Today is foggy. It’s freezing cold sea fog that wraps around you like a damp scarf. It is sinister and straight out of Coleridge’s Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.

The camera looks like it is sweating, the water beading on it in moments. The shutter misfires. I cycle down to the pier, fingers burning in the cold. I can’t see any of the pier lights, worryingly, not even the red warning blinker at the seaboard end, then only metres from it, the white LED strips appear. Visibility of the pier is down to 20 metres. The sea is muffled and sluggish sounding. The beach cannot be seen in the void.

The camera is wet. I get one good shot and head for home. There’s steam rising from my bike like it is dipped in liquid nitrogen.

I am only out half an hour, but the weather was so harsh and biting, it is enough. I think I want a fisherman’s jumper. On that topic, I’ve been trying to get a Captain Haddock jumper for ages. Anyone know where to get one, or have one made?