The Party is on !

It’s a ‘Gooooooooooooooooo’ !! Tomorrow morning on the 24th September 2013, at 0215  I will be leaving Dover marina on ‘The Viking Princess’ fishing vessel Commanded by Reg Brickell to attempt my English Channel dream! I wanted you to be the first to know. I cannot begin to tell how much your support and help has meant to me. It truly has moved me to achieve great things which have all added to the necessary building blocks of success for this swim. You can follow me using one of two methods: I will have a ‘personal GPS Spot onboard the boat. This is a GPS satellite position transmitter which will be live for the day of the swim and show my current location updated every 20minutes. Don’t worry I will not be moving that fast! This link will be on my blog: http://www.swimolibre.com and the direct link to my GPS tracking page: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0fgqVyq6xSisqr2hbbvKSVnNbyb7sZDeI OR.. The other method is on the swim association website accessed from the link below. They are easy steps: 1. http://cspf.co.uk/tracking# 2. However over the ‘white triangles’ on the map with the curser and find the ‘Viking Princess’. Click on it. 3. Then within the info box that appears.. click on current track! 4. That will be me! Must go and get ready for my dip…… My No1 Fans!!...

Panic over!

Right.. panic over.. we were in the middle of ‘The Last Supper’, our style.. cooked by chef John Jenkins.. Last supper rehearsal   And……. Reg called….. We are not going tomorrow! We are now looking at Tuesday. Of corse I will keep you posted. Now… ‘feeding practise..’ I Will update you all.. sorry for the false alarm.. but ‘this is the...

Tense days of nail biting.. OMG.. I paid for that nail job!...

From tonight, Sunday 22nd at midnight the ‘tidal window’ opens, running until midnight the 4th October. We chose this window of opportunity because the two tides that run daily in the Channel are at their relative weakest. Why? Because the earth, moon and sun are out of phase, the moon is 90 degrees out of sync. This produces less gravitational pull on large bodies of water. Thus, within this window, I will swim on the first day that the weather conditions are swimmable. Nothing like holding your breath and waiting! Nervous now. I called Reg the pilot, one hour ago (1730, 22nd September). He has put me on standby!! Confirmation will be given later tonight!! We will see.. Yikes that’s possibly tomorrow! However… still enough time to try and run down the ‘Worlds No1 Open Water Swimmer’ and ‘fastest human’ across The Channel over!...

Things are hotting up.. there’s competition!...

This truly has been a journey and I have met some fantastic people. Last week I was privileged to swim with Otto Thaning who next year will swim the EC again at 74 years old.. with his fabulous and renowned sidekick, Roger Finch (Rog you need to pull up your drinking socks!) and this week.. I was pitted against some great guys: Sylle Estadiö of France, who is swimming the EC butterfly, jumping tomorrow morning, Saturday 21st September. Good luck Sylle! Justin Hanby of Australia.. a secret speed merchant, I am sure, who will be ‘wind assisted’ without any doubt! Due to swim on my tide, with The Famous World No1, top dog… Trent Grimsey  (Australia). Trent who swam The English Channel last year in 6hours 55minutes, claiming fastest crossing time ever is Justin’s ‘boat crew’!! I want to know what exactly my ‘boat crew’ are bringing to the party.. tee hee.. Justin in the ‘Green Budgies’, “Sucking it in..”,  Trent white cap centre, Tim Denyer (red top) EC veteran and fabulous professional coach to all, Sylle in the yellow cap, two lovely gentleman from San Francisco California, the Dolphin club… and some fat guy on the end?? Needless to say, I gave Trent quite a few tips.. he has taken them onboard and I believe that they have already yielded positive results….. His drinking ability has increased two-fold! Eventually we get to swim..   And fast.. in my ‘dreams at...

‘Cream Teas in Devon’

I must report a fantastic fundraising event held on my behalf in Tiverton, Devon. At the same time I must also reprimand that individual for giving away top secret recipes! It really is shocking that the moment my back was turned having left home just recently…. 34 years ago…. my Mother Brenda, decided that it was okay to give away ‘scone and various fabulous cake recipes’ in the name of fundraising for my swim??   Luckily, I can reassure you that there was absolutely no Christmas cake involved. That would have led to severe sanctions!   A big, big thank you to my Mum and Dad, Brenda and Graham, for hosting the ‘Tiverton Cream Tea Fundraiser’ and of course, to their friends for their most generous support, encouragement and kind donations for ‘Free The Children’ in connection with my swim.   “Is it too early to order my Christmas Cake...