Last year: After being pulled from the English Channel in June 2009, then running from London to Dover again in September 2009 and unable to swim because of strong winds, Enduroman, the boat skipper and Nicky reorganised and agreed another attempt the Neap tide 16th – 24th August 2010. A good slot in the middle of the swim season?
Nicky had booked a house in Folkestone for the whole of August he was taking no chances. It was good to meet Nicky and his family again, (his support) all of us in high spirits as we discussed the basic plan and then as with every event involving the sea waited on the weather. We watched and waited and waited as nothing swimmable showed. The whole week blown out, no one was swimming, so no A2A attempt. Unbelievable.
Reorganise: After talking through options and availability it was decided to wait it out until the end of the next neap tide ( Neap fully booked) and wait for another chance during the spring tide from 6th to 13th September. For Nicky this meant a long hard wait, loss of some support crew, move of accommodation, and watch Jay Goss achieve the A2A to name a few. “A nightmare as all he could do is wait it out and hope for the chance”.
Nicky and the support were put on standby from Saturday 4th Sept as we had planned to allow 40hours from the start of run to start of the first swim day being Monday 6th. On Sunday 5th in the evening after the last weather forecasts and much deliberation the decision to start the run was made. The run would start 0530 on Monday 6th to enable us to be ready to use a forecasted window of opportunity and start the swim on high water or an hour before high water on Tuesday night the 7th September.
The Run: After a few photos, a hand shake from me and Julian “Enduroman number 3 who cycled from home into the City to see Nicky start” and a kiss from Nicole his daughter, support, masseur and almost every thing else as it was only be me and Nicole on the run leg. The run clock started at 05 30 sharp. Nicky delighted to be going at long last looked happy and proved it by running strong and controlled with a happy face all the way down to Dover pretty much, even through a few hours of very heavy rain during the late night when I am sure most people would question their reason for wanting to do such an event.
Nicky was supported brilliantly by Nicole, had a surprise visit late evening from Duncan Philips an Arch to Arc contender next year and with the support by all on the forum, his spirits stayed high.
After a very respectable 21.24.38 Nicky finished through the swim pillars on Dover sea front. (To look into Dover harbour and across the Channel he was about to attempt).
We drove straight back to Folkestone to clean up, rest and eat before the swim start. The weather forecast still showed the opportunity to swim but there was a question mark, would the window remain and last long enough. With no option but to wait and see we slept a while. First thing in the morning we checked the shipping forecasts, looked at latest updates on web sites and spoke again to boat skippers. Even after all that we still could not be certain, so we waited again until after the final weather forecasts of the day at 7 pm on Tuesday evening the night of the swim. The word from boat skipper came just after the forecasts he was happy to go and so we made the final preparations.
We arrived at Dover Marina 22.00hrs to load the boat and motor to swim start which was the wall of Sanfire Hoe, about 20minutes from the marina. Nicky was absolutely ready, he knew from previous experience what was needed of him and was more than able to deliver.
The swim started Tuesday 7th in complete darkness (except the one light to show the wall) at 23.12hrs on the mid point of Sanfire Hoe in flat seas with a slight swell and next to no wind. The swim progressed very well with Nicky maintaining a 72 stroke rate. The sea remained good for all the night but started to chop up as the sun rose and day broke. The chop gave Nicky nothing to worry about but was bad but enough to make swimming uncomfortable at times. The day started with blue skies but started to change quite quickly and by 8am a light drizzle had started, with that came a little more breeze and reduced visibility. The breeze was not too much of a problem as it was coming from the same direction as the tide but we knew when the tide turns the sea would rough up a bit. We did not expect the dramatic change in conditions that transpired and in quite a short period of time the boat and crew are being thrown around and Nicky had to really fight just to get a breath at times. The feeds which were being giving every 30mins became difficult and started to take longer. The reason for this was Nicky was being pushed away from boat and having to swim all the way back before ever making any headway. Also after approximately two hours of very tough swimming with the skipper monitoring closely his progress it became apparent that Nick was not making headway and was not going to get to land on this tide. Nicky was being pushed straight up the French coast which meant he would have to keep swimming in the rough conditions for another 6hours at least only then giving himself the chance to break through to land on the next tide. Nicky had already been swimming for around 12 hours when the skipper asked the question can Nicky swim in the conditions we have now for that extra amount of time.
The support team, myself, Lynn his wife, Tom his swim coach, the skipper and crew discussed the options and it was decided that I explain to Nicky the situation. A determined Nicky decided he would fight through the rough in the hope things would get better. During the next hour the conditions worsened slightly, Nicky was still not making headway which meant the boat engines were out of gear for long periods and was being tossed around like a cork. The decision to take Nicky from the water was very hard for all but made for his safety and all aboard. The swim finished at 12.22 just a few miles from the coast of France. All aboard were absolutely gutted.
There is one absolute with English Channel swimming: If the weather is not on your side you will not swim across no matter how good a swimmer you are.