For Those in Peril on the Sea

The 11 hours of sea swimming I envisaged at the weekend quickly turned into just 3. The weather took care of Saturday and the Dover Rowing Regatta took care of Sunday (for me).

The drive down to Dover on Saturday was an interesting one, for I fear the Saxo may have finally taken its last trip to the beach. Every time I turn a corner now it sounds like it is going to explode, it’s fine in a straight line but unfortunately most journeys nowadays involve changing direction at some point. The other interesting thing about the drive was the fact that we (myself and Simon) literally couldn’t see 20 metres in front of us. The fog was incredibly thick, and coupled with the traffic travelling down for the Golf Open at Sandwich, we were inevitably late.

We arrived at around 0915, those who had arrived on time were only just making their way into the water. To say the sea didn’t look inviting would be kind – it looked extremely angry. We quickly got greased up and walked towards the water, a couple of Sunday Times photographers were taking photo’s of everybody as they were walking into the sea, so I may be in the Sunday Supplement at some point. I won’t be looking particularly good, as I was waist deep in a very upset sea and desperate for the toilet.

Chloë McCardel was also on the beach, ready to attempt a 3 way swim (England to France to England to France - mental) in the next week or so. This lady is already a bit of a legend so if she completes her swim, which I’m sure if the weather allows she will, I will be fully in awe of her. The best bit was, as we were walking into the sea, she was running back to her car with her crew to get out of the rain. It’s always a nice sight to see such an accomplished swimmer run away from the water. To be fair she has already completed a 6 hour swim in the Harbour this week, and I’m sure she wouldn’t have got any benefit from getting into the whirlpool in front of us.

Back to the swim, Freda said we only had to do 4 hours, which was very unexpected. I didn’t think we would be going for the whole 7 or 8 hours that I had originally predicted due to the weather, but I didn’t think we’d be doing as few as 4 hours. I didn’t complain though and dived in and swam away. This was an incredible swim.

The waves usually just about reach the wall, not on Saturday - Photo's never do this justice

For the first 40 minutes or so I stayed with Simon, but my right shoulder was not enjoying the waves at all, and I started really slowing down. Simon was a machine and got faster if anything, so I let him go on without me. That was nice of me wasn’t it? I had no real choice, as I couldn’t stay with him. The water was not in the least bit cold though, so that’s a major worry completely gone at the moment. I still shivered at feeds as is my way, but nothing like I used to.

As I came in for the 2 hour feed Kevin Murphy said to me “This is better isn’t it?” I said “No, it’s hideous”. He then said “The water is yes, but you’re hardly shivering at all”, he was right (as always). In fact I felt much warmer than I ever had at a feed. So off I swam for another hour through the rain and the waves.

I was barely covering any ground at all on this swim. I measured it on google earth when I got home, and in the 3 hours I only covered 6,100m(ish). This is very poor distance wise, but I’m not too displeased as the conditions really were horrific. At one point I was swimming on the side of a wave and had to reach about a foot below me to put my hand into the water, the other hand was entering the water about a foot above me. This was most definitely not the sort of swim where you effortlessly glide along. It was strangely fun though.

At the 3 hour feed Freda had decided enough was enough and we were told to leave the water. I wasn’t amazingly upset by this, as it was getting a bit silly, plus my shoulders were not having the nicest time. A few swimmers were still flying along, but these swimmers are robots, incredible water borne robots.

As we got changed I spoke to my friend who was on Si’s boat on his Channel attempt last week. Si is not too down at all about his swim, as he knows he put in everything he had. This is an excellent and mature approach, don’t expect the same from me, I will be a complete baby if the worst should happen. It won’t.

Just as I finished getting dressed somebody mentioned they were going to McDonalds, suddenly this was all I could think about. On the way home Simon and myself visited the golden arches, and between us bought about £30’s worth of rubbish. It was excellent. I feel I must mention at this point that Si and Simon are different people, just in case none of this makes sense.

The Sunday session was still on but it took place at 5 O’Clock in the morning, due to the Regatta starting at 9. I did genuinely have every intention of getting up at 3am and making the trip, but I slept heavier than I ever have before and no alarm in the world would have awoken me. I also think the car would have failed to get me to Dover anyway, so sleeping in was probably a blessing in disguise. In the end I woke up at 6 minutes past 9, 6 minutes after the swim had finished.

A lot of people’s swims are coming up in the next couple of weeks, including Hannah from my Gozo trip. I will be her support swimmer so am looking forward to that, she will do very well as she has got so much guts it’s unbelievable. Karen Throsby (again from Gozo) has flown over to California to have a crack at the Catalina Channel, so good luck to her as well.

I only have 4 or 5 weekends left training at Dover before the big swim, just typing that makes me nervous. We really are entering the business end of it all now, which is good and bad. Good because I finally have the chance to put all my work to good use, and bad because after it’s all over I will have nothing to focus on. I’ll have to plan some more swims, after having a massive sleep…