What is the british sea like ???

Hi to everybody.
I've just taken a look to some pictures showing the West Bay beach (Dorset) found here in internet.
Ziggy lives there, so I had a curiosity to have a look.
I' ve already happened to have a look to pictures of Brighton (probably one of the most famous beach in Britain).
I must confess that sooner or later I would like to test the british sea. I have this "curiosity".
Maybe, I do not know when, I will happen to visit the "British Riviera". I mean: somewhere in the Channel.
I wonder how cold is the sea water over there.
Keep in mind that the sea temperature must be around +25 C (or above) to be ok for me. :-)
And even in these conditions, it takes me about half an hour to be completely in the sea water.
Because, at first I sink my feet and stay there about 5 minutes to acclimatize.
Then, I go inside with my knees and I stay there 10 more minutes to acclimatize and so forth.
After 30 minutes I can say that I am completely in the water and I swim. :-)
Since I guess that the sea temperature in Britain (in summer, of course) must be not warmer than 15 or 16 degrees (at most 18 degrees) I must fancy that I would be shocked if I would decide to enter in the british sea to swim. :-) hehehehehe.
Like an "elettro-shock" at 10,000 Volts :-) hehehehehe.
Sure enough I would try it (just to take some pictures and videos to show to my friends and say: "do you see ? I swim in the british sea ! As saying: I've climb the top of Mount Everest.... hehehehe :-) )
Anyway, is all the british sea as cold (to me) at the same degrees or are there some nice places where the sea water is a little bit warmer ???

 

Hey Maksim,

The bit of sea at West Bay is part of the English Channel. It is cold until late summer, early autumn. But you get used to it if you go in gradually. I don't like cold water either.

A lot of us use wetsuits to take the edge off the temperatures. I went snorkelling last august with a wetsuit, I don't remember being cold once I was in.

By late autumn the water is warmer than the air temp, so you don't want to get out.

I have waded in to retrieve fish & wayward tip lights in the winter. It doesn't really cool down till after Christmas.

Going off topic, we were talking about you yesterday. We have been growing some sort of red Italian Lettuce thing that was far too bitter to eat last year. Been blanching it over winter but its still too bitter. How do you guys make it palatable

 

Better stick to Sardinia then...warm sand, warm water and myrtle bushes on the beaches...

Costa Smeralda, Sardinia: holiday riches on a no-frills budget - Telegraph

 

We go swimming in the sea at Littlehampton, West Sussex from June onwards - the beach is mostly shingle, but it has a long, long stretch of sand when the tide is right out, meaning that when the tide is in, the water is shallow and is benefits from being warmed by the sand and the sun. It's almost bearable!

 

Hi Ziggy !
Well, as far as I know (I confess that I am not an expert in cooking), some "bitter" salads are "Radicchio" (a sort of chicory), "Cicorino" (a variety of green chicory whereas most of chicory have red leaves) and - as you say - "Italian Lettuce" (probably what I know as "Lattuga romana". I do not know if I realize it properly).
They certainly are "bitter" salads. They are..
But I think, the thing is: what kind of dressing do you use ?
In Italy, we use "italian dressing" (a mixture of SALT, VINEGARD and OLIVE OIL).
Personally, I use lemon-juice in place of vinegard because I don't like the vinegard's smell.
So, as far as I am concerned, I must say that if you eat one of these "bitter salads" with "italian dressing" and MUCH, MUCH, MUCH, MUCH bread to accompany it, then you can bear the bitter taste...
Having said that, we must say that not all Lettuces are bitter.
For example, "Lettuce iceberg" is NOTHING BUT BITTER.
It is nearly "sweet" (if we can say so) and soft.
Personally, I often eat "Lettuce iceberg".
I eat it with tomatoe's slices.
I mix Lettuce iceberg with tomatoes's slices together and I dress them with salt, lemon-juice and olive-oil.
I like it. But, as it were, tastes are tastes...

Enjoy your meal ! ;-)

 

Yes, you have several seas around your Island. Your "Island" is an "Island", after all... hehehehe :-)
Should I dip in your cold waters, I would take it as a bet: "Would you bet 100 £ that I dip in the english sea ?" hehehehe :-)

I would probably manage to dip in the english sea if I previously cream my body with seal blubber/grease...
:-)

Sure ! But in that case there is not the "challange".
I would proudly demonstrate to my friends that I managed to dip in the english sea. As proud as I climbed the mount Everest.... :-)

That is what I actually was thinking of.
I mean: a sort of shallow waters and/or "gulf" so that the water could be warmed up.
For example, as far north as in the Gulf of Finland, namely close to the city of Saint-Petersburg (Russia) there are beaches where the sea water is warm enough to swim in.
In summer the sea temperature reach up even at +22 C.
That's due to the fact that the Gulf of Finland has shallow waters and it is a "Gulf" where the water tends to be still...

 

I have only ever been in the sea once or twice without a wet suit on here. My uncle lives in Jersey, so we regularly visit, and I can say that the sea there felt a bit warmer come summer, but it is further south and nestled above France more so.

My uncle always says it's warmer in Jersey, no matter what!!

 

Cheers for that Maksim, I'll try it with the olive oil, vinegar & salt

If that doesn't work then I'll stick to the icebergs & mizuma.

Daughter Willow went in the sea at West Bay last week without a wetsuit, she said it was a little bit cold, but teenagers can tolerate it more than us old ones:D

There have been seals and dolphins right in close this week, plenty of blubber there.

 

The hotter the air the colder the water feels so you may get into the sea quicker here. The english riviera is Torbay in Devon but the water does vary a bit because the channel is warmed by the gulf stream coming up from Mexico. The are lots of cove in Cornwall many of which have rock pools which would probably get warm enough for you in summer. I word of warning we have tides around Brittain (which I don't you get in the Med do you?) but on the plus side we don't get tourist eating sharks.

 

Its impossible to say what the British sea is like to swim, because as little as a few metres can make a very, very noticeable difference. I guess it all comes down to the prevail currents and things.

I live in the north east, so it is anecdotally believed to be very cold here (maybe a degree or so difference from the south on average). There is a large bay. At one end, the sea is permanently bitterly cold. Yet at the northern end of the bay, it is actually very pleasant to swim there in the summer (except from mid july to mid august, when the jellyfish turn up in their thousands).

As for getting acclimatised to the temperature, there is only one way to do it. Walk in to just below knee depth, brace yourself, wait for an incoming wave, and then run out to meet it and just throw yourself in. Sure you'll quickly come back up and do that really amusing really loud gasp sound that people uncontrollably do when suddenly dunked in cold water, but once you get moving you'll be fine, honest.

Just don't go in in bare feet. For a nation with a reputation for being cold, we have a surprising number of spikey venomous things just off our shores

 

I got stung on the wrist by a weever fish, made it swell up like a cricket ball & felt like it was on fire.

 

Is is near Torbay that they go surfing?