Channel Success

Channel Relay Swim August 2008 Report

I would like to say a thank you for the kind sponsorship that you have offered me and below is a quick report as to completing the Channel Relay which I completed with 5 other swimmers from around the county under the East Dorset Open water Swimming Club raising around £450 for Retts Syndrome and Marine Conservation.

After spending 5 days awaiting news as to whether we would actually get to swim the channel with the way the wind and tides were acting, we finally got some good news on Tuesday morning, which was that we were going ahead and swimming across the Channel starting at 2am in the morning and that the first person to set off would be myself.

Great, I had to lead the team, and I can tell you that standing on the edge of the boat knowing I had to dive into pitch black water with no moon light and plenty of seaweed and swim to a dark beach inaccessible at the bottom of a cliff, amongst rocks (the starting point) just 50metres away was not the most comfortable of things I have ever done. However I entered with a gung ho dive and swam to the beach, scrambled up and awaited the staring signal, out of pure adrenaline I literally sprinted an hour in the dark and it took us 2.9miles on our Journey to France. It was a weird experience swimming in total darkness, I was supposed to swim 3 metres from the boat, but I did not like this, as the diesel was stinging the top of my mouth and throat, so I chose to swim about 20m away where I could follow it. I though the dark would freak me out and my kick rate did speed up when I had to go through Seaweed, but kind off knowing your conquering the channel in the dark and doing something that I would imagine no one else in the world was doing at that moment in time, was somehow quite tranquil and satisfying. However I did get a telling off for not being seen from the boat and evidently they could only see a green light on my head!

The tides then took us across in a weird repeated S shape, and by half way we had actually swum for 13 miles, instead of the 11 we needed to. By the third swimmer, the night had started to become day, and it was a beautiful sunrise amongst 4 of the team members puking up over the side of the boat. I know it is hard to imagine, but food somehow settled my stomach, and after 5 ham and cheese bagels my stomach was settled. My second swim took us well over half way, I was in the middle of the English Channel being battered by waves from Ocean Liners, Cargo ships and Oil tankers, but it was one of the best feelings I have ever had swimming, to know that you are in the middle of nowhere in water of 60m depth, swimming through kelp and watching fish come and see what you were up to, where you could not see any land again was very, well lets just say… Weird, I know. In the team were 2 younger girls of 14 and 16 who literally had to dodge bright purple gym ball sized Jelly Fish. I just thought they were pretty little things of course!! But they did well to keep going and find there path through!

By our 10th hour we were only 3 miles off the coast of Cap Gr Nes on the North Coast of France and it looked like the next swimmer would complete the swim or at least allow the 11th hours swimmer to have a short swim. However this is where the sea go the strongest and currents caused the swimmers to literally go a mile east and a mile west instead of making forwards progress.

In the end I would get the chance for a third swim, for which it took my just 3 minutes to blast to the shoreline for which I did butterfly for the last 400m or so, I did not want the French to think we English are weak of course. Fortunately where I landed was a Café where everyone came out and clapped and cheered, and mimicked Butterfly strokes, gave thumbs up and spoke to me in their weird language asking how long it took.

The rest of the team then dived off the boat to come and join me.

On the boat on the way back we saw dolphins which was nice, and I mean nice from the boat. I then slept on the return journey until like a cartoon freeze I was propelled in to mid air after the boat was hit by a wave, from the bench I was sleeping on, and before having time to react I landed on deck, like freshly caught kipper. I did not sleep again!

I would recommend the relay challenge to anyone, it is a great atmosphere and build up with people up to the event. The challenge of staying awake for 36 hours and swimming in dark, jelly infested waters whilst trying to not to vomit is excellent!

And I will definitely return to complete it by myself which I can tell you is no easy fete!

Barry