Swimming again!

This last year and a half has flown by! My previous blog concerned my visit to the Indian villages in Rajasthan benefiting directly from your most generous sponsorship for my Channel swim.

Since then I have been busy. I underwent an operation re-attaching 25% of my bicep muscle to my right shoulder which was a product of the last 6 months training and the crossing itself.

 

I am very happy to report that it went very well and that I started swimming again one month ago. This of course meant 6 months on the ground in ‘rehab’ before I could return to work. During the latter part of this I discovered a fabulous ‘iconic swim vehicle’ which needed some work. It required a bulkhead change. This occupied me  during the last month off work, although, it proved quite challenging at times with the use of one arm.

Stripped!

 

Getting there!

 

Hurrah finished. Et voila!!

Two months later!

Arrrrrgh!! A Jaguar tried to own my side of the road on a blind bend. Luckily nobody was injured. Back to the drawing board!

 

Since then getting back to work has consumed the bulk of time.. but the swimming is coming! I told you that I had not finished.

Last year I crewed for the ‘oldest’ person to swim the English Channel. And swim it he did, spectacularly well! Otto Thaning, 74 years old, friend and heart surgeon from Cape Town, South Africa. If only I could swim like you Otto!

 

I have also been working hard ‘mentoring’ two fine lady swimmers from the USA, one of who is about to swim the length of Lake Tahoe in California and the other complete a relay across the Catalina Channel in California.

I will be present kayaking and crewing for the Tahoe swim but most regrettably not able to join the relay team.

What about me? Where is my swimming? Another two laps of Dover harbour together with a dip in San Francisco bay this weekend, avoiding the Japanese Whaling Fleet. Got to start somewhere, right?!