Susanna Leslie, who lives near Inverness, took part in the Kessock Ferry Swim for the third time in 2024. Here she reveals, in her own words, the experience of swimming across the Beauly Firth – and back again.
Susanna writes: The traditional Inverness swimming event has been brilliantly brought into the 21st century by Aban Outdoors, with excellent organisation and well-thought-through safety measures.
I consider myself a seasoned outdoor swimmer, having swum year-round without a wetsuit for more than six years. I am usually able to cope with water temperatures down to… well, whatever the coldest is that isn’t actually frozen solid, with thick ice on top.
After both the previous Kessock swims in 2022 and 2023, I couldn’t believe how warm I felt coming out of the water. I put this down to it requiring more physical exertion than my usual swims, owing to the waves and choppy water resulting from swimming among 200-plus other people.
So, for the most recent swim event, I wore my usual swimsuit with neoprene socks to protect against the seaweed and slithery slipway. Given that it was also the most beautiful sunny day with wind speeds of 2mph forecast, I didn’t think too much of what I was wearing prior to the swim.
The swim itself was fantastic with the usual wonderful mix of folk of all ages, shapes and sizes and a great sense of camaraderie. I have enjoyed the fact that this is less a “race” and more just a great community event.
In the first year, I remember someone getting tired and everyone around simply stopping with them to wait until a kayaker came and helped them to the shore.
This year, I swam with two good friends and we enjoyed the support and waving and cheering from the North Kessock side,
The return swim felt much quicker, borne out in my Strava data, which showed a much straighter route back. It was great to have the large orange tower on the other shore to aim for and we all reached the slipway feeling exhilarated.
Then came the surprise…
So, I admit, it was a bit of a surprise to me when I came out of the water and was pretty quickly draped in a towel and then a woolly jumper by my husband Thorfinn, and then found two friends, who had finished before me, fussing over me and asking if I had something warm to change into.
While I heard myself protesting over and over that I was okay, I was marched off to the post-event zone for hot food and a drink and dry clothes.
It was only when I heard my friend Fi saying: “Susanna isn’t making much sense,” that I realised I was shaking uncontrollably and finally admitted to myself that things were not quite as they should be.
I was told subsequently that I was slurring my speech and saying things that I absolutely could not recall afterwards.
These were classic hypothermia symptoms, much to my slight embarrassment.
Thankfully, after a nice hot cup of tea, some warm veggie chilli and a change into my dry clothes helped me to quickly recover.
I then enjoyed a lovely long sit in the sun with Thorfinn Leslie and friends, plus an (alcohol-free) can of Black Isle Brewery beer, which was great addition by one of the event sponsors.
No harm had been done and, certainly, it was no one else’s fault but my own. I mean, who would jump into the Firth without a wetsuit or swimming cap and swim for 45 minutes and not consider they might get a bit hypothermic?
Lessons learned in this year’s Kessock Ferry Swim
I’m still trying to work out why this happened to me and on such a lovely sunny day.
Some of it may have been down to the swim taking a bit longer this year. Despite the lack of wind forecast, the tide felt stronger and there was, in fact, a brisk surface wind. Many people reported swims of more than 2000m (the crossing is theoretically only 600m each way, but the incoming tide pushed the course into a banana shape, rather than a straight-there-and-back).
I recorded a swam of 1500m, having been pre-warned that the incoming tide would push us towards Beauly and trying as much as possible to swim towards the bridge – but even then it felt like a long swim.
Of course, my lack of neoprene didn’t help – although I hate swimming in a wetsuit and rarely do, so this was how I had planned to do the swim and it hadn’t been an issue whatsoever the previous two times.
If I’d managed to find my neoprene gloves in the morning that would have helped, as my fingers are usually the first thing to feel the cold when I’m swimming. But because it has been “summer”, I hadn’t used the gloves in a while and I couldn’t find them in the rush of getting ready for the event.
I have yet to get a definitive answer on the water temperature, but I have heard reports of anything between 11C and 15C.
Given the wet, cold and windy weather prior to the swim and the change of date from June to the end of August this year it wouldn’t have surprised me if it was as low as 11C.
I had quite a lot of “brain freeze” initially when I swam freestyle – and this is usually a sign to me that the water is somewhere below 15C. I don’t generally wear a swim cap because I can’t hear properly with one on. The Kessock Ferry swim is a sociable event and I do like to be able to chat intermittently when I’m swimming with pals.
And I hadn’t taken into account that in a bid to counter the effects of reaching a certain stage of middle age, I had, over the last year, lost a significant number of kilograms in weight. Although this has been good for my general health and ability to fit into old clothes, it has not helped my cold resistance.
I never felt in danger or uncomfortable during the swim. The event was superbly organised and I am not concerned that anything untoward was likely to have happened to me. I swam with two friends and we chatted and laughed all the way, lying back intermittently and enjoying the privilege and wonderfulness of being in the middle of a wide sea looking up at a cloudless blue sky.
There were countless sea kayakers marshalling us along and keeping a close eye on things, too, so if I had started behaving strangely in the water I would have been scooped up quickly. As a condition of taking part in the swim, I had a large swim float which is big enough to support my body weight and, again, this was reassuring.
But the thought has come to me over and again since this surprise event is that I should never underestimate cold water, no matter how experienced. That has been my big take-home message and one that will stay with me.
I will continue to swim in the sea and lochs, as this is as much part of my life as anything else now – both for health and social reasons, and mostly because I just really love the feeling of being in water with the open sky above me. It makes me feel happy and free as a bird, in the way that no other form of exercise does.
And I will continue to take a swim float with me for all but the shortest and shallowest swims. As much as possible. I will also swim with other people rather than alone.
However, I will keep a close eye on the sea temperature approaching the Kessock Ferry Swim next time. And I might just consider a wetsuit, if my pride lets me. It’s probably a sensible idea.