Archive for the ‘Channel swim videos’ Category

Hopeful

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

The weather is amazing – there is one swim after the other. Today our pilot is out with position no 2 on Anastasia, the two-way swim, they just missed the cap and the current is carrying them a little off, but they might land soon. The forecast is looking good until the 30th – enough time to get us off, hopefully. Air temperature is dropping a bit, near Calais at night down to 10-12°C, but the water is still around 17°C.

A slovak swimmer, helped by a friend of our swimmers, is going out this morning. (The beach and Varne Ridge have been like a huge international family again, even this late in the season.)

Zuzka is fighting a cold, successfully it seems, and Viktoria’s inflamed ear is pretty fine now. We are trying not to do anyting foolish, eat a lot, sleep a lot, train a little – the typical ‘triathlon’ programme. And of course some meditation and prayers for the good weather to stay – for all the swimmers on this tide as well as the left-over ones from earlier tides! Thanks for all the good wishes from so many parts of the world!

Dover beach - with Channel aspirants 2010 in background

Dover beach - with Channel aspirants 2010 in background

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Start of the Tide tonight – and waiting

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Wednesday morning, Sept. 23rd:

Abhejali and Zuzka - getting Maxim from Freda

Abhejali and Zuzka - getting Maxim from Freda

Our tide starts tonight, but not only has Eddie 4 swims booked on this tide, and we are in 4th position, but we discovered that one swim is a two-way! So that would be 5 swims on this tide – which to me seems absolutely irresponsible towards the swimmers since as a rule it is hard to even get 3 or 4 swims done on one tide. But he told Suzka he was confident it would work out. Luckily the weather forecast is absolutely great for the next few days until the 27th, and some swimmers or relays are even going out today at noon. Plus it is a long tide.

However, we could not reach Eddie so far this morning and have no idea if he is still taking left over swimmers from the last tide or starting with the new tide swimmers today.Two helpers are coming in the afternoon, then we are ready to go, but the weather is so calm, I am sure the other swimmers before us would want to keep their positions and swim first.

Successful swims on the spring tide

Meeting Chloe after her swim on the beach

Meeting Chloe after her swim on the beach

Swim Map of Lisa Cummins' amazing double crossing

Swim Map of Lisa Cummins' amazing double crossing Sept. 19/20 2009

Over the weekend, on a the highest spring tide of the year, a huge number of successful swims have taken place after the last neap tide was totally blown out by the weather. On Saturday 19th at least 9 boats went out – all the swimmers made it, and more on Sunday and Monday, including a Jersey relay with Sally Minty-Gravett. Lisa Cummins from Ireland did her absolutely fantastic and awesome double crossing on Sept. 19th/20th in 35 hours something, without having ever done a solo! We could watch her boat from Varne Ridge through the binoculars around 30 hours, pushed westward by the tides and heading towards Dungeness. Chloe, the top marathon swimmer from Australia, who also wanted to do a two-way without having done a solo before, had to be taken out after 25 hours that ended up in very difficult conditions. Still a brilliant effort – and she will be back next year, I heard! Her problem also was that all her helpers had already gone back to Australia!

Visit to Canterbury

So yesterday after swimming 30 min. to 1:45 h individually, we spent the afternoon in Canterbury – my first visit to this amazing gothic cathedral – including some cappuchino, milkshake etc. at a nice little coffee place.

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Posted in Channel relay, Channel swim videos, Dover, Successful Channel swims | 2 Comments »

August 13 – Julie Galloway

Saturday, August 15th, 2009
Click to see the You Tube video

Click to see the You Tube video

August 13th, the day Karteek completed his 10th Channel crossing in 16 h 49 min, Julianne Galloway from Dublin, Ireland, “blasted” across the Channel in the fastest time for a woman’s solo this year so far: 9 hours 51. Start: 2:20 a.m.

Her captivating report can be found on her blog, here just 2 paragraphs:

“…The first hour was, for lack of a better word, hell. It was very choppy and I was swimming in pitch black water with mirrored goggles (Naive mistake number 2). What was I thinking!? The boat kept feeling like it was going to crash into me, and I felt very lost swimming next to it. It wasn’t so bad swimming at night, I wasn’t scared or anything, but it was so incredibly hard to navigate breathing and the like because I could not see the waves coming toward me. Usually, when it’s light, if I see a wave I may not breathe, or if I get water in my mouth, I can spit it out. Well this time water was going everywhere, and I felt like I was thrashing the waves…”

Getting closer – or what?

