Some time in the week beginning 11 July, 5 Marlins swimmers will be attempting to swim the English Channel.
The team comprises: Jamie Goodhead (originator and general cajoler), Graham Lock ( who is using this as a warm up for a solo crossing attempt later this month), Richard Arthur, Tim Fraser and Steve McMenamin.
However, since Jamie felt that a single Channel crossing was not enough of a challenge we will be swimming both ways – to France AND BACK.!
Each of us will be swimming for an hour at a time in strict rotation. All being well, and subject to wind and tides, the 2 crossings should take between 25 and 30 hours.
We’ve been training in the sea at various locations including Brighton, Seaford and Dover since the end of January. Until April we were in wetsuits. Since then we have been wearing just speedos, goggles, hat and a hint of Vaseline as we have tried to build up our tolerance to cold water (initially 12 degrees, now a balmy 16 degrees) as well as getting used to waves, seaweed, jellyfish and other sundry hazards.
The straight line distance from Dover to Calais is 22 miles, however the effect of tides means that we will need to cover approximately 35 miles with just a couple of minutes on the beach in France before repeating the ordeal for another 35 odd miles on the return journey to England.
Between each swim, each of us will be battling sea-sickness on board our pilot boat, Anastasia, and attempting to feed, sleep and warm up while our team mate in the water inches us towards our destination
Our start date is dependent on the weather. I will post an update as soon as I know it.
If interested, you can track our progress in real time on the Channel Swimming Pilots’ Federation Website here: http://cspf.co.uk/swim-routes
Select: Anastasia from the list of pilot vessels and enter the relevant date range.
The team members are funding all costs of the crossing ourselves.
Many thanks for your support
Tim, Jamie, Graham, Richard and Steve