stroke4stroke

Well I should have known that flying into London on Friday the 13th was never going to be a good omen. From the outset it seemed as though the Channel gods were against me. I spent 19 days waiting in a caravan for this swim to eventuate and feeling like I might be heading home without getting a shot at the channel.

Free Ride back to the Boat

To put some light on this I guess I need give you some background on swimming the English Channel. You can’t just rock up and do it, although it would be a lot cheaper, you need to arrange for a pilot and an observer to guide you accross safely and ratify the swim. There are around a dozen registered pilots who typically book 3-4 swimmers for a ‘neep’ tide (the best tide to swim on with the least tidal variation – i.e less amount of water moving through the channel – less currents to fight against). As channel swimming has become more popular in the last 5-10 years the number of people looking to swim in duos, teams and solos has increased darmatically, however the number of pilots has remained relatively unchanged. This is fine if the wether is good, but becomes a problem if you get a couple of weeks of bad weather (which lets face it – it’s England, its not all that uncommon) and all of a sudden there is a massive backlog of swimmers to get away. Compounding this skippers are now taking bookings on the ’spring’ tides which, in the past, were typically left vacant to get swims away that were blown out due to bad wether on the previous neep.
Soo back to my swim, i was number 3 on a neep tide 13th-20th August. My original skipper had 2 other teams on the spring tide the next week and then another 4 the following week. After one guy had to go home this left me 8th in line to get a swim away in the remaining 10 days. After 2.5 nerve racking weeks of sitting around and accepting the reality that I’d not be likely to get a swim in the 10 days I had left, I bit the bullet and rang around all the other pilots to see who was free. Most were in the same situation with a massive backlog of swimmers to get away after weeks of grim weather.
One skipper, Pete Freeman, was available all week. Pete hadn’t done a succesful crossing in 15 years, which didn’t exactly fill me with confidence (I kinda thought there must be a reason this guy is the only skipper who can fit me in) but as soon as i met Pete and his son, Little Pete, I knew I was in good hands. They had sea dog etched all over their faces, having spent their lives fishing out of the Folkstone Dover area and it was clear they had an amazing knowledge of this stretch of water. Pete’s father was the guru of channel crossings back in the 70s so although they hadn’t done a crossing for a while, its clearly in their blood.
So I sorted out late on Sunday night that I would probably be swimming on Tuesday, at around 2am. After completing all the paperwork it was confirmed mid morning on Monday that i’d swim the following day, I had to pack my gear and get from my sisters in London back down to Dover quick smart. We went down to Varne Ridge Caravan Park where David & Evelyn kindly let us kip for a few hours in a spare van.

closing in on the Cap

My original support crew Dougal, Helen and my godson Abel had just arrived back in Tasmania. It was a bit of a shame that after sitting in a caravan looking out the windows at the fog and rain for the past week or so that they weren’t going to be there on the day, but they sure helped me get through that crap week keeping my spirits high when it looked like I might be heading home without getting a swim. If I was in that caravan by myself I would have gone mad.
My sister Brigid, and a couple of other tassie mates, Yarran and Ezo tagged in at the last minute and nailed it. Ezo’s the sea dog of the trio, Yarran a gun swimmer himself jumped in a few times to keep me company, and my sister minister for gossip, managed to keep everyone awake talking for 9.5 hours straight which was a feat of endurance in itself.
We set the alarms for 1am downed a cuppa and 8 weetbix and headed to the harbour to load up the boat and steam around to the start point just south of Samphire Hoe. This was the first time I had met the skipper and crew, so they had no idea about what type of swimmer I was, but they were great from the start and I was happy to put my confidence in them.

THE SWIM

Swimming in the dusk

At 2.35am I was dropped off on the beach. The big moment had finally come after more than a year of 5am starts 6 days a week I was about to tackle “The Channel”. I made sure I soaked the moment in, although it was only 8 degrees or so and I was in my budgie smugglers so I was keen to get moving.

It was an eerie feeling swimming in the dark for so long. I’d swum in the dark before but only for an hour or so. Knowing light was a good 4 hours away was a bit dunting but in hindsight mentally it really broke up the swim nicely.

The thoughts of sharks creeping up on me in the darkness probably got me swimming a bit faster too! I had a flashing light on my head so the crew could see me in the dark, so there was a disco strobe effect pulsing through the water as I was swimming.

Tankers

To be honest the swim itself was pretty uneventful with everything going to pretty much to plan. The most exciting thing was the seal that was tailing me as we came into French waters – thankfully no signs of the escaped croc the week before. There was a nor west 2m wind swell early on which died out and the wind changed more northerly to north east which is basically a side chop the whole way. This was a bit rougher than we’d all expected so I was glad I necked a few sea sickness tablets the night before. To be fair, I think it was worse for the guys on the boat.
I’d made my feeds pretty fool proof for the guys to hand to me with a schedule drawn out on the boat and they didn’t miss a beat. I definitely had some moments of “what-the-hell-am-I-doing-here” but never any really low lows that i had to push through. The worse part was the start, I did have the tiny bit of doubt about how i’d handle the cold, but I knew if I made it to the first hour I’d be fine.
So once I left the beach there was alot of boring swimming, (looking at the chart I covered around 40kms) and then I scrambled on some barnicaled covered rocks in France! I got some nice scrapes (reminiscent of bali reef cuts) but I’d finally made it so that didnt bother me at all.

