ENGLISH CHANNEL SOLO swim

England – France:
Tide: 15 – 20 July 2013, Position 4
Pilot: Neil Streeter
Boat: SUVA
So, once upon a 2012, I made a bet that I would swim the Channel in 2014 (see below for details). But then, in April this year, I went on a another swimming trip and, well, the salt water seeped into my ears and into my brain and convinced me my time has come now! Why wait? N’est-ce-pas?

This will be my first attempt at swimming solo  from Dover to Cap Gris Nez. The straightest distance between England and France is 21 miles / 34 kms, but with the sweeping tides it will end up being much longer than that. I expect I'll be swimming for 12 - 20 hours, in water temperature of 14 - 16 degrees Celsius. 

If you would like to follow my swim you can do so by entering the boat name into www.shipais.com or following my progress via the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation website: http://cspf.co.uk/swim-routes. I’ll put up an update when I get the call. Dover Marina, here I come!

If you would like a little story about how this all began, feel free to scroll right down for a synopsis of this swimming saga. But now, for the important bit:

My Charity:

As an emergency reserve for Aspire's Penguin and Dolphin Channel Relay teams in 2012, the time between completing the forms and medical to jumping into the Channel was not long enough to start a fundraising campaign of my own. But it was very much thanks to the Aspire charity that I became something of an accidental English Channel Relay swimmer and shipping-lane addict. Through their relay swims I have not only forged some wonderful friendships and made some excellent memories, but I have also gained much experience and greater confidence in my own solo swim training. For all that I owe them a great debt of gratitude.

To begin to repay that debt, I hope that I can raise some money and also greater awareness of this admirable charity. Your donations, however large or small will help Aspire to enable people who have suffered spinal cord injuries to gain as much freedom of movement as they can to live full and independent lives. Please help me, to help Aspire to continue to do the excellent work they do.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.

Telly’s Big Swims 2012…the original page, begun last summer:

Henley to Marlow “Bridge to Bridge” (14km) – 19 Aug 2012
This is a mass start river Thames swim organised by Henley Swim. As I’ll be a “skins” swimmer (i.e. sans wetsuit) I will have a kayak escort. Depending on the current, I hope to complete this swim in less than 4 hours.

Windermere Championship (10.5 miles, 16.8kms) – 01 Sept 2012
This is an annual British Long Distance Swimming Association event. BLDSA rules are like those for an English Channel crossing – standard swimming costume only (no neoprene) and one swimming cap allowed. I will have two support crew rowing in a boat beside me. I’m aiming for a 5hr 40min swim, swift feeds included.

 

 4-person, 2-way English Channel Relay (England – France – England ~42miles) – tide beginning 23 Sept 2012
This will be the last swim of the season. Inspired by the two Aspire 6-person England to France relays we did in July, my new friends from Aspire and I agreed that we needed a greater, more insane challenge. The 2-way, 4-person relay will mean taking turns swimming one hour at a time for about 24 hours, depending on the weather, the tides and our arms. Sound a little crazy? Oui! Bien Sur! Why are we doing it? Because we can!

My Swimming Background:

I’ve been swimming since well before I can remember. I spent much of my childhood competing for my school. Later, in the wisdom of my teenage independence, I prioritised smoking and drinking over competition. And yet throughout my life I've been fortunate enough to know that swimming has always been the one thing I could trust that would clean up my head, my soul, and my waistline.

In the ‘Great Spring Clean’ of 2011, I extended my pool swimming to try out some open water events. I started with a few short swims in the Thames: the Humanrace Speedo Open Water Swim Series in Windsor (3km) and Hampton Court (3.25km). These were warm-ups for the much longer Henley to Marlow Bridge to Bridge 14km swim in August (which I’m repeating this year, but without a wetsuit). I ended the season in September 2011 with the Outdoor Swimming Society’s “Dart 10K”, a swim down the River Dart from Totnes to Dittisham in Devon, another beautiful swim. Of course these were all wetsuited events – I didn’t mind then, of course, as I was revelling in my own “Year of the Neoprene Superhero” 2011…wetsuit or not, I knew there was an obsession a-brewing…

In April 2012, I went on a swimming holiday... I say 'holiday' it was more like boot camp. Swimtrek's Long Distance Training Trip in Gozo, proved to be a bit of a life (and neoprene) changing experience. I had made some attempts to acclimatise to cold water swimming at the Tooting Bec Lido over the winter months, but right up to the start of the ‘holiday’, the idea of a 6-hour English Channel Solo qualifier swim (a continuous 6-hour, non-wetsuit swim in 16˚C water or colder) seemed far from something I could do. But I'd give it a go, I thought to myself in dread. In fact, I made a bet with myself that if I could complete the 6-hour swim, I'd book my slot for the English Channel solo swim. I'm pleased to say that I had to honour that bet and I booked my solo for the tide beginning 9 August 2014.

As a result of that trip and that bet, a whole new world of open water swimming unfurled before me. Thanks to some wonderful new friends I found in Gozo, I ended up being put forward as an emergency reserve on a 6-person Aspire Charity English Channel relay swim. I'm pleased to report that I had the pleasure of swimming with both the Penguins and the Dolphins. Team Penguin made it to France (with a bit of squiggle about in the world's busiest shipping lanes) and landed on the beach at Sangatte in just under 18 hours at sunrise on 8 July. Team Dolphin were more fortunate with weather and tides, and landed right smack on Cap Gris Nez in just 13 hours and 5 minutes on 24 July! (See photo upon a submerged French 'rocque').