Photos added

Apologies for not having got these up earlier. Work has been relentless pretty much since I got out of the sea in France !

A full account of the swim and some videos will follow soon.

The morning before the swim with Dover Harbour in the background

Loading up the escort boat

 Getting ready to go - with Tania...

 ...and Christian (a true hero and top level triathlete who helped coach me during my training)...



 ...and Wayne (an absolute legend who did his swim the previous Saturday and dropped everything to come and crew for me)...

On the boat before the swim - nerves starting to kick in

 

Lots of factor 50 !!!

 and some more factor 50 before the grease goes on

 Leaving Shakespeare Beach in Dover

 Getting underway

 Several hours off Dover and you can only just start to see France in the far distance

The first shipping lane coming in to view

 Powering on

Powering on

..and on...

..and on...

There were a lot of big ships to avoid

 As night set in I had two flashing green lights attached to me and carried on into the dark

We finished at 3.36am on the morning of Monday 13th September

Because of the extremely strong tides we were swept in a large S shaped curve. Towards the end my speed had dropped so I narrowly missed Cap Gris Nez. 30 minutes quicker would have meant 3 hours less swimming ! Compare this to the swim (credit to Hoffyswims.com) below which was on a neap tide

This is the beach we landed on (we went back the following Saturday to have a look), though this is at low tide. When we landed the tide was up to the base of the cliffs on the left and waves were smashing me against the rocks. If it had been low tide then I think I may have finished a bit earlier given the size of the beach !!!

A re-enaction of the landing...albeit in daytime...and without the 5 foot waves...and without 16.5 hours swimming to get there. The ferry was much easier !

Dover solo (vernacular for a single person channel swim !) - 16.33 !!! Excellent photo taken by Christian who, being a good lad, did get the restaurant's permission first - thanks mate



I did it !

Started at 11.00 on Sunday morning and finished in France at 3.36 on Monday morning giving me a total swim time of 16 hrs 36 mins ! Phew - still recovering, so more to follow in the coming days.

View Detailed 9 Day Weather Forecasts for Dover, webcams, weather maps & more at Weather-Forecast.com

It's the Final Countdown !

Only 8 days now until my official swim window opens. There's some possibility I may swim earlier, but am staying focused on that initial date so that I can get my motivation going.

From 14th to 22nd of September I'll be on Standby waiting for a call that will give me c. 24hrs notice that my crew and I are going. We will then load up the car with water, Maxim sports drink, food, clothes, torches etc etc etc (there is a lot of stuff required !) and then head down to a B&B in Dover to grab some sleep. We'll probably be starting early the following morning (2 or 3 a.m. perhaps) so that we can do the bulk of the swim in the light.

Shakespeare Beach (Dover Harbour in background) - credit: f0rbe5/flikr

Once we get down to the boat we'll load up and then head out of the harbour and west to either Shakespeare Beach or Samphire Ho. The pilot will then stop, I'll jump in (freshly greased with a flashing light on my head for safety) and swim to the shore.

In a bright spotlight I'll stand on the beach, raise my arm in the air and, when the horn on the boat goes (telling me the clock is starting), I will dive into the Channel and begin my journey to France. The next time I touch land will be the other side of the English Channel !

Feeding will be on the hour for the first 3 hrs and then every 30 minutes from then on. Feeds will be as quick as possible (I need to remember that I am feeding rather than resting !) and I'll be drinking good quantities of very hot Maxim sports drink. Occasionally I'll get half a banana, a cup of peaches, small squares of peanut butter sandwiches etc. but mainly I'll be fuelled by my desire to achieve this dream and raise this great sum for Parkinsons UK and the Camphill Family.

I'm not certain how long it will take me to get to France but it will almost certainly be between 16 and 20 hours. If I'm unlucky with the tides and/or the weather then it may take more time than that. This won't be a problem, I just need to make sure I pack enough Maxim to keep me going !

