Thanks everyone for the info, warnings noted.

Fritz, are those jellyfish dangerous if you step on??

Regards, Julian.

They'll certainly sting you if you step on them, even when they are dead.

I don't think they are dangerous as in it's not going to kill you or anything like that but even a sting from a little one (1" across and 8 - 12 inches long) will hurt like hell for a good few hours and there's pretty much nothing you can do to stop it. Paralysis and joint pain are the other symptoms apparently - nice!!

Been twice and not once have I seen a jelly fish. So they can't be too commen.

Watch me get stung this time

A very quick cure for jellyfish sting is............

........to soak the affected area with ammonia!

The body produces ammonia naturally!!! I'll leave the rest to your imagination!

What I use for jellyfish stings are antihistamine tablets, after washing infected area with vinegar. The tablets
help you as water reactivates the stings, and as you can sweat a lot, especialy in bed they will give you a
good nights sleep. As a fisherman I get covered with the damn things, and I have found this the best treatment.

Nice one much better than using pee

Windowlene is a good one !! We used to live in the UAE and we used window cleaner ( because of the annomia ) for jelly fish stings. And, Pifpaf ( which was the name of their fly spray ) to get the oil off our feet, as sometimes oil from the tankers would wash up onto the beach.

Here is one of the threads on swimming Shirley.

Just to re-emphasise the real dangers of swimming in the sea off the Goan beaches.

Certainly off Baga the sand shelves quite steeply into the sea and it's easy to get out of your depth. The shelving beach also causes the waves to break so there is a turbulent zone just off shore (knee to waist deep) where it can be very difficult to keep your feet when caught by waves. Watch for a wave breaking then wade in or out through this zone as fast as you can before the next wave comes in.

Once clear of the turbulence wade out until the water is chest deep then stay at that distance off shore - go much further and you'll quickly be out of your depth! You can comfortably float/swim in this zone but watch out for the periodic larger waves that roll in and break early - best to rise up with them as that's far more comfortable than being swamped! There is a strong under tow in places which could easily pull you out of your depth if it catches you and there are channels in the sand which suddenly give deeper water. There is also a bit of longshore drift to be aware of. The band where you can swim in comfort/safety is quite narrow.

All in all it's not an easy place for swimming - potentially quite dangerous.

That said, I'd never been to Goa before November last but I was aware that the sea can be dangerous along that coast. I'm not a swimmer (not been in the sea for many a year either!) but soon worked out the above method and really enjoyed going in sea as a result. My partner was used to more tranquil water though and found it quite intimidating.

If in doubt then stick to paddling.

The sea looked calmer off Palolem but I didn't venture in. Up at Querrim the beach seems to shelve even more steeply than at Baga and the swell looked to be very powerful - so I contented my self with paddling in the shallows.

Better safe than sorry.

We go to Mandem beach to swim, spend the day there, there are a few beach shacks all good, sunbeds and shades at a very low cost when you eat there. There are some waves not to big, just fun,, I am not a great swimmer but have no fear here its shallow a long way out.