Polar thoughts

Although the view at Harrington beach was great this morning the tide was too high, it was a bit choppy and the water close up was murky brown, so I swam at Bassenthwaite instead. The slipway in lived up to its name as it has a covering of fine silt which is VERY slippy indeed. Sliding in was easy but coming out, even in seal mode, had a few nervous seconds. 
With the news that Shackleton's ship has been found in Antarctica the thought of the touch of polar waters was not far from my mind.  I had always considered that swimming in polar waters was a short and painful one way experience. However, although today in Bassenthwaite the water temp was 4C, last year there were a number of days when it froze and  breast stroke became an ice-breaker
So, I looked up what the water in the Weddell sea is like, on the internet. Deep down it's round about 0C but today surface temps range from
 - 0.3C to -1.7. 
It also appears that some cruise companies  offer polar plunges to their guests, securely tethered by a rope for quick retrieval. It does not say if they play the film score from 'Titanic' whilst this is happening.