It was 7-07 am.
It was cold.
It was still not fully light.
The sea front lamps still cast a shadow of the promenade wall down onto the access ramp and beach.
There was a chilling wind once more.
Beach Buoy and Stubborn Dog made their way to the water's edge under a dramatic sky.
The socially distanced and depleted 7 am club were already heading back to the Village Green.
The water's edge seemed colder.
Beach Buoy had come prepared.
He had fired up his zippo hand warmer.
It was hanging around his neck on a string.
The heat source had been fed through his tee shirt and was resting mid chest, under a layer or two.
Even in the chilly wind he could feel the benefit.
He was glowing like one of those children in a Ready Brek TV advertisement.
It was ten minutes or so, to sunrise.
A glow appeared just offshore beyond Saltburn.
That was it.
It faded and died.
No drumroll or fanfare, more the honk from a circus clown's car just as he drove away and the doors fell off.
Back to the North, towards Seaton Carew and Hartlepool beyond, the clouds looked like seagulls in flight.
Beach Buoy's eyes were drawn to what he thought was some brightly coloured sea pottery, perhaps the base of a vase?
It transpired that the object in question was in fact plastic.
As he had approached it, Beach Buoy had already done that Time Team thing in his head were he imagined the shape and size of the complete 'Vase.'
It became the day's first beach clean item.
Tons of sand had been press-ganged into going to sea by the recent stormy weather.
It will return.
In the meantime large stretches of the beach had been left just shingle to cover its dignity.
Shingle can mean exciting finds or sometimes just random pieces of broken history in the sea-smoothed shapes of sea glass and sea pottery.
Some are colourful, some are plain and some are patterned.
All have a story of the sea to tell.
Pick a piece up, do that Time Team reconstruction in you head.
A bowl?
A plate?
Lost in a shipwreck?
Left behind from an early 1900's picnic or maybe broken-pot ballast thrown from a ship in port?
Beach Buoy stacked the stack.
He was looking at the beach on google maps before he set off for the beach.
He had woke at 4 am and had some time to kill, until it was light enough for the beach.
His wish is for the stack to show up on google maps satellite view, next time it is updated.
It will be done.
Whilst at the stack he took out the binoculars.
He scanned the bay from left to right, north to south.
He paused his view at North Gare Pier to see a man with binoculars looking at him.
For a brief moment he felt like Jeremy Hillary Boob Phd passing himself in a sea of time in a yellow submarine; The Nowhere Man.
Or maybe it was just that bottle of wine from Yesterday... all my troubles... STOP!
They headed for North Gare Pier via the dunes.
The tide was still in enough to make beach access to the Pier a no go, unless you wanted to be waist-high in cold sea water.
They headed up the steep dune bank to gain access to North Gare Beach.
The wind was so much stronger on the south side of the Pier.
Looking across to the Snowy Cleveland Hills,
Beach Buoy could see instantly just why there was such a chill to that
wind, cooled even more as it passed over the frozen ground.
Oddly someone at work had asked Beach Buoy what his plans were for the weekend?
"Just Chill." he replied... and chill he did; a very cold chill.
Down by the river mouth, Beach Buoy found a shipwrecked drone; now just another beach clean item.
They headed back to the relative shelter of the Bay.
Beach Buoy had realised just how much protection that the high riverside dunes and Pier were providing.
It was still chilly on the North side, but it did feel like someone had shut the front door on a windy day.
They headed back to the North.
The next beach clean item came into view.
Sky Blue too.
There were people about; regulars doing their regular things, which in irregular times was comforting.
They headed back up the ramp.
There was a hungry bin up there waiting for a beach clean breakfast.
Beach Buoy had made two cups of Coffee; a Sunday treat.
