We Did It - Channel Swim Complete!

The phone rang on Saturday afternoon at around 4pm. It was Frosty saying that he had just heard from Andy King (our boat pilot) to confirm that we were on for a swim on Sunday morning and to be at Dover harbour for 3am.

Right then, off home to pack, grab some dinner and try and catch a few hours sleep as we'd be leaving Marlow at midnight to get to Dover on time. After a few hours kip and double checking the kit we met at the Marlow Club for the big off. You could tell that we were all excited and a bit nervous and after a month of waiting for the date and nearly six months of training the big day had finally arrived.


We got to Dover on time, met Andy, got all our kit on the boat and set off from a cold and windy harbour at 3:30am to Samphire Hoe beach our starting point.

Joining us on the boat were: Jay, my wife; Lisa, Jezz's wife; Caroline, Frosty's girlfriend; Steve, from the Channel Swimming Association and the Skipper's first mate (are they still called that these days??) Gary.


We got to the beach at around 3:45am and got Frosty ready for his first stint in the pitch black darkness. Andy wanted three glow sticks, one on the head and two on the trunks so that the swimmer was visible to all. Our night swim experience came in good use and we sorted this all out with the minimum of fuss. Frosty then swam to shore via guidance from a torch from the boat and then upon hearing the foghorn started swimming towards us. The countdown had started. We were off. There were around four other boats joining us at this point and immediately the competitive juices started flowing as talk began of beating them across. Great stuff!!

I should mention at this point that we had set ourselves the task of hitting a time of sub 10 hours. This is a fantastic time for channel swimmers (including relay swims) and would mean that we would have to swim at around 4kms/hour for the duration whilst battling the cold, waves, jellyfish, tankers and whatever else The Channel could throw at us. Whilst this was a tough ask, we trained hard so that we could push at this speed all the way through. When we first set off we told Andy (Boat Skipper) and Steve (Channel Swimming Association) of our target and you could tell by their faces that they were thinking, yes whatever boys, let's just get you there and seemed doubtful that we would achieve our target.

Frosty soon came up to the boat and followed the advice of Steve "Just follow the boat" and we started heading out into the Channel. We had agreed to signal the swimmer in the water every 15 minutes so that they knew where they were in the hour and then five minute countdowns in the last 15 minutes.


One thing that we had not realised was that we would have to stick to our swimmer order throughout the swim and that each swimmer would have to complete an hour before handing over to the next. We thought that we could mix it up if one swimmer was suffering and do shorter stints which was not the case at all. We quickly realised that if one swimmer failed through cramp/seasickness etc then the whole relay team would fail. This put a bit more pressure on each of us as individuals as you obviously would not want to let down the team after all the work that had gone in.

Frosty produced a steady swim in the dark to get us going and next up was Heath the South African in the team. We readied Heath, the same as Frosty for the changeover. As soon as the hour was up Steve (Channel Swim Association) would tell the next swimmer to get in and then the new swimmer would tread water whilst the old swimmer would go to the back of the boat. As soon as old swimmer was out, new swimmer would be given the go ahead to get back on with it. Vitally important to do it this way in the dark due to the danger of losing someone.

The first changeover produced one of the most dramatic and comical moments of the entire swim. It was still pitch black when Heath jumped in and while Frosty was getting we think Heath went of a fraction early what with all the adrenaline in his system. We then watched in horror as Heath left the side of the boat (ignoring Steve's advice) and then started swimming in a big arc and heading back towards Dover! Andy started blaring the ships horn to get Heath's attention but there was no stopping him. We had to turn the boat around and get him and shepherd him back on course. It was quite scary how quickly he got away from the boat and you can see how people can become lost at sea. Talking to Heath after the swim he thought he was doing a great job as he had "pulled away" from the pilot boat whilst setting a new course backwards much to everyone's amusement.



Heath put in a solid leg and next up was me for the sunrise stint. I started getting ready about 15 minutes before, checking kit, then checking again etc. I got my glowsticks sorted, put a bit of vaseline on and was pretty much ready to go. Steve was giving us a countdown every few minutes so we knew how much time we would have before stripping down to our swimmers. For me the time had come to show off the worst pink speedos I could find (as promised) much to the horror of all aboard the boat.

I felt pretty nervous in the last few minutes and went quite quiet before I was due to get in. Check out the video...







It wasn't too nice waiting in the water for Heath to get out, I'd have rather just got cracking on and got warm but I didn't really want to make the same navigational error that a certain South African did so baded my time until I got given the all clear. Soon enough I was good to go and was finally swimming the Channel. The temperature felt good (around 17/18), definitely warmer than the river we had been training in and the water was so salty it was disgusting. One of my first thoughts was that I was feeling strong and that we had prepared really well for this as a team which felt great.


The first 15 minutes went pretty quickly as I received the signal (on a white board) and from here I really started to push the pace as I went through a mini session that I had devised in my head based on arm strokes. These sessions took me through to the last 15 minutes and consisted of periods where I would swim hard then at a steadier pace to catch my breath. When I went off swimming fast for my first set I think I took the skipper by surprise as I surged ahead of the boat and started to do a bit of a Heath manoeuvre. The skipper blew his horn, I turned back in and all was well.


