Hi Everyone,

First off - thank you! Thank you for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

Following the huge success of last years challenging 10 mile Lake Windermere Swim, a team of Royal Navy Clearance Divers, joined by friends from the Minewarfare community, are gathering again on the 30th July.

This time we have set our sights higher still and will attempt to swim 13 miles around Portsea (Portsmouth) Island. A feat we believe that has only been completed twice before, the last of which being by Portsmouth local, Mr Brian Rann, in 1977. Needless to say Brian’s been invaluable in assisting us in our preparations and planning.

And yes - we know - we are probably mad!

The team of eight consists of Lt Cdr's, Mick Beale, John Beavis, and Richard "Soapy" Watson, Lt Dave "Stretch" Armstrong, WO1(Diver) Steve "Scouse" Vernon, CPO(D) John "Yo-Yo" Ravenhall, CPO (Minewarfare) "Pinta" Beer and former Navy Diver, CD1 Dave "Jimmy" Bond. 

The swim is in aid of three very worthy causes; Cystic Fibrosis Kids of Portsmouth (http://www.cfkids.org.uk/), Project Vernon (http://www.vernon-monument.org/) and the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity (http://www.rnrmc.org.uk).

Having chosen the CFK as one of our charities for this year, we heard of one of the many inspirational children there, Ella Hamza. On hearing of Ella's love of swimming, she was recently invited to Horsea Island, the home of Navy Diving, to brave the cold water of the infamous 1km training lake. Unperturbed by the prospect of conga eels and jellyfish, she amazed us all with her tenacity and spirit.

We are honoured to say that she will join us for the challenging last 5km leg of the swim.

Having started out from Eastney Beach around 10am, heading anti-clockwise around Portsea Island, the team will be joined by Ella in the vicinity of Spinnaker Tower at around 1pm. We will then continue on toward Eastney aiming to be there from 3pm onwards. It would be fantastic to see you there!

So over to you! We’d really appreciate any donation that you could make; we hope that this challenge and charities are worthy of your hard earnt pennies!

Equally there will be an opportunity to donate in person on the day if you so wish; either way every bit counts!

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Once again thanks for visiting; hope to see you on the day and please, please donate now.