Made it to France - PART I

I am proud to say that our English Channel Relay was the first to France for the 2010 swim season.  Overall it was a great learning experience!  It was true test of what the body and mind can withstand and overcome.

Here is a recap:

I got the call confirming the swim for our pilot just before 1800 on Sunday June 21st.  I made my way down to one of my team members house in Tunbridge Wells.  Got to bed about 2230 for a 0330 wake up call.  We both did not sleep at all and a lot of tossing and turning.  Jumped out of bed before that time had breakfast and we were on our way to Dover Harbour which was a 45 minute drive.  It was long and very tense ride!

Got to the Harbour went for our parking permit for the day and turned around and my other team mates showed up as well.  Got their permits and waited on the dock for our pilot Eric Hartley from the Pathfinder.  We also met our swim official, Peter from the CSA.  He was about 5 minutes away which was perfect timing!  We piled on the boat had our safety briefing, CSA Rules dictated, and money exchange.  We were finally on our way to swim the channel!

We started a little west of Samphire Hoe Park.  People usually start at Shakespeare Beach but the pilot read the tides and decided on Samphire.  This is a crucial call!

Here is the start!

I started the relay at exactly 0525, Monday June 21, 2010.  The way it works on a relay is each member of the team must swim a full hour and the order must not be changed at all.  If one of these rules are broken the swim is nulled and we turn around, oof... 

Our established order would be myself, Patrick Reedman, Janina Dowding and Mike Russell.  Since I was the first swimmer, I had to swim to shore and walk up on land to make the swim official.  Once on land the CSA official gives you the thumbs up and you are off to France!

Since my swim was first, I was in the water a bit longer than my team mates.  The first hour felt like an eternity and at several times, I kept saying, "Fuck this is going to be harder than I thought".  The water was around 13C/52.5F, the clouds were lingering, and the sun was not fully out.  So with wind chill and water temp, I was freezing and did not think it was going to go well.

I saw Patrick hit the water behind me and I kept going afraid I was going to freeze if I stop.

Patrick coming up for the change over.

The change over happen, and I could not be happier to get back on board!  It had a shiver and got my clothes on fast.  Pilot told me that I got about 2.2 miles out, that is not my best showing but knew what we had in store for the trip. I briefed my team mates, Mike and Janina that it was friggin cold, had to tell em like it is, no holds barred...  Got some tea in me with toe warmers and felt a ton better by time Janina jumped in.  At this point things started looking very good for us.  The clouds were breaking up and the sun was coming out FULL beams on summer solstice.  You could not ask to swim on the longest day of the year with sun all day long!  This were looking much brighter now...

Part II in coming soon...