Tori here again…just wanted to first thank everyone who has been keeping track of our progress. Thank you for all of your prayers and warm wishes, we couldn’t have made it without them.
As for the swim…we hope to provide an hourly play by play at some point when we return, but this computer here is a bit slow…so you’ll have to settle for a condensed summary from my point of view…
We set off on our walk toward the marina at 2:30am. We passed a few other channel swimmers on their way to meet their pilots. We arrived at our boat, the Anastasia, and hopped on board to meet our pilot Eddie, his crew mate Dave, and our observer Irene. They looked a bit tired, but we were ready to go. We got ourselves settled on board while the crew did their thing. My parents came to see us off and my Dad prayed over us for our swim. At about 3:30am we set off for the Dover shore, the starting point for all swimmers.
The night was dark, the ocean was dark, and it was extremely foggy. It took about 30 minutes for us to get to the shore. We found out that the first swimmer (me) would have to swim to the shore, climb out so that Irene could see my toes, and then start the swim. It still didn’t seem real to me at this point, and I would be jumping in the water in a matter of minutes. So I threw on my cap and goggles and once the boat stopped, gave everyone a high-five, and headed down the ladder. Dave said “on ya go darling” and I jumped into the channel without thinking. It was about 58 degrees at this point. I swam so fast to shore (mostly because I was scared out of my mind but also because it was FREEZING), ran out, then headed straight back in towards the boat.
The first half hour was dark. I had a flashing light that clipped onto my goggle straps, but the second half hour the sun starting rising. Unfortunately we couldn’t really see it rise because of the fog. For the first hour, Trista and Kiersten rode on the front of the boat and watched me the whole time. That was so encouraging since I was still adapting to what was happening and every stroke I could see their smiling faces. Lauren would flash her bright orange pom-pom to let me know I had 10 minutes left. It felt like 30. So at the hour Dave waved me to stop while Kiersten climbed down the ladder and jumped in. I then swam to the ladder and climbed out.
Since I could go on and on about everything, and at some point when we have time we will, I’ll just put some thoughts together.
Once out of the water, I could barely move and couldn’t speak because my body was so violently shivering. Lauren and Claire were absolutely amazing during this part of the swim for us. They would dry us off, help us take off our suits, layer us in clothes, and help us sip some hot tea. It took about 45 minutes of intense shivering for my body to become normal again. The first time out, I was terribly nervous that in 2 hours I wouldn’t be warm enough to get back in. Thankfully, we warmed up fully after about an hour, and then had another hour to mentally prepare for another swim.
We ran into some jellyfish in the channel. Trista managed to not see any, because she kept her eye on the boat the whole time. I swam over 4 jellyfish at different times, then decided Trista’s idea of only looking at the boat was a good one. Unfortunately, in doing that, we both hurt our sholders pretty bad because we were breathing every single stroke to the same side. Bad form, but it helped us mentally. Kiersten was more brave and breathed to both sides during her swims. She did, however, encounter 2 jellyfish which stung her on her arm and her chin. They seemed to like her.
Sea sickness wasn’t a real problem once we learned to not go inside the cabin. Eddie, Dave and Irene stayed in the cabin most of the time. After my first swim, I thought it’d be best to warm up down there, but with all of the shivering and the boat rocking, I felt totally sick to my stomach. So unless we had to use the bathroom, we stayed up on deck for the whole swim even though it was colder.
Eddie kept track of the water temperature and told us that for my second hour, the water was at 54 degrees, then 55 for Kiersten’s second, and 56 for Trista’s. It’s a very good thing he didn’t tell us that before we got in. After about 30 minutes, our arms and feet were completely numb but yet we could still feel pain in our arms…
Eddie also told us that we were really strong swimmers. He tried to keep us on track for a 10 hour swim and that was what we were hoping for. However, once we hit French waters during hour 6 (Trista’s second swim) the current took us a little bit off track. At this point we had all gone 3 times, Eddie told me I would have to get back in, but it might not be a full hour. I can’t tell you how much I was hoping for 15 minutes. Kiersten and Trista were hoping that they were done. Unfortunately because of the current, I had another full hour and Kiersten also had to get back in. At this point the fog had lifted and we could see the shore of France. That was an incredible feeling, to set eyes on land. Eddie told Kiersten that it would be close, but that she could make it to France on her turn.
Fortunately the water was up to around 60 degrees at this point, but the water was much more rough than before. Being her 4th hour and dead tired from fighting the current, Kierst was about 3 minutes away from shore when her hour ran out. Trista had to get back in and she was definitely ready to finish us out. Eddie’s boat was pretty large, and similarly to the shore of Dover, he couldn’t go all the way into the French shore. Dave got into a smaller boat attached to Eddie’s and followed Kiersten and Trista in. Irene had Trista jump in and follow behind Kiersten until her hour was completely up. Then Trista passed her and swam to shore. Kiersten also swam into shore so at almost the same time the two of them were completely on French ground, and completed our swim together. It worked out pretty cool that I could start, and the two of them could finish.
6 Channel swimmers along with their accompanying boats left the Dover shore early that morning. Only 2 made it to France. We aren’t sure if the other four were relays or solo swimmers, but they had to turn back because of the cold water. Besides a 2 person male relay that crossed last week, we were the first swimmers to cross the Channel successfully in 2009 without wet suits.
It was an incredible feeling to be done. Kiersten and Trista were brought back to the boat by Dave and we all had a good hug and took some pictures. Lauren had brought a bottle of sparkling wine that we had some sips of in celebration. Then Eddie took us back to England through the fog, another 2 and a half hours on the boat. My parents met us at the dock with flowers. We took pictures with Eddie, Dave, and Irene and gave them many thanks for their encouragement along the way and for getting us across safely.
We were finally walking back to our bed & breakfast around 7pm, total time on the boat being about 15 hours. We were hoping we would be able to celebrate that night, but soon realized we’d rather just go to sleep. Today our arms are really sore, it’s hard to raise them at all. All our faces are burnt, our backs have a wonderful speedo tanline, and we’re still pretty physically tired. But these things were totally and completely worth the effort for Lauren and for people all over dealing with MS. All that we had hoped and prayed for came through to reality. It’s still hard to believe that we actually made it.
Well if you read that, I hope it made sense. We’ll be back to the states on July 12thth where we can tell you more about our own personal experiences and answer any questions. Thanks to everyone again for all of your support!!! This really happened…
