ISLANDERS planning to take part in a Christmas Day swim will face chilly waters with temperatures of below 10°C.
The annual events return this weekend after many of last year’s festive swims were called off as a result of Covid restrictions which prevented large-scale gatherings taking place.
Events at Grève de Lecq, Havre des Pas, Ouaisné, the Watersplash and Le Braye are all scheduled to take place on Saturday with hundreds of Islanders expected to take part.
Rob Plummer, duty forecaster at the Jersey Met Office, said that swimmers will be met with a single-figure sea temperature of around 9.5°C which is around the average for this time of year.
He added: ‘We are expecting a fresh force 5 southerly wind, which will seem milder then the easterly air that has been circulating this week. The air temperature will be around 10°C but it is still uncertain as to whether it will be dry or not.’
St Ouen’s Football Club will be hosting a swim at Grève de Lecq at 11am in memory of Islanders Dave Ellam and Mick Samson.
The event will be started by former Caesar’s Palace singer Stuart Gillies and there will be a bucket collection raising money for the Maison des Landes disability hotel refurbishment plan. Mulled wine will also be served afterwards in the Prince of Wales pub.
Carole Penfold, president of the Jersey Swimming Club, said the club’s annual swim at Havre des Pas – which can attract up to 500 people – is due to return this year.
‘We will be there at 11am on Christmas Day like we usually are. Last year we had to cancel but we are really pleased that we should be able to go ahead this year,’ she said.
Ocean therapy charity Healing Waves will host its first ever Christmas Day event, Jingle all the Waves, at 9.45am at Le Braye in St Ouen’s Bay.
Max Wiltshire, co-founder of the charity, said: ‘This will be an annual swim and surf event which will raise much-needed extra funds to go towards our fully inclusive surf-therapy centre.’
David Ferguson, president of the Channel Islands Surfing Federation, said that the Jersey Surfboard Club swim was due to take place at around 11am at the Watersplash but was subject to change, depending on the weather and surf conditions. He said the swim could be pushed back to 11.30am owing to the tide or, if the conditions are deemed too challenging, it may be moved to St Brelade’s Bay. For more updates visit the Jersey Surfboard Club on Facebook.
The Old Smugglers Inn will also be hosting a swim to raise money for Jersey Hospice Care and Macmillan Cancer Support Jersey at Ouaisné from 10.20am on Christmas Day.
Meanwhile, the Jersey Old Motor Club will host its traditional Boxing Day Run on Sunday. Nearly 100 cars, all registered before 1951, will travel around the Island starting at the Esplanade from 10am and will pass through each parish church, starting with St Lawrence, driving in an anti-clockwise direction until they finish at the Weighbridge at 11.30am.
