After all the months of preparation, the first big challenge en-route to the Channel has arrived. On Saturday I will swim from Cottesloe Beach (WA) to Rottnest Island (20km). Standing on the beach yesterday looking out to the island, I could not see the island due to heat-haze (35 degrees C)! However, I had the same sensation as I experienced last September when I stood on the Dover foreshore and looked over to France. The thought “I’m going to swim from here to there, and there’s nowhere to rest on the way across!” is daunting, but strangely exciting. It seems to awaken the primeval inner workings of the brain.
Conditions on Saturday are likely to be tough (click here) with a 3.5M swell and 20 knot winds. Perversely I relish the tough conditions, as hopefully it will affect the faster “pool swimmers’” state of mind more than me!
I will have a support crew to guide me and feed me, with a guy on a kayak and a boat with skipper, observer, and supportive wife on board. It will likely take somewhere between 7 and 8 hours to make the crossing, and during this period I could stop for as many as two feeds an hour. A major issue is likely to be sunburn, so I will get fully greased up with lanolin (wool fat) and zinc beforehand!
This will be the longest every swim for me, and I am going in with the attitude that I must persist and cannot give up. I will swim until I have a handful of sand in my hand. I am also very much looking forward to having a few beers to celebrate. It’s been two full weeks with no alcohol and no coffee. I miss them both!
Fingers crossed you’ll hear from me next week with stories of challenge, but success. I’m off for a final session in the pool, then for dinner with training buddies.
Conditions on Saturday are likely to be tough (click here) with a 3.5M swell and 20 knot winds. Perversely I relish the tough conditions, as hopefully it will affect the faster “pool swimmers’” state of mind more than me!
I will have a support crew to guide me and feed me, with a guy on a kayak and a boat with skipper, observer, and supportive wife on board. It will likely take somewhere between 7 and 8 hours to make the crossing, and during this period I could stop for as many as two feeds an hour. A major issue is likely to be sunburn, so I will get fully greased up with lanolin (wool fat) and zinc beforehand!
This will be the longest every swim for me, and I am going in with the attitude that I must persist and cannot give up. I will swim until I have a handful of sand in my hand. I am also very much looking forward to having a few beers to celebrate. It’s been two full weeks with no alcohol and no coffee. I miss them both!
Fingers crossed you’ll hear from me next week with stories of challenge, but success. I’m off for a final session in the pool, then for dinner with training buddies.