What I can visualise very clearly though is the moment my hand goes over my head to stroke forward and touches France when I am in a few feet of water. At that point I'll stand up (probably fall over) and then wade onto the beach. Once my feet are clear of the water I need to raise my hands again, and then, when the boat's horn sounds again, I'll have finished my channel swim !

In the meantime, I'll keep checking the weather forecast. Much of this forecast is driven by a weather buoy anchored in the Eastern end of the Channel. You can look at the Sandettie buoy directly at http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/coast/buoy/index.shtml?co_sandettiebuoy#results if you're interested. Alternatively look at the long term weather forecast on http://www.weather-forecast.com/locations/Dover/forecasts/latest.

Current forecast is for a dropping wind towards the beginning of next week and no real rain...let's hope it doesn't get any worse ! Cross your fingers, make a wish, say a prayer because we need no wind, flat seas and sunshine in an ideal world....that said, I'm not sure we live (or swim) in one of those.

Until next time...

Barn dance and Auction

Thank you so much to all of you who came along to the Barn Dance and Auction of Promises. A great night was had by all though there were reports of a a fews aching arms on Sunday - enthusiastic dancing I think !

I was overawed by the level of generosity from those who attended. This allowed us to raise a staggering amount which is over £10,000 (still totting up the exact amount). Thank you again to all those who attended and all those who participated in the auction.

The Dover Back to Back

I completed my first 'Back to Back' swim this weekend in Dover Harbour. Effectively that consists of a 7 hour swim on Saturday and then a 6 hour swim on Sunday. Yes I know what you're thinking and it was that hard !

Dover Harbour on a calm day - if only it had been like this on Saturday

Arrived with only minutes to spare and was a bit disorganised from the start but managed to make it into the water for 8.45 (which meant leaving home at 6.30 !!). Water temperature is now very comfortable at about 17 degrees (which bodes well for the swim in September) so getting in and getting going was not a problem. Realising after about an hour that I'd forgotten to buy a parking ticket for my car was a bit of a problem though. I couldn't get out now though so I just trusted to fate on that front...

The sea was pretty choppy in the harbour and out at sea we could see huge white capped waves. Naturally this didn't make for the best swimming conditions and after 3 hours or so the seasickness kicked in. I say seasickness but actually it is probably a mixture of motion sickness and the bodies rather understandable reaction to swallowing loads of sea water. No matter how good a swimmer you are, when you have 1-2 ft waves breaking over your head, you are going to end up inhaling/swallowing/absorbing some of it. You just have to try and do your best as making sure you're breathing obviously becomes the priority !

At about this time the weather started to clear quite rapidly and there was even a threat of some sunshine. This was a marked change from first thing that morning when it was chucking it down with rain and there was cloud and wind everywhere. Having beeen soaked to the skin before getting in to the sea I hadn't even thought to put sun cream on. The fickle English weather seemed to be doing a rare about turn though so at 4 hours in I had to jump out, run up the beach past Freda (Streeter - known as the Channel General) who started goading me on the assumption that I was quitting, and then into my bag for the sun cream. Freshly covered in a thick layer of factor 40 I returned to the water !

5 hours in and I was now starting my food fantasies. After this sort of time your body is very keen to start ingesting calories so the brain seems to default to thinking about nosh and lots of it ! On Saturday I seemed to be craving a cheese fondue for some reason, but after a while I decided that the Premier Inn (my home for Saturday night) would probably not have it on their menu, in spite of what their name might lead you to believe. With harsh reality restored I started trying to make my mind up between breaded mushrooms or onion rings - deep fried of course !!

6 hours went by fairly well as the sea was starting to calm a bit but the 7th hour seems to drag and drag. I think this is more down to my psyche than anything else as the last phase of any training session always seems to be the most laborious for me (see 10 hr swim blog). Despite the fact that time had slowed down, I made it to the shore at 15.45 and clambered up the bank of pebbles for a well earned cup of sugary tea.

