The White Horse, and David & Sherrie

It has been a little over 3 weeks since we completed our swim across the channel. Things are pretty much back to normal, but I still have one more post in me.

Just after we reached France and Tim got back in the boat, we took a group picture a group picture at the bow of the boat with France in the background.









Our pilot across the channel was Reg Brickell. If you decide to cross the channel, he's the guy to get you there.

Thank you Reg.




It was a two hour boat ride back to England, and the first place we headed to was The White Horse. The White Horse is the tavern in Dover where all the channel swimmers sign their names on the wall (or the ceiling). As we headed over there I wasn't expecting any kind of a reception, but to my surprise we got one. David and his friend Sherrie were there to welcome us. David and Sherrie are from Oregon, and David swam the channel solo two days after we did with the same pilot and support boat we used.

I have only known David for about six months. I met him on a training swim out at Hagg Lake. We have a cold water swimmers email list. I didn't know most of the swimmers on the list, but when you would want to do a practice swim in a cold lake, and didn't want to swim alone you'd send an email out with your intentions and see if anyone could join you. At one of those Saturday morning meetings I met David. He was smiling and wanted to take a group picture. I think he took pictures both before and after we swam, and he was always smiling. Over the months training I ran into David many more times, and he was always smiling, and always taking a group picture. He must have about 50 pictures of me, but I had to ask my fellow relay teammates for a picture of David. I feel a little embarrassed.


Here is a picture of David and Sherrie. Note that David is smiling.











Now back to The White Horse. When we entered the tavern there was a big banner that David and Sherrie had placed on the wall. It read, "Congratulations". We got a big table, sat down, and David started with the presentations. First he gave each of us a postcard with a personal note. Mine read, "Jim, Big congratulations on your first English Channel relay crossing! Go Oregon Quacks!", and both David and Sherrie signed it. Next gave us all baseball caps with the words, "Channel Relay", and finally he gave us all engraved medals with the words, "Channel Relay 2010". This was all totally unexpected, and very much appreciated.

Next he took a group picture of all of us, and we all handed him our cameras to get a group picture too. Next he brought out a video camera, and wanted to interview all of us. I can't remember what I said, but David was smiling the whole time.


Here we are at The White Horse. Drew, Tim, and myself on the back row, and Natalie, Mirjana, and Joni in the front row. I noticed Drew and I didn't have much of a smile. I guess we were pretty tired. Notice the congratulations sign on the wall.









David and Sherrie,
Thank you for the warm reception you gave us at The White Horse. It made it all the more special. Your the greatest!

Joni,
Thank you for inviting me to be on your team. It was a great experience.

Reflecting on the Swim

We are now all back in Oregon, and I think I am mostly over the jet lag from the trip back. I had planned on putting a few more posts on the blog about the swim itself before now, but we got busy site seeing. The swim was great. I think we were all physically well prepared. We had been training in water that was at times 10 degrees colder than the channel. I found the mental part of it more of a challenge, but even that wasn't bad. We were swimming in "the English Channel". I found it surreal. Ever since I was very young I can remember hearing about people swimming the English Channel and I now I was here.

On the morning of the swim we met our met our pilot and the boat at 2:45 AM at the Dover marina. There we about 50 other people there and about 8 other boats also taking people out to swim the channel either solo or as relays. Not all of the people were getting on the boats. Some were just there to see people off. I think our boat was about the last to leave. We traveled out of the harbor and to a beach about 20 minutes away. It was still very dark when the beach where we started. Joni was our first swimmer. She put a flashing light attached to her goggle strap and a light stick was attached to the back of her swimsuit so we could easily see her in the water. Joni entered the water, swam to shore, and got out on the beach. The boat horn sounded marking the beginning of our swim, and Joni went back in the water and started to swim. I am glad Joni did the first leg. It seemed a little creepy to me. Swimming in the ocean at night with lights attached to you, seems like your just a big fishing lure. Again, I am glad Joni was doing it.

