Tue 20 July 2010 - Today I successfully swam from England to France in a time of 11hours 27 minutes *** Check out my blog http://mylittlepaddle.blogspot.com/ ***
Hi - I am raising funds for the Douglas Macmillan Hospice, a charity based in Stoke-on-Trent, where I was born and grew up. Dougie Mac is a great charity and so next year I am attempting to swim the English Channel and raise some money for Dougie Mac in the process.
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.
Thanks Andy :-)
If you want to know a little more about me and my channel swim attempt read on…
About me
My name is Andrew Hughes. When I was a baby my mum and dad took me to the local baths and taught me to swim. I had swimming lessons at Biddulph and Kidsgrove baths and in my late teens and early twenties worked as a lifeguard at Kidsgrove baths. I also swam for my university swim team (UEA Norwich) although we were never the best in the country (but we did try hard) and more recently I train with Spencer Swim Team and spend a lot of my spare time surfing.
My first taste of swimming in the sea was on family holidays at the seaside where my dad used to take me and my sister in to the sea and tell us that we could have 50p if we swam underwater. We used to come out of the water blue with the cold (every holiday was a staycation back then). I am hoping that all this cold water training as a kid will help me to get used to the cold for my attempt next year. I have my Dad to thank for my dream of wanting to swim the English Channel. It was because of the confidence that he helped me to develop in the sea that I have always thought that it would be an amazing achievement to swim the English Channel. I never thought that this would be anything more than a dream as I had no idea how you would go about doing it. All I knew is that you would need a boat and that it would therefore be very expensive. Then last year a friend of mine, who I used to swim with, e-mailed me to say that him and another friend were putting together a relay team to swim across the channel and was I interested. Of course I was interested. So on 28 June 2009 me and my two mates, Don and Rob, successfully swam across the English Channel in 12.5 hours. The picture on this page is of me swimming at 3am in the morning from England on the way to France.
So now I am going to attempt to swim what is known as “the Everest of Open Water Swimming” the English Channel.
I have a slot booked on the tide of 19 July to 27 July 2010
About the Challenge
If you want to attempt to swim the English Channel you need to register with one of the two governing bodies of channel swimming (the CS & PF or the CSA) and book an official boat and crew. These are the unsung heroes of channel swimming without whom an attempt such as mine would not be possible. They deal with the logistics of the swim from liasing with the English and French coastguards to navigating the course from England to France. They ensure that the swimmer is as safe as possible.
The swim starts by the swimmer walking into the sea in England and ends when the swimmer clears the water in France
The English Channel is 21 miles/35km in a straight line at its narrowest point and is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.
Someone of my ability could take anywhere between 13 and 20 hours to complete the swim.
The temperature in July will be around 17°C (62°F) (a local pool is around 29°C)
I can wear only one swimming costume (no wetsuit), one swimming cap and one pair of goggles
I can have no physical contact whilst in the water with the boat or any other person
There are many variables that can affect a Channel Swim, the tides, the weather, the swimmers health and fitness. Only one of these is really within my control and I plan to ensure that I have done all I can to give myself the best chance of success. Although the time to my tide seems a long way away at the moment (I wrote this in Sep 2009) the time will soon pass and there is a lot of work to be done between now and then.
This is going to be one of the toughest things I have ever done and the scary thing is I have no idea if I will succeed. People who know about channel swimming say that you should prepare for the worst and hope for the best. This is what I am planning to do.
I have had a little taster of what it is like from my Channel relay but then I swam for 2 hours and then was able to rest on the boat while the other 2 lads swam before I had to get in again. This time it will be just me.
That’s enough from me - you can keep up with my progress on:
http://mylittlepaddle.blogspot.com/
In the meantime - donate what you can.
