It's over.......

Well that's it, I've closed the books now and I'm delighted to say that your support has helped me raise £3,476 for the Parkinson's Disease Society and Cancer Research UK........ which is absolutely fantastic and a lot more than I was expecting, thank you one and all.

Colin.

A couple of short videos

Here are a couple of short videos, the first is of me swimming, don't look too closely at the technique...... or lack of it (at least you can't really see my leg kick on this!!) - for some reason you have to click twice on the play button for all the videos.

The next is of Tony swimming at night. You can see just how dark it is....... not nice!!

We had to wear the green lights so the pilot knew where we were. There's a small circular flashing one attached to the goggle strap and one with a constant light that's the shape of a small light saber - pinned to our trunks. They're military grade lights and can, apparently, be seen for up to a mile (they needed to be with my wayward swimming!)

Colin.

A quick sponsorship update....

Thank you very much to everybody that has already sponsored me, we're up to around £1,500 for the two charities, which is fantastic. If you haven't sponsored me and would still like to, please go here:

http://www.justgiving.com/colinbycroft2 to donate to the Parkinson's Disease Society or

http://www.justgiving.com/colinbycroft to donate to Cancer Research UK.

Thanks,

Colin.

Sunday after the Thursday before......

This is the actual route we took (it's a screen shot from Google Earth), I had my GPS on the escort boat - not exactly direct is it....



In fact, while we only swam 21 miles, we travelled 33 as we were carried by the tide, first up the Channel then, when the tide changed, back down again.

I'll include some links later where you can get the Motion Based route which allows you to watch a dot simulating our journey- it sounds a bit naff but it's quite good fun really - you can see where we're in the choppy bits and slowed down etc. (OK, so perhaps I'm geeky!) you can also export it to Google earth so you can blow up the above screen shot if you wish



This is Adam starting the swim proper from Shakespeare Beach - just round the headland from Dover harbour. He had to swim to the beach from the boat and totally clear the water for the official start.






Hey, who's that fine figure of a man? OK, if you need a clue, it's me, Colin!!






Birg (my wife) and Karen (Chris' girlfriend) very quickly decided that we swimmers wouldn't be able to drink all the champagne......... and it would be silly to let it get warm.........





Adam seemed to enjoy the greasing up duties far too much for my liking, or was it wearing the Marigold that appealed so much???




The Coast Guard looked after us really well. We kept hearing them over the radio, instructing these huge marine juggernauts to change course to 'avoid Anastasia - an escort vessel for a Cross Channel Swimmer'!! We certainly knew about it when they got too close as the wash would lift the swimmer right out of the water and send Anastasia bobbing like a cork.





Swimming in the pitch black was not a pleasant experience. It was much worse than when we practiced in the harbour a couple of weeks ago. I totally lost sight of the boat at one point and was very concerned.



Finally, here's the team at the end of the swim, we were so, so, happy, words can't describe the feeling:



From the left we have: Tony, Colin (me!!), Chris, and Adam.


Here's the links I mentioned earlier.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/email/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=6772&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=3812581

We did it........ 12 hours 36 minutes!!

Sorry it's taken so long updating this, I tried doing it onboard but kept losing signal then ended up with a flat battery - technology, I never could get the hang of it!!

I just arrived home a few minutes ago and will put some photos up soon.

He, he, I'm so happy!!!

He, he, we're off!!!!!!!!

At long last, we're just sailing out of Dover harbour to Shakespeare Beach, we're a bit later than we origninally intended but everything is looking good at the moment.

It's a 7 metre tide so there's a lot of water movement up and down the Channel - think of it as the current in a river (a 21 mile wide river!) that we're swimming across - so the first couple of swimmers (we go Adam, Chris, Tony, me) have to swim like a gud 'un to get away from the coast: Eddie said he needs 110%.

Wednesday lunchtime....

We're not swimming tonight but it is definately on for tomorrow morning ........ and I have a nice warm feeling in my water (pun intended!), it is going to happen. This is the first time I've felt fully confident it will go ahead, bring it on......

Wednesday morning..... it could be tonight!

The forecast is looking good for a night swim tonight....... with wind speeds between 1 - 5 mph it's better than tomorrow's which says 8-9mph.

Also, speaking to Eddie, tonight is a 6.8metre tide rather than tomorrow's 7m one, so we won't be washed quite so far up and down the Channel if we can go tonight.

Please, please, please let this happen........

It's certainly character building this Channel swimming lark!

Tuesday evening......

OK, we're home again, more or less just in time to turn around and drive back to Dover again!

Trying to put a positive spin on things; at least we found out we should be able to update the blog over the mobile when we eventually do swim..... !


Anyway, I thought I'd take this oportunity to upload a couple of photo's:


Firstly, here's Anastasia, our pilot boat. I've boarded her twice, but never left the marina.






And here, just to prove the tan is real (from the Dover swims)...... you can also see I'm putting the weight on - now I don't want to any more!






