’t cover your head in the standard model.

The Skreenette – very popular in 1929.

The main interest, though, centres on the much sturdier Bathing Machine.  The only thing it’s missing is a shower.  However, as luck would have it, apparently the Condon Shower Company are very interested in a joint venture with e-brinks, once they can advertise on the removable signs.  That should corner the market, I’d say.

The Bathing Machine – All Mod Cons and then some.

You just wheel it into the water and emerge dry and ready to swim.  Once you get back from the Dutchman, in you go and you will be just toasty.

Model demonstrates how it works – Germany 1893.

Of course, the basic model is never going to do for some people.  We’ll have escalation and keeping up with the Lowrys going on in no time.  Some fellas will have to have the horse-drawn model.  No lugging it down the beach for them.

Before long, it’ll be hard to get into the water past them..

Maybe we should just stick to the concrete one after all.

With the drop in sea temperatures, we’ve taken the opportunity to run some tests under lab conditions.  First, there was the “Do wetsuits stop your eyes from freezing closed?” Test.  The results were inconclusive.  It seems that 50% of swimmers can avoid frozen-eye-syndrome by wearing a wetsuit, while 50% can not.

50% frozen-eyed in the wetsuit sample of Dave and Brian.

100%  of togs swimmers contract it, though.

100% of togs swimmers contracted frozen eyes in the Bernard and Jim sample.

The second test was the Riana Parson’s “What would happen if two feet went swimming alone?” test.  It appears they would cause the sun to come up and then trigger an argument of the “Mine! No – Mine!” kind.

Feet point the way for the sun.

I found a foot!

Further experiments are planned.

February is the coldest month of the year for sea swimming, but you couldn’t tell with the numbers who have kept going this year through the Winter.  A big gang in early on Saturday morning and three groups during the day on Sunday.  Why not, when it looks like this as Siobhan Russell captured..

Myrtleville dawn: February 7th, 2015

Lisa Cummins, as the only Irish person to swim the English Channel two-way, is a bit of a legend and a world-class cold water swimmer.  It’s fair to say it gives everyone a bit of heart when you see her dipping her toe in and saying “eeeeeeekkk” – quietly.  Carol Cashell made sure she didn’t miss the moment for a good smirk too!

You have to grab your chances with a visit from someone of Lisa’s experience, so two Myrtlevillain channel aspirants – Kieran Murphy and Anne Sheehy – seized the day and swam the sand channel under Lisa’s guidance.

Lisa carefully coached them in the finer points of the channel-swimming stroke while they crossed the great divide and Riana got it on film.

Kieran was celebrating with everyone afterwards.  A lifetime goal achieved.