The sea has always been a part of Nuala Moore's life - her earliest memory is of jumping off her father's trawler in Dingle harbour and swimming back to shore. She's swam in some of the most dangerous and remote waters in the world. But her burgeoning career stalled when she became the sole carer of her ailing father; she couldn't commit to training, and she struggled with a lack of direction. That's when she found ice swimming - swims that take up less time, but which are far more demanding, physically and mentally. Nuala's philosophy is that we are all capable of greatness. Swimming in the ice, often at her limit, it is her mind that drives her forward, her engine that controls every stroke, every breath. Drawing on personal diaries kept over the years, Moore's memoir is a generous, inspiring love letter to the sea, detailing how she gained control over her body; what goes through her mind when she's in the water, willing herself forward and, when she returns home, how she processes the emotional, physical and financial consequences of pushing herself to the brink.