The Boat

The worst part was seeing myself getting drifted towards Cap Gre Niz and feeling as though I was not getting closer to land. Basically if I missed that point I would have faced another 2-3 hours before the tide would change and push me back in towards land, so I had to step it up a bit. The skipper absolutely nailed it with his line, I landed about 100m from the Cap, which is the closest bit of land to England.
Although I definitely knew I had faded out a little towards the end of my swim, I wasn’t totally knackered. I still managed to pick it up towards the end when I knew I had to, and to haul myself into the dinghy at the end. I’m not saying I would have been keen to turn around and swim back to England, but I know I could have kept going for a few more hours if I had to. I made it over in right on 9hrs30min which I am super happy with. I had in my mind a benchmark time of around 9hrs on a reasonably flat day (From what Rottnest channel legend Peter Tanham did in his 2005 crossing) but am just glad that I made it. In weird way the whole ordeal of waiting around, last minute pilot change, the lack of sleep, the cold early morning made it all the more satisfying.

Would I do it again? No. Whats next? Stay tuned…….

THANKS

First of all thanks to all the people who have made generous donations for the stroke4stroke foundation, I won’t name all the individuals but I’d like to particularly my employers Independant Offshore Solutions who set the bar high with their $15,000 donation which really got the momentum going with the fundraising. It’s a great cause and I’m happy that I could use this personal goal of mine help contribute to something worthwile.

Thanks to Chris Wedd & Don Marsh, guys who got me into swimming in the first place back in tassie, and my mum for taking me to the pool all those early mornings back in the Glenorchy days! To Anne, not sure I would have bothered getting off my arse for a while yet if you hadn’t spurred me on with your swim a few years ago… no one likes being out done by a girl!! Thanks to Pete Tanham and all the guys at challenge who I’ve swum with the last few years. Cheers Bill, Paul & Shelly at Kirby Swim who’ve let me swim in their squad, and Paul at Swimsmooth, you guys will nail it next year. Of course Maryanne, Dave, Stu, Stephan and the rest of the Saturday morning crew who kept me going for our long sessions, and Ro the hybrid support paddler/physio expert. Thanks for everyone else for putting up with me and my training schedule this last year.

Thanks to the crew Pete & Little Pete for getting me accross, Andy the observer for giving Brigid a run with the talking, and Yarran n Ezo for putting up with Briggie!!!

Cheers, I’m off to Ireland to smash the Guiness.

just a quick one to let you know its all done, i made it to france in one piece in 9.5hrs on the dot. Was a pretty lumpy and a bit of wind about but not as bad as it could have been. ill put some pics and a recount of the day up over the next day or two. thanks for the support, and if you havent managed to donate to the stroke foundation click on the Donate Now link on the top right.
Cheers,

Mark

It’s on, today. The weather gods have provided a small window of opportunity at last. Follow Mark’s progress via GPS.

**Edit – Looks like the GPS is either malfunctioning or has been dropped in the shallows. Apologies.

After a lot of waiting around it looks like it could be on for a 2am depature tomorrow morning. I’ve had a frustrating 2 1/2 weeks wait with the weather, and due to more swimmers arriving to swim on this set of tides with my original pilot, i’ve had to find another pilot who was not as busy to take me accross or give up my swim this year…. it means paying out for another 2000 pounds for a pilot unfortunately but its the only way i’ll get a swim.

Stay tuned

Mark

Just when the weather was starting to get the better of me I get reports of crocs in the channel to contend with!!! Local newspapers have reported at least two people had spotted the a croc off the coast of France causing beaches to be shut.

Should make for an exciting swim. Check out the article here

Its another day of back to back Friends episodes, games of cards and thumb twiddling here in my channel swimming trailer park. Not much has changed with the forecast for the whole week. the typical forecast has been ” It looks like we’ll be good for a swim in 3 days time”

The day i set foot on old blighty their run of “best weather in 10 years” came to a grinding halt. Its been back to back frontal systems with winds ranging between 30-40 knots for the majority of the week. When the wind does stop for 6 hours or so it is replaced with a dirty sea fog and an misty rain that can only be found in this part of the world. Sitting around in the wind and rain for two weeks is not really what i had in mind when i came over here, but thats what it is shaping up to be.

I’ve had to ramp up the training again for another 4 day solid blast to keep me ticking over, and at least the additional time in the harbour has given me the confidence that i’ll be o.k with the water temperature… its just a waiting game now.

Hopefully looking like once this next front goes through we’ll get 3-4 days of half decent weather which means ill be 3rd in line, possibly giving me a swim around sunday or monday. Fingers crossed….

Yesterday morning i was swimming in the harbour to hear that an Aussie guy had headed off to break the record. It was a weird call as the conditions looked less than average, but i guess the was westerly so he had 25knot tail wind …. for the first few hours… The wind changed towards the end of the swim to 30knot cross winds which would not have been nice. Epic effort for Brendan to make it as far as he did on the day, I’m sure it wouldn’t have been nice.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-sport/capell-misses-the-boat-in-channel-swim-20100819-12ffq.html

Thanks to Thiess, one of Australia’s leading construction, mining and services contractor, for recently pledging $5,000 to the stroke4stroke cause.

I’ve spent the last year working for Thiess on the $3.5 billion Victorian Desalination Plant, which will be capable of supplying about a third of Melbourne’s annual water needs.

Thanks alot guys, myself and the NSF appreciate your generous support. To contact Thiess visit their website