***Update...I'm ecstatic to tell you that on 3 August I made it over to France in a time of 12hrs 16mins!  It was a tale of two halves with perfect conditions in the beginning, but then turning a little nasty around 8 hours in.

Thanks to everyone who sponsored me - I am enormously grateful for your generosity.  A special thanks to my crew - my two brothers Geoff & Andy, Rob Drysdale, Andy Hughes, Neil Streeter, Adrian and Michelle who supported me so well on my journey to France

And the icing on the cake was meeting my wife Helen and my father on that beach in France...what a way to end an unforgettable day***

Hi all and thanks for making it this far!

Tomorrow (subject to the weather playing ball), I will be making a solo attempt to swim the 21 miles across the English Channel.  This is complete madness I know, but it's something that I've wanted to do since my swim coach, Sue Fraenkel, made her successful crossing in 1994.  I'm swimming for a small, but great charity called "Grow Peace - Path out of Poverty" that works with destitute kids in rural areas in South Africa to provide them with opportunities and support for education. 

If you want to know more about the charity, please follow the link opposite or read my summary at the end of this page.  And if you're interested in finding out more about The Channel and how I've prepared for this challenge, then read on!

The English Channel - the Everest of Swimming

The channel is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and measures 21 miles or 35 kms at its shortest point from Dover in the UK to Cap Gris Nez in France.  The first person to make a successful crossing was an Englishman by the name of Matthew Webb who completed it in a time of 21 hours and 45 minutes on 24th August 1875.  The feat clearly went to his head because on 24th July 1883, tempted by a prize of £12,000 he attempted to swim across the Niagara River below the Niagara Falls, but was swept away by the currents and drowned. 

Depending on conditions I am preparing for an ordeal of anything between 13 - 16 hours.  I am sure I'll be in very good hands though given the hardened seadogs I have on my support boat.  My two brothers, Andy and Geoff and my father Mike Perrott are making the 6,000 mile trip from Cape Town to be there and I have two experienced swimmers, Rob Drysdale and Andy Hughes to spur me on.  Rob successfully crossed the channel in 2008 and Andy completed his own solo crossing on 20 July this year.  And my wife Helen together with her brother and sister-in-law, Bruce and Sam Bromley, will be travelling over to France on the day to stock up on cheap French booze and (with a lot of luck) to meet me on the beach!

For the statisicians amongst you, here are some facts about channel swimming:

-  just over 1,100 people have made successful solo crossings since Capt. Webb in 1875

-  the average crossing time is 13 hours and 20 mins

-  only 6 swimmers have died while making the crossing

-  the fastest time was set in 2007 by Petar Stoychev from Bulgaria.  He did it in 6 hrs and 57 mins

-  the slowest time was set on 24-25 July 2010; 28 hrs and 44 mins!

-  there are no official stats on success rates, but it's estimated to be around 30% (higher in the last 10-15 years)

-  channel swimming rules stipulate that I can only wear a costume (no wetsuit), a swim cap and a pair of goggles

-  the water temperature in August should be around 16-17°C.  An indoor swimming pool is about 29°C   

-  I am allowed to "grease up" with lanoline or other lubricants, but opinion is divided on whether this is of any benefit

-  I can have no physical contact whilst in the water with the boat or any person

As anybody familiar with weather patterns in the channel will tell you, things can change very quickly - many swimmers have started off in pretty benign conditions only to be faced with strong winds and big swells later on in the swim...so you need a bit of luck!  Conditions play a major role and the motto for all channel swimmers is "prepare for the worst and hope for the best".  And that is what I am doing...

About my training

I started training for the Channel in the middle of October 2009 and to date have swum nearly 600 miles.  A lot of my training over the winter has been in indoor pools, but since the beginning of May I have been spending weekends in the idyllic seaside resort of Dover swimming in the sea.  This is where many channel aspirants go to be put through their paces by a fabulous team of volunteers led by the great Freda Streeter, or "The General" as she is more affectionately known. 

Probably one of the most difficult parts of the training regime is spending time in cold water to acclimatise - this is a very important part of preparing for a channel swim and it hurts.  In the beginning of May, we were doing short swims of an hour or less as the water temperature was around 9°C .  Thankfully the water warms up through the summer and it is now up to around 16°C .  But as the water warms up, so does the General and the swims have become much longer - I'm now doing between 5-7 hours per day over the weekend.

But it has been fun and I've had some terrific experiences as part of the build up.  None more so than doing the 10km Robben Island to Three Anchor Bay crossing in February this year where I was not only joined by the legendary Tony Scalabrino from The Cape Long Distance Swimming Association, but by a school of dolphins.  Fortunately, my brothers Andy and Geoff managed to capture this on camera, so do check out the attached pictures.

My support team

There is another saying amongst channel swimmers which is that you don't do the channel alone.  I've never quite understood the full meaning of this until now.  There are so many people that have helped me along the way from my family and friends, my training partners Andy Hughes & Rob Drysdale, the guys at the CLDSA, my Spencer Swim coaches, the crowd at the Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation and the nut cases I meet every weekend in Dover. 

But there has been nobody who has supported me more than my wife Helen who has endured months of 'channel fever' - endless channel chat, constant fretting about whether I will make it or not, weekends at the Premier Inn in Dover and hours of watching me swim up and down Dover Harbour in often horrible weather conditions.

This swim is for all my family, friends and the kids I'm raising money for...but most of all for Helen who will hopefully be waiting for me with some champagne at Cap Gris Nez or Wissant Beach in France.

A bit more about how your donation will be used

Grow Peace is a registered charity that supports a rural community outside in .  The educational side of this charity is referred to as “Path out of Poverty” which aims to help children break out of the cycle of poverty and illiteracy by providing various educational facilities such as:

-  a crèche and pre-school for 3-6 year olds

-  school support in the form of fees, warm clothes and stationery

-  after-school care e.g. homeowrk supervision, library access, washing facilities

-  preparation for work providing young people with skills and training needed to find jobs

-  parenting-skills training for adults and younger parents

Your donation will be used specifically to enable more children to attend the pre-school.  The pre-school has been educating children of very poor farm labourers for the past 12 years and has been sustained mainly by donations from friends and funding agencies.  Over 700 children have already passed through this school and gone on to do well at Primary and High school.  In fact we have had 18 of them pass their final year at school thus breaking out of the cycle of poverty and illiteracy previously so prevalent in this rural community.  

Please do all you can to help - any donation, however small goes a long way! 

Thanks very much.