Monday morning dawned bright and warm and after a night of heavy rain a lot of the stickiness of spilt ice cream and burger sauce was washed away. Sadly the rain did not keep away some stupid people who decided that the town needed a permanent reminder of their visit executed in blue felt pen in one of the shelters. I visited with some graffiti remover and managed to reduce it to a blue stain on the white paint. It will need a fresh coat of paint as the spray was taking more of the background paint off than the felt tip.
The afternoon was pleasant and sunny, one of my ears got burnt, it seems that I missed it when applying sun block so I have a further identification mark, one bright red ear,
Daily stats :18309 7.69 miles
It is interesting to note that I have now exceeded 500,000 steps, which might explain why I feel so flippin' knackered.

If you have enjoyed reading this blog why not take a look at some of my other work, My book "The Art of Coarse Boating" is available at: Buy The-art-of-coarse-boating
 Also see my own website: jeffdray.co.uk

Another bright sunny day on the beach. There were plenty of people basking on the sand, boats a-plenty passing to and fro and Swanage Sailing club were holding a regatta. For once the winds allowed some interesting sailing until later in the afternoon when, as is often the case with a change of tide, the breeze faded to a lazy force one to two and I saw a red ketch rigged dinghy beginning to lose weigh against a fast incoming tide.

 The people on the beach were, on the whole a tidy bunch and reasonably cheerful. the Punch and Judy show did their three performances, almost word for word for all the other shows I have witnessed. It is a shame that political correctness has eliminated some of the more colourful characters, such as Jack Ketch the hangman. Our local professor told me a tale about the time, a few years ago when a local Conservative councillor had complained about him hanging Margaret Thatcher, saying that it showed a lack of respect for a great leader. I always assumed that one of the traditions of the show was to do just that. He ended the recollection by stating that he never actually did hang her, she was in fact eaten by the crocodile!  I'm sure that Maggie would probably have been amused by the tale.
Today's stats: 16170 Steps 6.89 miles.
I read an article about sand castle building which stated that a proportion of water to sand of 1% was the ideal mix for sand castle building. Many budding crenellators on the beach make the mistake of starting their projects on the powdery dry sand above the high water mark, those in the know plump for the intertidal zone, where the sand is well compacted and eminently suitable for construction. When I have a couple of non-exhausted free time I might have a go myself.

If you have enjoyed reading this blog why not take a look at some of my other work, My book "The Art of Coarse Boating" is available at: Buy The-art-of-coarse-boating
 Also see my own website: jeffdray.co.uk

 Today was an early start on the beach with a thorough clean up of the beach shelters and removing the sand from all the access points. It was a shaky start to the day with a few sharp showers, managing to catch me out in the open each time. Eventually it settled down to to a pleasant sunny day and the visitors soon started to flock in, bringing an unbelievable amount of kit with them.  some families set up virtual fortresses with tents, windbreaks and even dug huge ramparts in the sand in an attempt to mark out their territory.
The latest craze seems to be digging unfeasibly deep pits near to the steps and slopes onto the beach, I can see someone falling into one of them and breaking an ankle any time soon. Obviously the Health and Safety at work Act hasn't reached the world of sand play yet. I have filled in several of these in an attempt to prevent too many ambulance trips to the beach.

Today being a split shift I was able to go for a session with the rowing club. It is certainly more peaceful out on the water. In this shot, taken when I was relaxing in the bow, clearly show the thole pins that take the place of rowlocks in a Cornish Pilot Gig. The leading pin, the one that takes the strain, is turned from hardwood for strength, the trailing one is softwood and is designed to break more easily if a rower catches a crab, a term describing the action of the blade entering the water at the wrong angle and being pulled down violently. Curiously, the Cox is the only person in the boat who is required to wear a lifejacket, despite being the most experienced seaman in the boat (in theory)  I suppose the rest of us have a 12 foot wooden oar to cling to. To learn more about Gig Rowing in Swanage take a look at : ssrc.org.uk

The last day of the carnival observed from a safe and quieter distance.
The last two hours on the beach were a matter of clearing litter and dispensing information to tourists. There is a sign on the Tourist information centre advising people to bring lost children there. One witty old gent asked what we do with them and I felt an overwhelming urge to tell him that we have a deal with the local Kebab shop.
Today's stats: 20708 steps 8.82 miles.

If you have enjoyed reading this blog why not take a look at some of my other work, My book "The Art of Coarse Boating" is available at: Buy The-art-of-coarse-boating
 Also see my own website: jeffdray.co.uk

Today's Carnival event was the pavement art competition.
This work caught my eye:

Arry Paye for team GB

 Arry Paye was a famous local pirate and villain after whom, some say, the chalk stacks just along the coast are named.  Old Harry Rocks are a famous local landmark and can be seen in this picture. 
Other authorities say that the stacks are named after the Horned One, the Prince of Darkness, Beelzebub etc. How greedy to have so many aliases?
The good weather continues but some say not for long. If people ask "When is the summer going to start?" the temptation is to say "Sorry, you missed it, it was last week."
I've met some really lovely people as I trudge up and down the beach. Most of them are very complementary about the way our Blue Flag beach is presented. It can be a struggle to keep up with the steady scatter of beer cans, bottles and wet wipes but it is important not to create an atmosphere where people think it is acceptable to leave rubbish behind. It isn't unusual for people, when they see us coming, to quickly collect all the rubbish around them and pass it to us in a bag. We are grateful for this as it does save us a lot of time.

