Pete's Channel Swim

Tuesday training

2008-05-20T11:00:00.001+01:00

Cor blimey - a refreshing 2 mile swim this morning. Temp measured about 12.5 degress, thats quite a few degrees down from a last week 15-16 averages.
Justin and I on the end of the jetty.
After you old chap, no I insist after you!
OK, together 3...2...1... aaaaaahhhh.

Prestatyn, N Wales - a top day out

2008-06-01T11:49:00.003+01:00

Yesterday was an excellent day, weather wise and training wise, the relay team (Diane, Chez, Justin, Jon and I) all went down for the day. We had a 2 hr swim in the morning followed by a 1 3/4 hr swim after lunch, (Jon did a full 2 hrs in the afternoon) swimming along the coast towards Rhyl. The water was warm, but a little patchy in the morning, and just plain warm in the afternoon. We swam out a bit further in the last hour (as Justin recommended), and found the water much clearer! It was a bit of a mudbath close in to the shore and quite shallow!
The support crew Windmills in the distance - 4 miles apparently

Dover weekend 14th 15th June

2008-06-17T12:36:00.006+01:00

Lesley and I prior to the first race - note the lucky number!

What a fantastic wewekend just passed. Total training mileage estimate >20 miles over the 2 days.
Saturday was the champion of champions races, and it was great to 'race' again, as training can be quite seem quite pointless at times. The races were 5 mile, 3 mile and 1 mile with the total times being added up to find the overall order.
I was happy that I contained myself in race one, in the past I have shot off, only to flag later on in the race. It was more fun as I got to pass people in tte second half of the race rather than the other way around. After a nice leisurely lunch on the beach catching up with the Malta swim trek bunch, and my son getting some priveledged rugby passing training from Rufus, we headed off out for the 3 miler. I raced this one all the way to the end with another swimmer in a blue hat, she just pipped me at the end, but it was all good fun!
We then had another break, chance for some more food, hot chocolate, chatting and a few photo's etc before the one miler.

This seemed quite manic compared to the last two. If during my sprint pool swimming years someone described a mile as a sprint I would have laughed....hard! However this is pretty much what it was like. I raced alongside 2 girls all the way, who out sprinted and out manouvered me at the last bouy and shot off to the finish line. Fortunately the girls results were separate to the mens, and I ended up as 2nd Male which was a very welcome pleasant surprise. As I said before, all great fun. Big thanks to all the BLDSA organisers, a top event.

Sunday was my 40th--woohoo and Fathers day - double woohoo! We got an early get up, and I got to open my pressies in the hotel in Folkstone with Lesley Brandon and Chloe before breakfast, which was nice. When we got to the beach, Freda (the channel 'general' / coach) was kind enough to give me a 7 hour swim. There were 3 others doing 7 that day, quite a few 5's and 6's so it seemed reasonable enough. Trunks on, earplugs in, a good smothering of vaseline and off in right after Kevin and Rufus, who seemed mad keen to pile in straight away. The script on feeding in these sessions is swim for 2 hrs, then pop back to the shoreline for a glug of hot maxim on the hour each hour. We were occasionally treated to a nice choccy bar brought on the day by some kind soul. The swim was certainly a mental battle more than physical, as I just plodded round stiff from the Saturday efforts. The trick was to find the balance of speed, warmth (ho ho ho) and aching. The whole 7 hours passed pretty uneventful with the sighting and feeing of a few jellies, one got me on the leg - but was barely a twinge. A few crashes with other swimmers (Where do they come from!!) and observing the sea life on the wall as the tide went out!
Then all of a sudden 7 hrs was around, out warm and off to my Brothers house in Leatherhead for a party tea with my folks. Top.

Friday 20th June

2008-07-01T21:43:00.005+01:00

Thanks on this day to Lesley, we drove up to Windermere straight after work on Friday and took the canoe. We (lesley Canoig, me swimming) did a loop from the north part (Water Head) down to the islands at Bowness and back. I think this was about 8-9 miles in total and took around 4 hours.

Apologies, I forgot to take a photo of Lesley in the canoe. This was her view for 4 hours!

It was a superb evening, and the water uncannily pleasant!

About an hour into the swim, I realised I had left parking ticket in my jeans pocket! Stressing about this all the time, when we got back---no ticket! Can't help feeling annoyed that we wasted 6 quid on the ticket :)

Relay week with the Channel Wanderers

2008-07-10T13:01:00.005+01:00

End of the week for the relay, and we never got a chance to swim :( The wind blew too much all week and meant that no support boats could safely go out into the channel. the team are gutted, but we are re-scheduled for September for the relay swim (and the dinner with the Mayor of Bolton!).