As I swum on the sky became lighter and everytime I surged ahead of the boat I could see the sun rising slowly to my left which was an amazing sight and experience. I was soon on the last 15 then ten minutes and pushing as hard as I could at this stage ready to get out. It is a great feeling to be given the 5 minute and then 2 minute warning and see the next swimmer stripping off as you know that you are almost done. I could see Jezz coming to the side and as soon as he hopped in I raced to the back of the boat to get out so Jezz could start. I'd taking us to just outside the first shipping lane so it was Jezz's job to guide us through.


I was pretty cold so got dry as soon as possible and into warm dry clothes with a cup of soup to also warm me up from the inside. It took a good hour to get warm before I felt normal again but the sun was coming up and the air temp was also rising making it a lot more comfortable.


Jezz was swimming and the support crew came up with novelty ways to keep the swimmer amused (as it does get a bit boring) by devising dances at the side of the boat. I think the full repertoire was YMCA, Chicken Dance, Diver Dance, Walk Like an Egyptian and the Macarena. Only knows what Steve thought of all this and I did have a chuckle when I saw one of his notes in his log which went something along the lines of:


"9.30am Jezz swimming - 74 strokes per minute.
Air Temp 14 degrees. Sea Temp 18 degrees.
Girls giving Jezz Y.M.C.A dance."

Jezz put in a storming swim and we made good headway through the first lane. Fortunately there wasn't too much traffic and we made good progress along the lane. Each lane is 4 miles wide so a bit different to crossing the motorway!!
It was then back round again to Frosty who could now swim in daylight for the first time. It was obvious this time that everybody looked a lot more comfortable during their second stints and everybody seemed to be putting the hammer down and really pushing the pace.

After the first few hours I think there was some doubt about whether we were close to achieving our target but at around the half way mark, in between the shipping lanes, it was looking like we may just hit our goal of a sub 10 hour swim. Andy was saying that other boats were catching us as the banter started was flying between different skippers across the radios each vying to have the fastest team for that day. I'm pretty sure that they weren't catching and that this was Andy's way of geeing us up to swim faster. To be honest the fact that we were in with a shout of doing a sub 10 hour swim was enough for me. I was desperate to achieve this target and I didn't need any more pumping up by the time I got in for my second stint.

I pushed from a lot earlier on this second stint and did the following set:

50(strokes) hard 50 steady x 5

60 hard 40 steady x4

70 hard 30 steady x 3

80 hard 20 steady x 2

90 hard 10 steady x 2

100 hard 50 steady x 6

110 hard 50 steady

120 hard 50 steady

130 hard 50 steady

etc up to 200 hard then stuck here for the rest of the hour.

I was going pretty hard throughout and was thankful to receive my half hourly dance and then be counted down from 10 minutes. I didn't notice any ships during my stint, you really do have your head down and just go for it! I did seem to swim through a few patches of seaweed which was a little unnerving but was not going to slow me down!

I knew that this would probably be my final stint so pushed hard right to the end until Jezz jumped in next to me. Time to get out sharpish and let Jezz get on.

Jezz produced another fantastic swim and by this point the support from the side was pretty much constant for the swimmer as we were focused on our time now that we knew that we had a chance. France was now in sight and the trips into the skippers wheelhouse were becoming more frequent as we checked on the distance left to go. By now we had left all the other relay teams behind and no one was in sight any more. Both Andy and Steve seemed keen for us to hit our time and were encouraging us as far as possible to ensure that we didn't slack off at any stage.

Pete was next for his third swim and was pushed on by the support throughout his swim. Pete took us to the point where the beach was now in sight and the responsibility fell in Heath to bring us home within our goal.

We devised a special signal to give to Heath to tell that the Sub 10 swim was "on" and that we would give the signal when he needed to push like mad. At about 10 minutes out from land we all gave Heath the signal (arms crossed in an X fashion) and he put his head down and pushed for the rocks under the lighthouse at Cap Gris Nez.

Our boat could not go right into land with Heath so Gary (First Mate) took out the zodiac to guide Heath in. There was a bit of a worrying moment when Heath took a lungful of water from the Zodiac and stopped to gather himself before swimming to the rocks. It was a great sight to watch Heath climb aboard the rocks in France and stop the clock at 9 hours and 29 minutes. Check out the video of Heath finishing...

Heath came back to join the jubilant team in the boat and we cracked open a bottle of champagne and a few beers to celebrate our achievement. We cruised back went to find another team who were still battling away. We circled the swimmer and boat and gave them encouragement for the final phase before we went back to the white cliffs of Dover.

We had completed the Channel in under ten hours and finished in a time of 9 hours 29 minutes. To put this time into perspective there has only been one faster time than us since 2006!

We have since found out that if no one beats our time for 2009 we may be awarded a prize for the fastest channel crossing of the year which would be a great achievement by four blokes who hadn't really done open water swimming before.

It was quite sad in some respects finishing the swim as it really has been a great experience all round. I couldn't have picked three better guys to be part of a team with and would really like to thank them all for making it such a special achievement.

I'd also like to thank all our support crew (my wife Jay in particular), Andy King the captain and Gary first mate as well as Steve from the Channel Swimming Association. I should also say an additional thank you to all the people that have sponsored me, taken the time to read this blog with my ramblings and showed constant support. I'll post some more pictures and stories about the swim and there will no doubt be another big adventure to tell you all about in months to come.

Until then I'll leave you with one final shot with the pink speedos in all their glory...

Any further donations would be welcome here...

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