Distance is 23 nautical miles which I am told is about 22 land miles and the tides play havoc with anyone trying to swim in a straight line. The picture below shows the shortest, average and longest crossing plotted with a GPS (credit to http://www.channelswimming.org/).
The record crossing time is 7hrs 17mins but the average swim takes 14 hours as long as you get the tides right. If not then swimmers are regularly known to have swum in the same place for 6 hours while they wait for the tide to change. Quite a mental effort this, so lets hope I catch the tide when I swim to France ! This can mean starting/finishing in the dark but this slight 'inconvenience' is well worth it so I'm told.
Water temperatures are about 58-60F which is about 15C so pretty chilly by all accounts. In addition, there are lots of jellyfish, seaweed and other floaty things I'd rather not think about that present further challenge for the swimmer.
I will be covered (by my long suffering wife and my coach Christian) in a mixture of vaseline and lanolin that will give me some protection, but other than that grease, my trusty speedos, goggles and a swim cap I won't be allowed to wear anything else.
Feeding stops will be every 45 mins or so and I'll be taking on board warm energy drink (but no beef tea brandy !) as well as some sort of carbohydrate gloop which looks like a runny porridge mixture. These are dished out to be from the boat on the end of a long pole.
To technically finish the swim I will climb out of the water and have to stand on completely dry land. At that point the boat sounds its horn, I do my impression of Sylvester Stallone at the end of Rocky 4 and, if there are any French people on the beach, I will offer greasy hugs to all that feel brave enough. It's then a quick swim back to the boat and then hopping on board for tea and medals as they say (in reality this normally means curling up in a sleeping bag and eating several Yorkie bars).
More information is available at a load of sources, but the best I found are:-
http://www.channelswimming.org/
http://www.channelswimming.net/
http://www.channelswimming.com/
These have links sections on them that will take you through to a host of other websites where you can explore more. There are also some great clips on YouTube of people who have swum across to France.
