Some time in the week beginning 11 July, along with 4 friends, I will be attempting to swim the English Channel both ways – to France AND BACK.
Each of us will be swimming for an hour at a time in strict rotation. All being well, and subject to wind and tides, the 2 crossings should take between 25 and 30 hours.
I’ve been training in the sea with my team mates since the end of January. Until April we were in wetsuits. Since then we have been wearing just speedos, goggles, hat and a hint of Vaseline as we have tried to build up our tolerance to cold water (initially 12 degrees, now a balmy 16 degrees) as well as getting used to waves, seaweed, jellyfish and other sundry hazards.
The straight line distance from Dover to Calais is 22 miles, however the effect of tides means that we will need to cover approximately 35 miles with just a couple of minutes on the beach in France before repeating the ordeal for another 35 odd miles on the return journey to England.
Between each swim, each of us will be attempting to feed, sleep and warm up on our pilot boat, Anastasia while our team mates inch us towards our destination.
Our exact start date is dependent on the weather. I will post an update as soon as I know when we are due to depart.
 If interested, you can track our progress in real time on the Channel Swimming Pilots’ Federation Website here:

http://cspf.co.uk/swim-routes

Select: Anastasia from the list of pilot vessels and enter the relevant date range.

The team members are funding all costs of the crossing ourselves so  any donations will go entirely to charity
Many thanks for your support
Tim

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