Joni completed her swim, and Drew swam second. Towards the end of Drew's swim we started overtaking boats of other swimmers. We heard from Reg, our captain, that a solo swimmer dropped out after two hours. I wonder what happened. In order to submit an application to swim the channel, you needed to have completed a 6 hour swim in water colder that 60 degrees.

Drew completed his swim and I got in the water. The water was clearer than the harbor. It was greenish-blue, and the visibility seemed to be about 12 to 15 feet. As I swam along the only thing I saw was occasional jellyfish. They were small, about 2 to 3 inches in diameter, and easy to see below me. The water was much clearer than Dover harbor were we had be practicing.

The English Channel is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, and on my first leg I to swim in a circle to avoid a big ship. When swimming in the channel you swim alongside your pilot boat. The boat captain does the navigation for you. If he sees a big ship is coming too close, he just swims you around in a circle to let the ship pass. This meant I had the honor of being the only person in our relay that got to spend some time swimming towards England. :-)

I got to swim two legs. The first leg was a little choppy, and the second one was much smoother. With the choppy water I covered must less distance. Prior to doing the swim I was hoping to get some choppy water to swim. I know this may sound a little crazy, but if I was going to swim the English Channel. I wanted it to be the typical choppy English Channel that I have hear about. After a few minutes in the water I decided didn't need the chop. And, when I say, "chop", I don't think anyone in the boat would have thought of it as chop. While swimming, I did run into a piece of kelp. It startled me enough that the people on the boat noticed I jerked.

For my second leg the water was very smooth, and I felt like I covered a good distance. I couldn't see too much on my second swim because my goggles fogged up almost as soon as I got in the water. I kept on thinking I would stop and clear them in a few minutes, but somehow that never happened.

Tim got to be the one to finish up the swim 24 minutes into his second leg. Our total time was 10:24. Where we finished in France there was a rocky shore with a cliff above, and a view point on the top of the cliff. There were several people at the viewpoint as Tim approached the shore. By the time he reached the shore and climbed out there must have been about 40 people at the viewpoint. It was nice to have an audience to cheer us as we finished. When Tim reached the shore we all cheered, and the captain blew the boat horn. Tim picked up some rocks on the shore for each of us, so we all have a little piece of France to help us remember our experience. Tim got a ride in the dingy back to the boat and we headed back to Dover.

It was a truly a great experience and something I'll always remember. My teammates were all great too, and I thank Joni for inviting me to be on the team.

Observer's Video

Here is a link to a youtube video that was done by our observer Mikee. He loves editing with music & special effects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY4m7qSNOpo&NR=1

Dover Harbor

Now that things have settled down a bit and I have a better internet connection, I thought I would go back and give more details about the practice in Dover harbor and, in another post, the swim itself.

Dover harbor is fairly good size. It has room for small fishing boats, cruise ships to dock, ferry boats to Europe, and an area for swimmers. The swim area is between two large walls 2200 meters apart that extend out from the beach. The walls have two large white marks, and the swimmers are not to go past the white mark. Our daily practice was to swim from the beach out to the white marks on one wall, to the white marks on the other wall, and back to the beach. On the last day I took my camera along and got pictures of Natalie, Joni, David, and myself. David wasn't on our relay. He was here to swim the channel solo, which he completed Monday. Congratulations David! As you can see from the pictures we weren't working too hard. You can see Dover Castle in the background on a few of the pictures.







David in Dover harbor last Friday with the wall in the background.












Jim and Natalie in Dover harbor with the white cliffs of Dover in the background.








Natalie in Dover harbor with Dover castle on the hill in the background. The white building directly behind her is the Premier Inn where we stayed.











Joni in Dover Harbor

Swim Pictures

Below are some pictures of the swimmers as they swam the English Channel as part of the Oregon Quacks relay.

