Dear clients, colleagues and friends,

We would like to thank you for your generous support of our efforts, we have to date raised over GBP20,000 to feed Ukrainians in their hour of need through World Central Kitchen.  In the process we have amazed ourselves.  We can now admit that none of us were confident we could swim 20 kms each over two days to get around Formentera.

The adventure started like they all do with an inspired but not fully considered plan that for our next exploit we would swim around Formentera, believing it would be around 40 kms.  Once committed the proper measure came to 55 kms-60 kms dependent on swimming lines, in actual fact we swam 57 kms as we were banned from swimming across the harbour extrance 'health & safety'.  Plenty far enough!

So how did we do it?  Well our guides Miguel and Edu took the calculated gamble that we had the endurance, based on a hunch, to swim in pairs effectively doubling the individual distance.  It was a great call, nobody drowned or collapsed, and the team relay spirit carried us through.  In effect we each swam 20 kms!

The teams were based on swimming pool times.  So the two middle-aged Spaniards (Armando and Marcos) were in the first slot, the two youngest recent competitive swimmers next (Adam and Yiannis) leaving best until last, myself and the man from Mount Athos, Georgios.  The plan which was adhered to - was one hour on, two hours off for two days, 21 hours.

We gathered at the Club Nautico de Ibiza on the Wednesday afternoon, finished our conference calls and were soon devouring a paella, all save the late comers Yiannis and Georgios.  I discovered noodle based paella, an absolute must!  The boat was not free until 10 pm.

We had a beautiful though not young catamaran with captain (Pablos), able seaman (Paul) and cook (Martha).  Now Martha had planned to feed an entire platoon of navy seals allergic to any unwholesome food.  Visualise a lounge and kitchen with crates of bananas, tomatoes, avocadoes, seaweed, carrots and onions.  It was a health conscious man's dream, albeit there were none in our team!  Sleeping arrangements were 'cramped' but fine.  Best of all a second dinner was waiting for us and the late arrivals.

Clearly as swimmers we were praying for good weather and calm seas.  That first night there was an electric storm and torrential rain that delayed our morning departure for the one hour and forth minutes crossing to our starting point at Formentera.  Fortunately the sea was calm on arrival.  Now the good news is that starting a swim is not complicated.  Once in place Armando and Marcos jumped in and started swimming anti clockwise, or wise clock as Miguel would have it, around the island at 8.30 am in weak light.  An hour later with the sun becoming to appear behind the clouds the next pair were in touched hands with the first pair and were off.  Now being quick Adam went off at speed and had to be coaxed in to a calmer pace.  At this stage the narrative gets dull, watching a swimmer doing front crawl non-stop at 3 kms is not riveting!  Georgios and I were in next and to my pleasure the sun was out and the entire sea, some 10-12 metres deep was illuminated.  I was lucky enough to see three baby turtles walking on the sand and not so lucky to come close to a creamy white jelly fish as big as a basketball.  But no harm was done, in fact small jelly fish were a feature and there were some little stings with Yiannis catching a bad one on the arm on the second day.

Lunch was a treat, seawood soup with boiled rice and broccoli!  It felt quite like Neptune's table or Poseidon for our Greek team mates.  Luckily we found the black chocolate and started demolishing the crate of bananas.  Clearly there was no stop in the swimming, swimmers had to get used to the lottery of cold food.

On the fourth swim we made a good decision but with consequences.  Rather than follow the coast line on a coastal swim we decided to swim point to point taking us to the next headland 7 kms away.  A shorter route but a fair bit out to sea.  This is where lunch comes into play as Armando and Marcos were swimming in a fairly large swell (for a swimmer) with rolling waves some one metre plus high.  Lunch and rollers equalled sea sickness for the relay pair, who bravely soldiered on.  We came out next armed with sea sickness tablets and with the end point for the first day in sight completely nailed the last 3.4 km leg.

We anchored that night in beautiful turquoise water with no one in sight having swum 26 kms.  Now being boys on a boat we were soon diving and playing with the on-board jet propelled gizmo that drags you under water.  It was a truly beautiful spot with a gorgeous sunset and hot chicken dinner and tofu as a protein treat.  Now we might have been on a health drive, vegetables, fruits, water and energy drinks but we found the beer to perk us up a little!

That night was uneventful with a gentle sway of the boat to build our sea legs.  At dawn Georgios was off.  Soon we approached the awesome Mola Cliffs some 9 km of 100 m high cliffs with a beautiful picturesque lighthouse on top standing out defiantly into the Mediterranean sea.  This was our first real challenge, adverse wind, waves and current slowed us right down, progress was alarmingly slow.  Armando pitched in with a big smile 'well it is supposed to be a challenge and we may fail', that was more effective than any encouragement.  It drew a determined response nobody had considered failure as an option.  We ploughed on, it took almost four hours to clear the cliffs and get into the clear water of the northern beaches of Formentera.  Our pace accelerated and it became clear we could finish before sunset if hearts, minds and shoulders were up for it.  The key man was Georgios who had started the day, if he was up for a fourth hour we would all follow. That he did and the rest followed.  With the end in sight the whole team finished the last 800 m together and took the beach only to find a somewhat surprised young couple having a private moment far away from the crowds.  That second day we had swum 31 kms and despite the Mola cliffs faster on average than the first day.

Landing was exhilarating for the team, we started to explore the headland but soon decided to swim back to the boat, ten minutes on land was enough.  We had all surprised ourselves and were delighted not last as Martha was preparing fillet steak and had shown us where the red wine was stored aboard!!  It was a great evening, until fatigue took over.  I am not sure who but one of the party suggested we all meditate on deck at dawn for 25 minutes.  Larking about we all said why not/yes and agreed not to speak until we were done ....

At 7 am the swimmers started gathering in silence like monks.  Kneeled on deck and watched the sunrise, there was plenty of pseudo-Buddhist humming encouraged by our yoga master Martha the cook.  Once done with plenty of joshing about we devoured a huge cooked breakfast.  Soon it was time to play diving and swimming.  Not knowing how to occupy ourselves we swam to shore, walked the headland and swam under the red coast guard flag through the waves to the next small island a beautiful nature reserve.  It was a mad rush back to the boat to be ready for Juan and Andrea's beach restaurant for calamari, squid, grilled fish and paella with a drop of the local wine.  We finally relaxed, but had to swim back to the boat for some diving until we had to go back to Ibiza as the sun was setting.

A great adventure with a great group of human beings for a great cause.  Thank you again for your support.

One big thank you for our professional swimming guides Miguel and Edu who inspirited and organised us and the crew Pablos (captain), Paul (the medic and general helper) and Martha the healthy cook!

Best wishes,

George, Armando, Marcos, Adam, Yiannis and Georgios