And here's the Dover gang: On the left is Freda (The Channel General) who organises all the swimmers along with the capable help of Irene (right), and Irene's husband Barrie - The Shingle Stomper - who tirelessly provides feeds to all the swimmers. These people all give up their whole weekend, every weekend between May and September, for no financial gain, to help people who aspire to swim the Channel. They are fantastic!




I realise I don't have a picture of the team together - in the light - I'll have to sort that out on Thursday....... when we swim!

AHHHHHHHHH - it's off again

We're in the marina car park having just spoken to Eddie our pilot. The wind is getting up and the swim's cancelled!! We're hoping for Thursday now............

Did I mention this had been an emotional roller coaster!

Tuesday morning....

Unfortunately, it looks as though we're not going to be able to update this blog online [well, when we're on the boat anyway], if we can, great, if not, please be patient and I'll let you know how we fair as soon as I can.

Tomorrow's on......

We swim tomorrow - Tuesday 28th August - at 10:00. Wish us luck............. please...........

Colin.

I'm well and truly nervous

I am feeling very nervous at the moment. I was quite calm on Wednesday when we were due to be swimming the following day but because it's been on, then off, then on, and off, I'm currently feeling like a wound up spring.


Things are all made worse because we're cutting it quite fine, Chris' sister is getting married at 10:00 on Wednesday in Derbyshire: we're starting our swim at 10:00 on Tuesday in Dover. It will take us probably 12 - 14 hours to complete the swim and then 2 - 3 to get back to Dover so Chris will be getting off the boat and driving straight up to Derbyshire!! My nerves are fraid, I dread to think how his are fairing.

Just to prove that this isn't an elaborate hoax, this video is me training at Kingsdown (near Dover) while we were staying there waiting to swim. We had a challet from Tuesday to Saturday, expecting to swim on Saturday at the latest - if only I'd known!!

And, to make matters even worse, unbeknown to me, Birg had organised a surprise party for Monday. It was to be a combined 50th birthday and swim celebration party and it all had to be cancelled, well postponed anyway, when she realised I wouldn't have done the swim by then. That didn't make me feel any better, but I have got a cake to eat all on my own now - complete with the photo that will, I suspect, become my signature!

Anyway, enough of all the woes...... if you would like to follow our progress on Tuesday, you can do so by registering (for free) at this site http://aisfree.aislive.com/Influx.aspx?Map=Dover%20Calais. our boat name is Anastasia. AIS is a marine navigation system and this is a public window into it, the display is always delayed by an hour but it gives an idea of what's going on.

Saturday's night swim

This picture of four fine figures of men (well, us anyway) was taken last Saturday night at Dover harbour. We went for a night swim, we're not sure what time we'll be starting and it is more than likely some of us will have to swim in the dark, which can be very disconcerting, so it's good practice to go for a swim in 'safe' waters, with friends, so as to 'get your head around it' in advance of the real thing.
The problems are all in the mind, it's the thought of being unable to see anything and your hand just disappearing into blackness with all the 'things' that could be lurking under the surface that cause the anxiety.
I was a little worried about it at first but was actually OK in the end, the worst thing was that my goggles misted up and all the lights in the distance just melded into one so I had no idea whatsoever where I was and in what direction I was swimming. I'd stop, put my head up and realise I was heading back where I'd come from - I must learn to swim in a straight line!!

Tomorrow's cancelled!!

OK, so tomorrow is going to go ahead (well I hope so anyway!) but we're not going to be swimming.

Things have been all over the place with the weather and so our swim day has also been moving around. I was originally hoping, and expecting, it would be Saturday (my 50th birthday) but for a while it was Wednesday, then, since the beginning of the week it was Thursday but now it's looking like it's slipped all the way back to next Tuesday.

I'm desperately disapointed - again! This swim really is making me ride an emotional roller coaster. Eddie, out pilot, has said he'll try and bring it forward if at all possible, let's hope.........

Anyway, one advantage is that you now have a bit longer to get your sponorship in if you haven't already!! Just a reminder, you can go to www.justgiving.co.uk/colinbycroft2

I'll keep this page updated with any changes as and when I can. We're (Birg, my wife, Alex, my son, and Harry his friend) staying in a chalet just outside Dover at the moment, unfortunately it doesn't have internet access so I have to nip over to my sister and brother in law's house. In fact I must say a huge thank you to Sylvia and Trevor who allow me to just walk into their house unannounced and use their internet connection - as I did just now - as well as having put up with me nearly every Saturday night since May 5th!!

Colin.

Intro..

Hi,

I set this blog up very late in the day (less than a week before the swim). I've been through a fairly traumatic time to be honest and I never really felt like sharing my thoughts (.... which is most unlike me) but I want people to be able to see how we get on with the swim itself so, this is an ideal way to update people, I may come back and 'open up' after the event, we'll see.

Cheers,

Colin.