Follow us on Instagram (racingthetideiow).

As many of you know, Dave and I have been talking about swimming around the Isle of Wight for the past year. Our swimming journey started two years ago when I moved to London. Since then, every Sunday morning, a group of us swam in any bit of cold water we could find. It became our 'club' and kept us all going throughout the pandemic. After nearly a year of (often dark!) Sunday morning swimming, we were ready for a challenge to fundraise for charities we felt strongly about supporting.

Circumnavigating the Isle of Wight is a crazy swim. It's 62 miles starting and finishing in Ryde and will take us around 32 hours. This swim is not going to be easy. 

Those of you familiar with the waters around the island know it has some of the most challenging tides to navigate for sailors, let alone swimmers! We plan to swim on 28/29 August with the largest spring tide of the year. This gives us the best chance of completing the swim but pits us against 4.5 knots per hour tides if we don't make our timings. We are "racing the tide" around the Isle of Wight. 

As you know, I am an Army Education and Training Services (ETS) Officer who believes deeply in supporting military personnel as they transition back to civilian life; something the ETS delivers to service personnel. 

'REORG' is a charity that "helps those who helped us". They were set up to support injured veterans and expanded their remit to help ex-emergency service personnel find mental and physical wellbeing through group sports participation. Much like the comradeship we have gained from swimming in a group, Reorg places veterans (who  have suffered or at risk of suffering life changing injuries both mental and physical as a result of their service) in a 'fitness family' with others in their nearby civilian community. Reorg uses inclusive group sports to build mental resilience and provide emotional support for its users in place of the service family they once had. An additional military charity will also be supported through this challenge. 

I ask you to support us in whatever way you can and make this swim special. Of course, we would like you to sponsor us as much as possible (we would love to hit 6 figures for these charities!), but we also want you to join us on our journey and encourage as many of your friends and colleagues to do so. We will be giving live updates throughout the swim on istagram. This will help encourage us! Hopefully, along the way, you will learn with us something about new swimming techniques, exposure to cold water, mindset, and resilience.

Please sponsor our swim and follow us on Instagram (racingthetideiow). Get in touch, be involved and come with us on this crazy journey, Racing the tide around the Isle of Wight!