See the waves on the left. Beach training below

Arriving on Sunday 6th July at Dianes house (our team swimmer and organiser) full of anticipation, we first had the challenge of fitting all the required gear into the car. Far to much the the modest boot of the Jag X-type, we had to leave Justin walking whilst we nipped round to Chez's house with an extra load for the Nissan truck!! He was dead pleased to see us at 6:30 am (really).
We got down to Dover about 1 ish to greet a few of the beach gang after a tough windy swim...more of that later...
We unloaded the cars, and got settled at Varne ridge, and went off to meet Fred, our pilot. He was a little scepitical about the weather for the next couple of days and proffered Thursday night as his best guess with a we'll see and jokes about lucky seaweed.... A little down hearted, we headed back to the Ridge and ate our 1st of many fantastic banquets courtesy of Diane. (More of the multi talented Diane - check out the picture below !!
Monday was spent chewing the cud, and a quick dip in the water in a rather wavy Folkstone for Justin, Chez and Diane:

Tuesday, Justin decided (well, we did on his behalf) that it would be a good chance to get in his 6 hours. So we dropped in at 9:15am me for 3 1/2 hours, followed by Matt, Chez and John with Diane being teh official CSA obsever on the beach. Justin swam strongly for the duration, even resisting the tempation to race with Matt, who went over to him and raced off past at full speed!!!
I popped in for the last 20 minutes just to how the water was, and indeed it lived up to the reputation of being warmer on a second 'stint'. Encouraging for the relay team!
Wednesday....a day to forget, more of that later involving search parties and coastguards.

Thursday, we lost Matt as he had to return for work commitments (6 men, and a lass went to swim, went to swim the channel, 6 men, and a lass, 5 men and a lass......., Diane sorted us with a monster breakfast and then we caught her passing the time..........(1 Girl went to mow, went to mow a meadow....!!!)
Hope those lines are straight Diane!!

This brings us up to current...and we are waiting for news on the weather, most reports are showing that the weekend is prime, we are just unsure if we can all stay that long :(

24th July Deal / Dover waiting....

2008-07-24T17:46:00.003+01:00

Another scorching day, but the wind has certainly increased today. We had a lazy morning, and I did an inventory check on the main kit box while I ate a few breakfasts :) We went off to meet Dr Julie Bradshaw MBE, of the channels swimming association on the beach for a few last minute tips. (Julie swam the channel butterfly in 2002, so surely front crawl must be a doddle!?!?!) Duly inspired, the wind whipped up in the afternoon, and the view is that tonight will be a no go. Feeling over the cold now, so this was a disappointment. Friday and Saturday are looking quite good.....we'll see....
Scorching on the beach at Dover inner harbour...

Time for a bit of training at Deal tonight....

25th July evening

2008-07-25T17:08:00.005+01:00

Hopefully today was the final lap of honour in the harbour. Spoke to Fred at Folkstone, and he was confident that we will be underway on Sunday morning. Perfect. Meeting at the boat at 4am, means that I'll be in the water around 6am. The forecast gives light winds, and reasonable temperatures
Time now to go and rest...and eat....sleep....and eat a bit more!!
Left - mutually exclusive to channel swimming - the perfect activity for waiting for the winds to die down! Right downtown Deal...lovely town

We all spent a few hours at Dover harbour today. While I did my lap, Lesley came out in the canoe with Chloe and later on with Rob and Brandon. As I swam, I could see Brandon and Chloe fighting over something at the back nearly tipping Rob and Lesley in :) Quite a hairy moment on board apparently. Ah the blissfulness of swimming.

26th July- Night before the big swim

2008-07-26T22:05:00.003+01:00

So as Pete makes his final preparations for his swim tomorrow, he's spending his time with his lovely and very supportive family, as the photo shows, he's already stocking up on all his energy with his wife Lesley, and Mother-in-law Elaine, we all wish him with the best of luck in completing the swim, and hope that all the wait and training will pay off.

From 6am tomorrow, we will bring you updates and photos from the support boat on how far he has travelled.

In the meantime, please continue to give your support as Pete finally fulfils his ambition.

27th July- The Swim Begins

2008-07-27T05:59:00.002+01:00

The boat set sail from Folkstone this morning at 4:25am, with the sun rising and the sea flat. Pete officially started his swim at 5:08 am.