(left) Natalie going strong on her leg of the relay. She pretty much did her swim dead center of the English Channel.

(right) Mirjana on her first swim. She swam in the English Shipping Lane for this swim.

(left) Andrew on his second swim in the channel. This would have been in the French shipping lane.

(right) Jim on his first swim with the White Cliffs in the background as we enter the English Shipping Lane.

(left) Tim on his first swim. This would be in the Separation zone which is the area in the Channel that separates the two shipping lanes.

(right) Joni on her second swim going from the Separation zone into the French Shipping Lane.

And here is what happens after your swim......

Jim took a snooze, but kept his cap in hand to be ready for the next swim!

THEY MADE IT TO FRANCE! (correction)

The time they completed the swim was 1:47.

Also, a big THANK YOU to Joni for all her work in organizing this relay team. The experience for many of the relay team swimmers would not have been possible without her. Thank you, Joni.

THEY MADE IT TO FRANCE!

Tim started his second swim at 1:23 PM. Right before Tim got into the water I received a text stating "France looks really big now." About 30 minutes into the swim, at 1:52 PM, Tim was standing on France soil. The swim took 10 hours and 24 minutes, which is a good time. The boat is now on its way back to Dover and is expected to arrive around 4:00. The relay team will make their way to a pub called The White Horse to sign one of the walls (or ceiling) to celebrate their accomplishment. Only those individuals who successfully cross the Channel are allowed to sign the wall.

Congratulations to Joni, Drew, Jim, Mirjana, Tim and Natalie for your success. Also, thank you to Cameron for filming the swim, which included training sessions. Cameron, Jim's youngest son, will be making a video of this noteworthy experience.

Latest Updates

Joni completed her second swim; Drew just completed his second swim; Jim is now in the water.

Some comments I've received the past hour from the relay team include:
"I felt as if I was flying on top of the water" Natalie
"We saw a nurse shark between Joni and the boat"
When asked what was happening with the swimmers on the boat, the response was "Nothing too much. It's quiet on the boat. Drew is in the water and Jim is about to get in. We have passed pretty much all the huge cargo boats and ships."
"Everyone is trying to sleep because we are all tired"
When asked about how much longer until they get to France, the response was "Probably around 3-4 hours. Either Natalie or Joni will probably be finishing." (sent 15 minutes ago)

Relay Status / Natalie Shares Her Experience

Joni is back in the water. The relay is about a couple of miles past the half way point.

Natalie, the youngest swimmer of the team, stated that her experience was amazing. She felt like all her practice for this swim truly paid off. While Natalie was swimming she was apparently competing with the boat the whole time. She did freak out, though, with all the kelp in the water.

Youngest Member of the Relay in the Water

The recent high school graduate and youngest member of the relay, Natalie, is in the water now. Natalie is the anchor of the relay. What an acknowledgement and experience the swim has been for Natalie! She, along with all the other members of the relay team, have trained hard to get to this point.

Mirjana is Out / Tim is in

Mirjana has completed her first one hour swim across the English Channel. Tim is now in the water for his one hour swim. Go team!!!!

Some Interesting Tidbits

Drew left his mark in the English Channel. Way to go, Drew!!!!

It seems like Joni, so far, is the only one the jellyfish have taken a liking to. Jim almost ran into a jellyfish but either the jellyfish took off or Jim made a wise choice to go around the creature.

Also, regarding Jim's swim, he apparently had to swim in a circle in order to not get run over by a ship.

Swimmer #4 in the Water - Mirjana

Mirjana is now in the water and Jim is trying on some try/warmer clothes.

Follow Their Swim

Don't forget to follow their progress across the English Channel by tracking the boat - Viking Princess. It looks like their making great progress after 3 swimmers.

marinetraffic.com/ais/datasheet.aspx?SHIPNAME=viking%20princess&datasource=SHIPS_CURRENT

Jim is now Swimming

I dozed off a few minutes and missed Jim's entry into the water. He's been swimming about 50 minutes. Apparently Jim likes to veer to the right quite a bit. I guess he just wants to enjoy as much of the English Channel as possible.

