Tomorrow morning, Tim Fraser, Jamie Goodhead, Graham Lock, Richard Arthur and Steve McMenamin (all from Mid Sussex Marlins) will be attempting to swim the English Channel.
Tim Fraser writes, Our team captain did not think that a single crossing was enough of a challenge – so we will be swimming both ways – to France AND BACK!
Each of us will be swimming for an hour at a time in strict rotation. All being well, and subject to wind and tides, the 2 crossings should take between 25 and 30 hours. The arithmeticians among you will have realised that this means each of us will spend about 5-6 hours in the water.
I’ve been training in the sea with my team mates since the end of January. Until April we were in wetsuits. Since then we have been wearing just speedos, goggles, hat [and a smear of Vaseline] as we have tried to build up our tolerance to cold water (initially 12 degrees, now a balmy 16 degrees) as well as getting used to waves, seaweed, jellyfish, sharp pebbles and other sundry hazards.
The straight line distance from Dover to Calais is 22 miles, however the effect of tides means that we will need to cover approximately 35 miles with just a couple of minutes on the beach in France before repeating the ordeal for another 35 odd miles on the return journey to England.
Between each swim, each of us will be battling sea-sickness on board our pilot boat, Anastasia, and attempting to feed, sleep and warm up while our team mate in the water inches us towards our destination.
We received notice last night from our pilot, Eddie, that he wants the team in Dover at 0430 on Thursday morning for a start at 0515.
At least it means we should be swimming in daylight all the way to France- although the return will be tough, swimming through the night and into a NE wind (hoping it will ease a little by tomorrow).
Currently the temperature in the middle of the Channel is a chilly 14 degrees C. (53 degrees in old money).
All being well, we should land back in England some time on Friday morning.
You can follow our progress on the CSPF website here:
- Tick the box to select our vessel: Anastasia.
- This will bring up a pop up window with an image of the boat and its current position.
- Click where it says “Latest Track” ( It’s out there today for another crossing)
This will then display the route.
For those of you interested in following us on social media:
You can check our Pilot’s Facebook & Twitter pages here:
www.facebook.com/LoveSwimmingTheChannel/
https://twitter.com/AnastasiaSwim
or our on board team supporter, Alex Fraser’s, own twitter feed here:
For the real Anoracs among you, there is all you could ever want to know about Channel Swimming elsewhere on the CSPF website.
The team members are funding all costs of the crossing ourselves so all of any donations will go to charity.
I am attempting to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. If any of you is interested in donating, a link to my Justgiving page is below
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ChannelRelayMS
Many thanks for your support.