Sunday July 3rd, 2001
Water Temperature: 12-14 C degrees 54-57Fs
Swim Time 7:00am
Overcast skies, later in the swim superb sunshine
The alarm goes off too early, I don’t leap up like I usually do in real life back home, I feel like a naughty kid again, Mum having to come in and get me going. After 5 minutes I” rattle my dags”, this means get going in Kiwi. Breakfast, 2 eggs on toast, muesli and warm milk, hot tea, water then off to meet the group at 6:45am.
We pull up in ” pooh bin”, I recognize more swimmers now and am starting to remember a few names, we chat a bit then Ned says ” time to get going”, we all scatter to our various spots to get ready, strip off and grease up, then it is down the slipway…
You're thin, you don't see adipose free penguins, says Ned. This odd lean little penguin follows the other penguins down the slip way " stick around me for a bit and I'll show you how to fatten up" says Paul, a super nice Channel swimmer and 2 time Ireland camp guy from Kent.Down the slip way we walk, me gingerly.
I watch some of the other swimmers depart, they slip right in, I am hanging back hoping Ned will hang by me again, I stand by him, ” since yesterday I have moved from a dive in girl to a piddle around girl getting in”, with that he dives off in front of me, I case him like a new puppy…
- Puppy Follows
We are off I feel much more relaxed today, lap 1 and 2 long strong strokes, lap 3 my strokes get slower, I am cold but not as cold as yesterday, I am focusing of swimming with my mouth shut to keep the cold water out, my teeth don’t ache today, Ned stays with me, and circles back here and there to stay with me, we don’t stop, and that keeps me warmer, just into the third he says ” 3 laps today” OK I reply, on the way around the island he says we are swimming up river a bit, we abort off course and swim away from the slipway, after a while we turn and head for home ” sprint to France” says Ned, I muster up a bit of speed. Robbin meets me with the blanket and I wrap up in the car, further than yesterday I am pleased. Today’s swim was 5 km, yesterday I went 4.5km, progress, I am pleased.