13:20 pm

2008-07-27T13:20:00.005+01:00

Pete has continued to swim the channel, since the last post, the waves have gotten bigger, and Pete was getting a bit battered (even though he was finding them fun). last distance measured was 18.2 miles. Pete swapped sdes with the boat to stop the winds and block the waves.

Almost there...

2008-07-27T15:49:00.003+01:00

24 Miles, about 3 Miles or so to go. They've 'sneaked' through huge ships. One had to change course to avoid hitting them. Lesley's been measuring out his 'drugs' to keep him going to the end.

The Time

2008-07-27T22:59:00.002+01:00

The time he took to swim the channel, was 13 hours, 56 minutes but with subject to formal ratification.

Post Swim !!

2008-07-29T08:42:00.015+01:00

So then, we did it!!! I say we because although this was a solo swim I could not have done it without Everybody's help. Especially Lesley who worked tirelessly on the boat and provided exactly the right nutrition on the day, and of course for letting me disappear off training all year long :) Thanks very very much to the whole Crew - Richard, Rob, Steve, Fred, Pete, Russell and Julie who was the CSA observer.

The swim?
Brilliant - It felt very surreal to start with, loading up on the boat at Folkstone, we rowed out to Fred's boat with all the stuff, climbed on board in the dark . We then chugged off to Samphire bay. 10 Minutes before we got there I put on my trunks and Lesley piled on the grease. before I knew it it was time to jump in. There was a couple of other boats at the start point, but I didn't really take in who they were. I jumped in and the water felt warm, the grease was awesome and made me feel like I was wearing a bullet proof vest. I swam up the beach in the clear waters and surged out of the water on a wave. There were a couple of people on the beach to wish people well, who wished me good luck!
I turned, waved to the boat, waded in and dived off. Having tapered and rested the last 2 weeks, I suddenly felt super strong and went into a steady rhythm on a beautiful calm sea. I knew right away the swim was in the bag! I saw a couple of jellies just off shore, but they were quite deep (phew) The first hour to the first feed flew by, I was just smiling feeling so privileged to be in the channel. The first feed (maxim) went down, and the next (maxim and peach half) and the next (maxim and peach) - the first 3 hours seemed to fly by, then I went to 1/2 hour feeds of maxim on the hour and electrolyte on the 1/2 hour. We had discussed the electrolyte and were not sure about it, it was quite rich on the stomach. The 3rd one bounced back out, so we changed to coffee with fruit sugar for each 1/2 hour. This worked great throughout the swim, stimulating a 'pee' before the maxim feed.
Every now and again I got a glimpse of the white cliffs growing steadily smaller in the distance.

In the middle phase, the sea got a bit more bouncy, and I think my stroke rate had dropped as I struggled to my rhythm in the waves, around this point the crew asked if Steve (pacemaker) should jump in, I said 'whenever he is ready, uplifted by having some company. When he did jump in it was great, but difficult as the sea was throwing us around a bit making it hard to stay side by side and by the boat! However, the fact he was in the water made me pick up my stroke and I found a good rhythm again. (I think he came in on the 5th to 6th hour)

