Missing clock swims 150 miles from Tenby to the Irish coast

A sports watch lost from a swimmer off the coast of West Wales has reappeared 150 miles in an Irish city.

Martina Morgan, originally from South Africa, swam with her friends in Tenby at the beginning of April when she noticed that her Garmin clock, which was secured by a flotation device.

Although she considered that she was swimming afterwards when it went at sea, they persuaded her to let go.

To her surprise, she received a call from Sean Corcoran three weeks later, who discovered the watch in a small bay called Ladies Cove near Waterford in Southeast Tyrland.

First Ms. Morgan noticed “flashed out” in the water, but assumed that it was another swimmer.

Then she realized that the belt held her watch around her waist.

Ms. Morgan said: “It was my husband's Christmas present, so I was pretty annoyed.

“But it was too far out for me, so I just had to say goodbye.”

Ms. Morgan and her husband Ed had not expected to see it again, but three weeks later received a call from an Irish number.

The environmental artist Mr. Corcoran, who “spends a lot of time on the bank,” said he had to climb a cliff to reach the beach where he found the clock.

Mr. Corcoran said: “I was curious where it came from, it was like a message in a bottle.

“When I got it home, I pressed a button on the clock and the recharging symbol, so I knew it worked.

“I was surprised that it had only been in the water for three weeks, it looked like it had spent several months in the sun.”

Mr. Corcoran asked for help to track the owner on a local Facebook page with the title “I am Waterford” and was soon flooded with calls.

He said: “As soon as I published it online, hundreds of people replied that it was a British number, it only took 20 minutes to contact Ed and Martina.

“I wondered if it was a swimmer that was lost and there was a moment of fear until Ed clarified that everything was fine and Martina was in order.

“I was very relieved.”

Mr. Corcoran later updated his contribution to say that the owner of the watch had been found.

The contribution made more than 250,000 views in less than 24 hours.

He said, “When a quarter of a million people look at it, it shows that people long for good news.”

The story was also shared by the RNLI teams in Tenby and Waterford in order to highlight the importance of buoyancy aids for security.

Mr. Corcoran said the clock would be brought back to Ms. Morgan on Tuesday.

“I am very grateful to the Irish and Sean,” said Ms. Morgan.

“I will continue to swim with it, it is the easiest way to record where they were and what distance they did.”