'Glorious' sea temperatures for La Vallette swimmers

A sea surface temperature of 18.3C was recorded on Thursday, 1.3C warmer than the 1980-2019 average for this time of year.

Pool users yesterday were unanimous in their agreement that the sea felt noticeably warmer.

Maura Sanderoff, who along with husband Charles was visiting the island from South Africa to see family, said that conditions had been ‘glorious’.

‘Our daughter and son-in-law moved here two years ago, this is our first time in Guernsey seeing them and as a regular sea swimmer back home I can definitely tell the difference,’ she said.

‘It’s a lot warmer than where we live in Cape Town.’

One thing that did worry her, however, was whether the warmer water was encouraging the presence of weaver fish.

‘I’ve swum at Pembroke and at Fermain and I got stung at both beaches, it was very painful,’ she said.

‘I thought being here at the bathing pools I’d be safe from them.’

Teacher Paula Adams has recently moved to the island with her family from Oldham, near Manchester.

She will shortly be starting a new job as a teacher at Le Murier, and said she was eager to sea swim as much as possible before term started next week, having rarely had the chance to do so before.

‘The closest beach to us back in the UK before was probably Blackpool, and you just don’t swim there, the water is too dirty and polluted,’ she said. ‘I’ve never been able to easily come to a place like this.’

Despite her relative inexperience as a sea swimmer, she said the water had felt ‘quite warm’.

‘It’s not too bad at all, it’s nice to just stay still and relax to be honest.’

Essien Wilson and Remi Cavanagh, both 11, were two youngsters who were also getting in some final swims before heading back to school.

‘We’ve been down here every day over the summer, yesterday the sea felt really warm,’ Essien said.

Remi added that he had enjoyed looking at fish and other sea life in the pools.

‘We’ve done a lot of snorkelling and I also like jumping off the platform,’ he said.