After that we went through the shipping lanes, I was totally unaware at the time, but a huge tanker had to change course to miss us - thanks to the French coastguards for that. The water was clear but had quite alot of 'stuff' floating in it. I was sure not to swallow any....The middle phase was just a case of swimming feed to feed and enjoying being in the channel, the waves weren't huge but did hamper progress, even though they. The crew suggested I change sides of the boat at one point, and it went around behind me, the water was much calmer then and progress felt better. The time really seemed to whiz by and I restrained from looking at France until someone said 'look - that's where we are aiming for! And it seemed really close. I had to keep reminding myself about that I would still have many hours left. In my head I had budgeted 4 x 3 hrs + 1 x 3 hrs if needed, so a total of around 12-15 hours. As we approached my left arm twinged and sort of lost power, but was comfortable enough and clearly I was thinking I have come this far - nothing can stop us now! A quick reflection on all the fundraising and peoples outstanding generosity was helpful at this stage! Land was getting closer and closer, I heard someone shout '3 miles to nearest land' this was about 1o hrs, and I foolishly thought cool - we could be done in 11 1/2 hrs!! I was still enjoying the swim, but the channel challenge was on now. I also heard someone say 'if we make it' so assumed we miss the cape or something so sped up for the next hour. At the next hr stop I was informed that we cold not miss the cape and we were heading in. Very relieved I just settled down to a steady 'chug' again. I could see that that we were being swept all over by the tide and currents and just trusted in following the boat. Slowly but surely I could make out more and more detail, houses, windows on the houses, bushes etc. '2 miles to land in any direction' came a shout.....chug chug....1 1/2 miles...chug chug....1 mile......3/4 mile was the last shout and Lesley said 'Pete this is your last feed - next stop on the beach' I had a look up and it was sooooo close now. Then, the part I had been hoping for - Fred got into the rowing boat with Lesley and Rich for the final approach!
I could then feel every wave pushing me ashore, I could see the colour change in the sea as it became more orange with the sand. I could feel waves of warm water coming over me. I could make out ripples in the sand on the bottom - I could see the waves breaking on the beach, then I touched the soft sand with my hand and was totally overcome with a wave of emotion that rushed through my whole body, (and yes I started blubbing in my goggles!)...I tried to stand but my legs were having none of it, swam a few more strokes and tried again..yup...here we go, stood up and started jogging up the beach. The beach was like Southport in that the water was shallow for ages, so I ran right past some gobsmacked looking French people to be sure I was out of the water before turning and raising my arms in the air!! I could see Steve (who had stealthily followed me in) and Rich and Lesley in the row boat. The nice French chap spoke to me and said ' 'ave you just swam ze channel' to which I said 'YES!!!'

I chatted with Steve and Richard on the beach for a moment and just as we thought about setting back off to the row boat - when we saw my Mum and Dad waving and running along the beach, which was truly wonderful. We could not spend long there as I was feeling cold (for the first time all day!!) so climbed back on the boat where Lesley was (needed a leg up from Rich - thanks)

Back in the boat I finally managed to hug Lesley and sit down and celebrate. We moored up in Folkstone some 5 hours later after midnight, I was buzzing all the way back....still am.
Overall, the swim was thoroughly enjoyable all the way! Maybe just a little frustrating at the end trying to get in against the tide - but I guess that's what its all about, if it was that easy it wouldn't be the challenge that it is.........!

So here we are, the other side of the swim, still feeling elated and buzzing and pleased to have successfully raised so much money for Rock FM and Sam Young - many many thanks to all that have contributed, every penny has spurred me on through the training.

He's done it!

2008-07-27T19:11:00.002+01:00

Pete has finally managed to complete his Channel swim, he's standing on a beach in France now. We still need an official time, which I'm sure Pete or myself will put it on later when he finds out his time.

Still cheerful :)

2008-07-27T18:16:00.003+01:00

Pete's still got a mile and a half to go. With all looking well, and regular strokes, it won't be too long until he reaches France. And Lesley says he's still acting cheerful, which means he's still enjoying it.

Just over 2 miles now!

2008-07-27T17:23:00.002+01:00

Having just passed the 12 hour mark, the nearest land is just over 2 miles away. Apparently Pete's still swimming very strongly, and the sea has calmed down alot as well, which is all good.

3 miles to go!

2008-07-27T16:15:00.003+01:00

Just had news that he's 3 mile from the nearest land.

England's gone

2008-07-27T12:06:00.002+01:00

The team have lost sight of England. They have travelled 15.5 miles. The next leg of the swim could be very difficult, but he's trained so hard, and should pull through.

Coming up for another feed.

2008-07-27T11:42:00.002+01:00

Currently the wind is about 12 mph, and Pete has swam 15 miles. His parents recently just past his Mum and Dad on the ferry.

Pete forges ahead

2008-07-27T10:19:00.001+01:00

Steve has come out now, and Pete forges ahead. Robs sucking on glacier mints. Water is 16 degrees.

27th July France has Been sighted!

2008-07-27T10:07:00.001+01:00

10:05, and france has been sighted. The distance so far: 12.8 miles.

27th July 9.12am sickness aboard the boat

2008-07-27T09:19:00.002+01:00

After the rocking of the boat, Rob is the first to chunder. Pete has covered 11.6 miles.

Boat Rocking

2008-07-27T09:07:00.002+01:00

27th July 9:00am

2008-07-27T08:57:00.001+01:00

Nearly 4 hours into the swim, and Pete has swam 10.3 miles so far. Steve is preparing to dive in to help pace Pete for an hour.

27th July Video footage

2008-07-27T08:10:00.005+01:00

So far, as of 8:10, Pete has managed to swim 8.5 miles.