“…France was getting closer and closer, but still seemed quite far away. I was trying to gauge how much I had left, so at 8 hours, I asked if I’d 2 more to go. They didn’t seem happy with this question! Lance yelled at me to stop chatting and just swim. I kind of snarled at him and took off, wanting to know how much left I had. It’s not that I wanted to give up. I wanted to know where I was in this mad thing! I couldn’t tell if I had a kilometre, a mile, 5 miles or even 3 nautical miles left. (Naive mistake number 4- wtf is a nautical mile? I kept trying to remember Mike Oram’s emails describing all this information I should have learned by this point, but nothing solid came from my noggin.) So I quoted Nemo for the 5000th time, and said ‘Just keep swimming’.” more

Very happy Channel swimmer

Very happy Channel swimmer!

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Perfect Days

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

These are the days every Channel swimmer is  longing for – but they are rare and precious – and sometimes just too short for slower swimmers who need a bigger window of swimmable weather in the fast changing Channel conditions – or for a double:

A "perfect" day inthe Channel - July 4th

A short "perfect" day in the Channel - July 4th 2009, photo by Fenland Swimmers UK

When attempting to swim the Channel, a lot of patience may be needed. Plus plenty of luck or Grace. Often swimmers are waiting for more than one tide without even getting a chance to attempt their swim. They have prepared for one or more years, flewn in from other continents – maybe for nothing. So, often swimmers will go out on “iffy” days – never knowing for sure how conditions will develop, in spite of the knowledge and experience of their pilots.

“Perfect”  days in the Channel are very, very few, especially during the short period of the neap tides, but yesterday was one of them: almost no winds, no currents, sun out – most of the pilot boats were out with their swimmers, some can be followed all the way via satellite tracking. In the late afternoon you could see many of the boats crowding around Cap Griz Nez or just on their way back – a couple of swims reached the Cap dead-on.

Satellite Tracking of Anastasia, July 31st, 2009

Satellite Tracking of Anastasia, July 31st, 2009, with debris from a previous swim on July 29th

Here is one of those almost straight swims – the broken line to the right shows the remains of a previous swim 2 days earlier – with much more tidal push.

… are over

Today one swimmer – Marcy MacDonald -  is hoping to go for her 3rd double crossing – but the conditions in Dover and the forecast

Webcam at Wissant bay on Aug 1st, where many swimmers touch French ground

Webcam at Wissant bay on Aug 1st, where many swimmers touch French ground

don`t seem to be as perfect anymore  – while Wissant (left) is looking pretty calm still.

False alarm

Dover on the morning of Aug 1st - photo by Marcy MacDonald

Dover on the morning of Aug 1st - photo by Marcy MacDonald

Below: This was the situation in Dover in the morning – so quite a few boats ready to go turned round back into the harbour to wait for a front to pass through.

Next possibility to swim in the evening? A Channel swimmer just has to stay prepared and rested and catch enough sleep – which is another challenge in itself.

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Nick`s Swim – July 14th, 2009

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

Only a few solo swimmers have succeeded in their crossing so far for this year.  Relays can manage better with more difficult weather and tidal conditions – except for the seasickness on board!

Nick Adams – accomplished 4 times Channel soloist now and even one time 2-way Channel swimmer – did not have an easy time on his 4th crossing: 5 hours in windforce 5 is no joke! Very well done for staying in there and not giving up (he may be forgiven for throwing up on the video, cause the windforce 5 part could not be filmed or photographed for understandable reasons, and the end of the video may just convey a bit the drama).

Nick Adams' 4th solo crossing of the Channel - 5 hours in F5 - only the effects are visible on the video Part II

Nick Adams' 4th solo crossing of the Channel - 5 hours in F5 - only the effects are visible on the video Part II

Link to video Part I starting with the greasing up in the dark (a start in the dark is acutally nice because you swim into daylight!)

Unfortunately there is no video or photos available for Sophie Rutenbar of the Serpentine Club (they swim in the Serpentine in Hyde Park the middle of London even in the midst of winter in snow), who conquered the same conditions in a great time of 14:33.

And as a stress-relief for those endless days of patient waiting: the Russian way of acclimatising to low temperatures:

Russian Ice Swimmers -are you sure you are well prepared for the Channel?

Russian Ice Swimmers -are you sure you are well prepared for the Channel?

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