Having had a chat to a few of the friends I've made within the channel swimming nutter community down in Dover, I hauled a rather weary body to the Premier Inn. Having got into my room and cleaned up I decided that to even sit down on the bed would be fatal. The guaranteed outcome would be me waking up a 1 in the morning feeling absolutely starved and unable to move. As a result I did some stretching (Sarah [my physio] - see, I am doing as I'm told !) and then went and sat in the bar with several pints of OJ and lemonade. After some food at 6.30 I was then fast asleep by 9 and slept soundly until 7 the following morning.

Sunday

Having scrammed some breakfast down me and then got my things together I raced down to the beach for 8.30 trying really hard to fight the nerves back. I was feeling really sore in my shoulders and my back muscles were very tight. In short I was having what I believe is commonly know as 'a little bit of a wobble'.

At the end of my Back to Back - 13 hrs of swimming over 2 days

Luckily, when I arrived at the beach almost everyone else was ready so I switched into 'get ready quickly' mode which nicely took my mind off things. So effective was this change in mindset that I got down to the beach with my wedding ring still on and no vaseline on my neck and shoulders (essential to prevent chaffing). I ran back up the beach and sorted that lot out before getting into the water, gritting my teeth and getting on with it.

After 30 minutes of slightly painful warm up swimming it actually felt fine other than a bit of shoulder pain from my recurring injury in the left shoulder. The sea was nearly dead flat and there was only a breath of wind under a near cloudless blue sky - perfect weather.

The swim went on and I was nearly (let me emphasis nearly) enjoying myself. Managed to keep my mind active by thinking through all sorts of things and eventually found myself entering the fifth hour. This seemed to drag a bit but not as much as the sixth hour which seemed to go on and on...(see above - I think this is a trend !). Eventually I made it though and I hauled myself out after having swum just over 30km in 2 days...urgh !

Am feeling more and more comfortable about the swim in September  - bring it on !!!

10 hour sea swim completed !

Mac's boat, Purdy - http://www.sussexseacharters.co.uk/

On Monday my support team and I completed a 10 hour sea swim with a practice escort boat just outside of Chichester harbour. Was again a surprisingly doable but very hard exercise that taught us all a lot about what will and won't work well on the actual day.



From my point of view the first two hours were actually quite good fun and went past pretty quickly. The sun was shining, the 17 degree water felt tropical and my wife along with my good friends Christian and Tom were keeping me really amused from the boat. Stroke rate was almost always a consistent 53spm

In hour 3 I quite suddenly started to get horribly seasick as the chop built up and that lasted for a good couple of hours (took some tablets to help but got rid of it in the end by repeating over and over in my head that I did not feel sick and eventually convinced myself - amazing thing the mind !!). Stroke rate over this time was in the mid forties as the seasickness and the choppy tide/wind combo really slowed me down.

Tania with the feeding contraption and SPM board

After half way things were going well until my should injury started to grind. After a couple of hours though it just seems to disappear after having worked it's way down my shoulder a bit. It's as if something has clicked into place, though I know that is unlikely and am prepared for it to come back during the real swim. Stroke rate was by now back in high forties and edging into the 50 mark.

Final two hours were great but went by quite slowly as I was wishing the time away and doing a LOT of clock watching. Stroke rate was now up at mid fifties and I felt really strong even though I had only been taking on tinned peaches and energy drink for the past 4 hours.

Not a pretty sight

Finally climbed out after 10hr and 7 minutes of swimming before demolishing a cup of tea and a big slice of Ginger cake in record time...which was then given to the fishes in the harbour by me over the back of the boat (think this was my body saying Ouch to the previous 10 hours !)

We all got back to shore and talked through the day over a pint of Guinness. The whole team is feeling positive about the actual event now. We need to bear in mind that the conditions were quite kind to us today so cold/lack of sun and rougher seas could be a challenge but we're all confident in our ability to overcome these.

Bring on September !!!