The Camber Sands tragedies show we must respect power of the sea

One of the happiest, most magical afternoons of my life was spent at Camber Sands, the idyllic Sussex beach that is now synonymous with tragedy after the bodies of five young men were pulled from the water on the hottest day of the year.

This awful occurrence followed the drowning last month of a 19-year-old Brazilian man in the same spot, and the recent deaths of a father and his two-year-old daughter who were swept into the sea off Newquay.

For me Camber Sands represented a moment of pure bliss. It was late July back in 2001, and I was on a day trip with my husband to take my mind off a blood test I had taken at my IVF clinic earlier that morning.

As we walked towards the sea, I received a phone call telling me I was 12 days’ pregnant with our first child.

Utterly elated, I danced straight into the water in my summer dress and joyfully swam about with our dog. The sea was calm and still and waveless and I sang to my tiny embryo as we splashed.

I always meant to bring my daughter back to show her the place that meant so much to me. We even talked about doing it early this month before school began.

Then I heard of the sad fate of the teenager who got into difficulties while swimming, and was taken aback.

The incident gave me pause, but before I had time to return to the idea came the shocking news of the party of young men from London whose own day trip ended in calamity.

I won’t go to Camber Sands this year; how could I possibly commemorate my happy new beginning in a place where so many lives have been cut short?

What happened was catastrophic. I have no idea if it was preventable in any meaningful sense but I do know that despite being an island nation, a great many of us have little knowledge about the waters that surround us.

We associate freak waves with the tropics, rip tides with the surfing beaches of the Algarve. It’s time for every child to be educated about not only the beauty, but also the risks of our coastline.

I will take my daughter to Camber Sands some day, but even as we enjoy the recollections, I will impress upon her that we forget the power of the sea at our peril.