Second Time Lucky!!
Second time this year and with relief I can report a second successful Channel solo.

I found out the painful way the first attempt this year why less than 160 had more than one solo to their name. I felt it was far tougher mentally far more pressure - I really wasn't expecting that!

I tore a calf muscle only a week before, but as it didn't seem to interefere with swimming, only walking, and as I didn't think I would get another opportunity to go this summer, I decided to risk it. Perhaps it is just as well I had mentally given up for the summer and only had 1 day's notice, so I didn't have too much time to think!

The truth is, as Neil Streeter took Suva out of Dover Marina and round to Shakey beach for the start of the swim, I was wondering whether I had just made the most ridiculous decision of my life only 3 weeks after bombing out in style after 10 hours 40, still 4 miles off the Cap, but now with a gammy leg.

And as I hobbled to the back of the boat and slipped gingerly in to the water and felt a twinge with every gentle flutter of my right leg as I headed to shore for the start, the sense of foolishness increased to the point where I almost lost my composure.

Starting with the unspoken advice to myself ringing round my head "well you're here now, you'd better make the most of it", isn't an auspicious start to any testing venture, never mind a channel swim in what was starting out to be far from calm waters.

The water was confused and preventing me from finding any sort of rhythm. As I didn't dare kick in case it brought on cramp (which there was no doubt at all would have ended the swim because of the torn calf muscle), I couldn't punch through the chop. Worse still, not punching through meant I was being tossed about a lot more than usual and was sick - something I've been lucky enough never to have experienced whilst swimming before. I was also much more tentative because I was trying to avoid swallowing much water, as I was convinced that this had been a factor in creating the debilitating and ultimately swim-stopping stomach-cramps from last time.

So I knew I was crawling along, painfully slowly and wanting to give up the whole time. But this was tempered by the support I had received from close friends, particularly my loyal and long-suffering chum Laurence. And the wonderful Kevin and Jane Murphy, my other crew members for the crossing, helped no end, as did the knowledge that Neil was guiding me and was rooting for me.

I kept thinking that, if I gave up then, I would need to walk away from Channel swimming for good and not show my face round the hen coop again, as the likelihood would be that I would feel I'd let myself down and Freda and others down. Most of all, I had set my sail to make sure I fulfilled Jax' request to bring her back a stone from France and so couldn't very well turn up empty handed!

It may sound risible, but these were the things that I tortured myself with for every minute of the first 6 hours, just to keep going and to try to remove another failure as an option.

But some time after the first 6 hours, the sea calmed down and everything changed, as often happens with a change of tide, so I started kicking more meaningfully and finding my rhythm and speed. At around 8 to 9 hours a further source of stress was relieved when the feared stomach cramps had still not arrived. So I began to kick out and make faster progress and felt fine - the calf was no problem.

Blissfully, I began to lose track of the the number of feeds I'd had and therefore the time which had passed. I was even able to play along with Laurence's version of "extreme pictionary, this week from the English Channel", involving guessing ludicrously easy drawings on a whiteboard whilst feeding, much to their amusement.

All this was the calm before the storm though and I knew it; after what I thought had been around 14 hours but was really 12 to 13, Kevin Murphy shouted the instruction I'd been waiting to hear - "Now's the time to start pushing, Ian".

Mentally it seems like an outrage - having to swim as hard as you can after already having swum that long and hard, is tantamount to being told you've achieved nothing. And of course it's true! Not to swim hard at this stage can add literally hours to your swim if not wreck it altogether, all due to the wicked currents around the French coast.

I had in mind the news item only the day before, which described the fate of an unfortunate asylum seeker who had tried to swim from this part of the coast to Dover by herself with just a wetsuit, a few energy bars and a compass to help. One can only ponder on how desperate she must have been, but the fact that her body was found near Boulogne, having been swept around the Cap by the fierce currents and effectively further away from England than where most likely she started, provided testament to the strength of those currents, if any were needed.

The French coast seemed pretty close and I had no idea how long I had to go, but wondered if I only had to go hard for 30 minutes or so. But at the next feed when no word was given that I could slacken off and I seemed no nearer the coast, I decided just to put my head down and continue sprinting. I say "sprinting", but it's all relative and I am sure it probably looked to my crew as if I was still plodding along. But believe me, it didn't feel like it!

I had also noticed that the tide was sweeping the boat towards the Cap and I had visions of missing the coast altogether and being swept further west. What if I missed? Would that mean an extra 6 hours because of the way the coast drops away towards Boulogne? I didn't dare ask and decided just to keep going hard and not to let up until I either landed or missed the Cap.

For the next 2 hours I simply kept up the pace and didn't come in to the boat once. I had positioned myself a fair way out to get away from the diesel fumes. From that distance and with the sun sinking ever lower behind the boat, I couldn't make out what my crew were doing anyway. So I thought they were deliberately not bringing me in because it was so tense as to whether I got in to land before we were swept past the Cap. As it happens, they couldn't work out why I was ignoring their gestures to come in and feed!

But in any event, it worked out just fine as I finally saw Jane appear in a swimming costume! Then I knew that we were definitely going to make it, as she would accompany me in to shore. Then not only did she jump in, but so did Kevin and I ended up being accompanied by them on either side for the final swim - very humbling to be escorted to the beach by the 34 crossings "King of the English Channel".

Before long, as the dusk settled, I made out about 10 people on the beach just where we were heading. As I saw the bottom and my feet touched sand, I was able to start wading and heard clapping. I was being met by a reception committee of locals out for a walk on the beach who had stopped to watch my landing and to welcome me ashore!

It was a lovely way to finish after nearly 15 hours, as a little girl from the group shyly came to offer me a selection of shells and stones to choose from and take back with me. She looked nervous and, no wonder; I must have looked very odd, dragging my injured leg through the water like some monster from the deep.

We then swam back to the boat in the dark and I was happy to crawl on board to reflect on how relieved I was to have made it this time. Not even the usual sickness from my body rebelling against the undigested super-carbohydrates I'd ingested during my swim, was able to put a dampener on that!

3rd feed

Third feed done but clearly these swims are just an excuse to eat chocolate mini rolls at eight in the morning!
The sun is trying to break through the clouds and we did have five minutes of rain earlier, but on the whole it's not bad conditions....

Ian s just had his second feed and is going well. Seems to be quite a bit of weed and debris and the sea is definitely getting a bit choppy now.The suns gone in but we re hopeful it will return shortly!

We re off!

Ian set off this morning from Shakespeare Beach at approx. 5.55am. It s a bit breezy out here but not too bad, and the boys going well!