I've just taken delivery of a few copies of my book, so if you want a signed copy stop me on the beach and its yours for £6.50.

If you have enjoyed reading this blog why not take a look at some of my other work, My book "The Art of Coarse Boating" is available at: Buy The-art-of-coarse-boating
 Also see my own website: jeffdray.co.uk

Arrived on the beach today at ten to twelve to find that the early crew had done an amazing job in clearing the mess from yesterdays procession and air display. Lots of compliments from the public (oops nearly a Freudian slip there, missed the L out) I hear so many people saying how they keep coming back to Swanage, "The Naage" as it is often referred to, because it is unspoilt old fashioned sea side, without too much blaring music. I'm a big fan of the traditional seaside scene, Punch and Judy seems to be dying out so It is great to have a show right on my doorstep.  I've caught most of the show as I pass to and fro so if the professor ever wants a day off let me know and I'll dust off my Swazzle.

 Managed to pick up a pair of flip flops today, they looked abandoned and there was nobody nearby so in the bag they went. On arrival back at Bin Central was approached by a woman asking if I had seen them. I vaguely remembered them in the last bag I had picked up but as luck would have it the truck from the depot came along and I gratefully hurled it into the back, along with many others, The truck was by the kerb and I tried to remember which bag it was. By process of elimination we found them, gave them a rinse under the tap and handed them back to the grateful owner who explained that her intrepid son had been swimming out at sea and came back to find them gone. I was hurrying, normally I leave clothing that looks discarded until my next pass before bagging it but this was my last one of the day and my snap decision turned out to be wrong. Ooops!
My favourite sand sculptor had been at work again:

 stats: 16051 steps 6.84 miles

I've just taken delivery of a few copies of my book, so if you want a signed copy stop me on the beach and its yours for £6.75.

If you have enjoyed reading this blog why not take a look at some of my other work, My book "The Art of Coarse Boating" is available at: Buy The-art-of-coarse-boating
 Also see my own website: jeffdray.co.uk

Today was the first big day of the carnival kicking off with the display by the Red Arrows, slimmed down to 7 aircraft instead of the usual 9, is this part of Cameron's cuts?

 This was followed by the Carnival procession which rumbled around the town with the usual variety of floats and organisations taking part.

,

some dodgy looking types in the procession.

One of the rowing club's pilot gigs pretending to be Jason's Argo, complete with Golden fleece and talking tree.

Once the procession was out of the way there came the task of starting to shift some of the tons of litter that had been dropped, Two of us did our best until our shifts were over and with the aid of the van drivers collected, bagged and removed a couple of truck loads.  it was a bit of a herculean labour and will probably take another day to get on top of. The main thing was to ensure that the worst was dealt with, broken glass being an obvious priority.

Stats: 15108 steps 6.44 miles

I've just taken delivery of a few copies of my book, so if you want a signed copy stop me on the beach and its yours for £6.75.
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If you have enjoyed reading this blog why not take a look at some of my other work, My book "The Art of Coarse Boating" is available at: Buy The-art-of-coarse-boating

A busy day on the beach with the beginning of the world famous Swanage Carnival. This mostly involved a lot of pre-recorded music being played from the stage, a bloke in a Robot suit scaring the kids and a firework display tonight at 21.45. It was interesting to note that although the firework technicians had set up an exclusion zone around the banjo pier somebody had got as close as they could to the beast part of half a ton of explosives and lit a barbecue and were happily grilling their sausages, almost underneath the tape fence.
My sight of the day was a magnificent Mayan temple sculpted from sand

Strange conversation of the day: A lady approached me very apologetically, she told me that she had spilt a load of chips near the loos. She went on to explain that she had been washing them under the tap because her child had got sand in them. They were in a cardboard kid's meal box and the bottom of it fell out when it got wet. She was complaining that her child didn't have anything to eat now and should she ask the shop for some more?
The day finished with me doing a screening of Moonlight Kingdom at the theatre, then home for something to eat as the long awaited firework display got under way. There were thousands of people on the beach for the display and I can only feel for my colleagues who have the early shift tomorrow and face a mountain of clearing up before I clock on at 11.30.
I've just taken delivery of a few copies of my book, so if you want a signed copy stop me on the beach and its yours for £6.75.
Stats: 21790 steps 9.29 miles
If you have enjoyed reading this blog why not take a look at some of my other work, My book "The Art of Coarse Boating" is available at: Buy The-art-of-coarse-boating

Also see my own website: jeffdray.co.uk