SWIMMING/Round Ireland Swim Diary: Bad hair days don't raise even a bushy eyebrow as the team battle with gales, rain and the treacherous Blasket Sound, writes Seán Kenny

Thursday, July 27th

The rain buckets down. Between spells in the water, the team don flotation suits to help them regain body heat. Today, the rain leaves them sodden and cold. It's a minor hardship, though, since they are borne along by the tide, making it to Valentia by the evening. The swimmers have now left the Celtic Sea, passing into the Atlantic proper.

The niceties of everyday grooming have been overtaken by the necessities of the expedition. Anne Marie Ward explains. "I lost my hairbrush a few days ago and what worries me is that it doesn't bother me. The expedition look is well and truly here: the bushy eyebrows and the curly hair."

She looks ahead to the western leg of the swim: "We'll see what the west throws at us. It's the unknown. The main thing now is that we all hold up healthwise. I'm confident the morale will be there until the end, and hopefully the west coast will be kind to us."

Friday, July 28th

The Atlantic Ocean is in one of its moods. Tom Watters sees a buoy sucked under in the heavy swell. He has counted to 15 before it reappears. It is a cautionary moment.

The ocean flexes its muscles all day. The team pass through the Blasket Sound, a treacherous area. The currents here are strong, but they favour the swimmers today.

They reach An Daingean (Dingle) just ahead of a storm from the southwest. Gale force 8 winds are expected. The expedition cannot resume until the storm has subsided.

Ian Claxton is struck by the raw power of the ocean here: "It was good to get through that water today. When you go through water as choppy as that, you get this eerie feeling."

He says this because others who have plied these waters have not been so lucky.

In Dingle, he meets a local woman who tells him she has never met anyone who has swum across the Blasket Sound but knows of three people who have drowned there.

Wednesday, August 2nd

"Small-craft warning." For four days running, the sea-area forecast has included these words. The swimmers have been awaiting calmer weather in Dingle. This is Nuala Moore's home town, and her family and friends have received the team warmly during the hiatus. Today, we can finally put to sea again.

The storm has left, but it has taken with it the momentum built up last week.

"We were on a roll last week; we'd really started to motor. We lost momentum, but hopefully we can build it up again. We'll go hell for leather from here," says Claxton.

The Atlantic continues to rough up the swimmers. This is the business end of the Irish coastline. No other body of Irish water has the Atlantic's brute force. Claxton can attest to this: "With the size of the swell here, it's not like the east coast at all. The east coast is a paddling pool compared to this. It's going to be tough all the way to the end."

The team fight the wind and swell, and find harbour in Fenit.