Day Three

Things are bumping along swimmingly here in Dover, England as we gear up for the cross Channel swim. Swam for just under an hour in the harbor yesterday morning with Marcy, then rushed up the beach to meet my pilot, Fred Mardle, for the first time. He's a wiry fisherman who knows the Channel well and escorted 12 successful swims (out of 14 attempts) last summer, so I know I'm in very good, experienced hands. He took us up to Folkestone yesterday to see the boat. It was VERY low tide (think of those Nat Geo photos you've probably seen of the Bay of Fundy when all the water's run out and the boats are sitting in mud for a few hours) so we couldn't board the boat-- too muddy and treacherous to get down there-- but it was a sturdy-looking, no frills fishing vessel that's seen a lot of cross Channel travel. I'm sure the Samallen, as it's called, knows the way by heart by now.

Enroute to see the boat, we drove along the sea cliffs on the way to Folkestone (which is the next town to the south of Dover where we are staying). The road was winding and wind-swept and offered gorgeous views of the green-blue water and a faint outline of the French shoreline in the distant haze. We drove right past Samphire Hoe, where my swim will start. Samphire Hoe is a bit of land that was created by the thousands of cubic tons of dirt, clay, and mud that was dredged out of the Channel when the Channel Tunnel was being built. About half of all the silt that was removed by the excavation was piled at Samphire Hoe, and it was turned into a nature reserve that blends right in with the neighboring cliffs and seaside. It was lovely. I can't wait to see it at the start of the swim.

Fred answered all our questions and really put both me and Mark at ease. On the way to his car, we actually bumped into a gentleman who had swum with Fred 10 years ago on his third attempt and first successful crossing of the Channel. Joe is now 75, so he was 65 at the time of the crossing and he and his wife had only wonderful things to say about Fred and their experience with him on the Samallen. I took it as a good omen that we bumped into them when we did.

Also yesterday, I did an interview with Marvin Pave from the Boston Globe West Edition about the upcoming swim. He was really thorough and asked a lot of interesting questions. He's going to lead off his Sunday sports column with my story, so keep your eyes peeled for that newspaper!

Today we slept in a little and got ourselves together to go down to the beach a little later than we have the past two mornings. Martin, the owner of the B&B where we're staying, offered to give us a lift to the beach. Enroute, we drove to a lookout point way up behind the guest house at the top of one of the tallest cliffs around. From there, we could see the entire harbor (and some swimmers already doing their daily workouts!) and a hazy outline of France again. The water looked calmer than yesterday, but it was still very windy. Wind is the enemy of the Channel swimmer, and hopefully it will die down this weekend.

The weather forecast for the weekend looks pretty good, and based on this, my pilot has made the preliminary estimate that we will probably be swimming on Sunday, August 2nd. That's just 4 days away! Of course, that depends on what the weather is doing, but as of right now, Metcheck, the national weather forecasting site for the UK & Ireland, is predicting a mixture of sun and clouds and wind speeds of about 7-8 mph for Sunday, good conditions for making an attempt. By comparison, today the wind speed is listed as 15-29 mph. Fingers crossed that the weather predictions hold and that Sunday brings swimmable conditions. We'll know more as the weekend approaches and any decision to swim on Sunday will be made Saturday evening at about 7pm. If I do swim on Sunday, we will likely start at about 7:30 am, which will give me all day to swim in the light, definitely a favored option.

This is getting very exciting! Stay tuned for more details...