Joni Trys to Make Friends with Jellyfish

While Joni was in the water, she got caught up with some jellyfish and was stung but not bad. In fact the sting only lasted about 5 minutes. FYI - jellyfish are common in the Channel.

Joni out / Drew In

Drew jumped into the water around 4:23. Joni is out and has changed to drier/warmer clothes.

They're Not Alone Out There

First of all, Joni has been in the water for 45 minutes now. It's still dark outside but daylight is beginning to come. Drew is getting ready to get in the water.

A few minutes ago they passed another boat with a swimmer. There are 6 other boats in the water right now that they can see. The boat is rocking more now because they are further out into the Channel. The water temperature is 60 degrees.

The Swim Is On!!!

Joni is the first swimmer in the water. She entered the water around 3:25 AM (7:25 PM PST). The order of the relay is Joni, Drew, Jim, Marjiana, Tim, Natalie. Each swimmer is to be in the water 1 hour.

A friend asked what one eats before swimming the English Channel. According to Drew it shouldn't be Indian food, which is what he had for dinner last night. Good luck, Drew!!!! The next 10+ hours may be a long 10+ hours.

Looks Like A Go!

At this moment, the swim is on for tomorrow morning. We meet at the boat at 2:45 am and leave for the start point a half hour later. We start at first light. The air has cooled after getting quite warm & humid today. The winds did pick up alot as the cool air began puhing out the warm, so hopefully that means for calm winds & seas. It looks as though we may have a few showers, but hey, what's a little wetness, right?!

So for those following this, we will be in the water between 7 & 8 pm 7/2 Oregon time, if all goes as planned. Now off for some sleep!

Nice Weather

Yesterday was a nice day, and today looks nice too, but we are scheduled to go tomorrow. Yesterday we had the clearest view of France since we have been here. It didn't look like it was 20 miles away. Reg Brickle, our pilot, is the best in the business. He has more successful crossings than any other pilot, so we just have to trust his judgement. I am ready to get going.

Yesterday we went to the White Horse Pub where all the channel swimmers sign their names on the wall. We found Tim's name on the wall. Tim has swum once before in a relay, and once solo. With us this will be his second relay crossing. We also found Michelle's name. She swims with Natalie, Tim, and me on our local team back in Oregon. She has done two solo swims. At the pub I had fish & chips with mashed peas. I had never had mashed peas before. They were pretty good. My wife, Jeanne, who hates peas even liked them. We had nice conversations with the bar tender, and just about everyone else in the bar.

Another day of waiting. I hope we get to go tomorrow.

Another Day of Waiting

The swim is next planned, or hoped for, on saturday. Friday is not considered a good day. So instead we will fall back to our routine as we did today, with a 45 min to an hour swim in the harbour after breakfast, then off to who knows what. Today Andrew, Mirjana & I went to the town of Deal & looked around. As we went on the bus, France was visible & was the clearest view we have had so far. Just a little disappointing to not have gone out today. Oh well, that is the way of the channel. We go when the pilot deems the conditions right. We just have to be ready & patient!

The Delay

Having bags packed and ready to go, we were prepared to swim at 3:00am. We woke up at 2:00 and heard the news that the swim was cancelled for today because it was very windy with fog everywhere. Everyone was disappointed and went back to sleep. Since the winds are not bad today, we are all hoping that we can swim at the same time tomorrow morning.

At the White Horse pub, the place we ate lunch at, we saw all the names of the people who have swam the English Channel in either a relay or solo. The walls and the ceilings were almost completely filled. After this great accomplishment of the Oregon Quacks completing this swim, I hope that we will be able to proudly sign our name on the wall next to the other swimmers. Seeing all the names on the wall was an inspiring and motivational moment for me.