Winter swimming in the sea

Oh god, the time is here. One of my buddies called and said he and his gym friends are going for a swim in the sea and my presence is strongly advised as well. Yesterday morning I had a bit of a sore throat, but that receded for today, so I had absolutely no excuses to not go.

I dont know why it scares me so much. To go with a bunch of people I don't really know, into the winter sea, where the temperatures scare the crap out of me. But, as wit all things in life, bravery is being scared but still showing up. If I don't do it now, why should I ever be bold enough to do it? And do other scary but cool things?

So we headed out a bit past lunch and after a small drive, met up with others. A bit more and here we are, arriving at the winter swimming location, the 6 of us.

Here these two containers are set up as dressing rooms, with saunas in both of them. I know seasoned winter swimmers say that the temperature in these saunas is just right, but I can attest that for us, it felt a bit cold. It was approximately 40 degrees Celsius and after our third swim, it didn't manage to warm us up anymore. Later at home, I cranked my home sauna up for 20 minutes, to get the warmth back into my raggedy bones.

The water was 2 degrees Celsius and the air was +6C. Not too shabby, but the wind at the sea was trying to blow us straight into the water. When in the other inland location, you could stand by the pools and hang out, here the cold winter breeze forced you to seek shelter almost immediately. From the sauna window, we saw some people take towels out to the pier with them and seconds later the towels ripped from the railing and sank to the depths-

But swimming in the sea was it's own kind of cool. Almost open water with much swimming space and no bottom in sight, only darkness below has it's charms. Can say that we left this place fresh and with a good feeling. Would you do it?

Daily Activity, Swimming