Our trip is now a fond memory. When people ask, “so what was it like?”, the words are still hard to find. It’s usually just, “well…it was amazing, the water was incredibly cold, I still can’t believe we did it”. And it’s true. I sometimes have to look at pictures to remind myself of what we accomplished during those grueling 11 hours. I think one thing that I’m still amazed at, is how we acquired the $15,000 in fundraising. Not a cent of that money came from a large company or business. It all came from friends and family in small amounts, that added up to be so much more. I will forever think back on this experience and remember many things…the fear of dark water, the reluctance to get back in the cold water, the repetitiveness of the fog horn, the non-stop shivering, the first sight of France…but one thing I’ve learned (besides to remember my camera charger when traveling) is that anything can be accomplished when you have  such unbelievable support from genuinely kind and caring people. And if you’re reading this, then you’re one of them, and so again we say thank you.

Speaking of kind people, Lauren is doing amazing. She recently went to the doctor for an MRI to determine how the disease was progressing (or not progressing) in her body. I can’t be more happy to report that her disease has not progressed AT ALL and some of her lesions have in fact, become smaller. You can’t get much better news than that, and for this we are very grateful that our prayers have been answered. Lauren was our lifeline that day, no way we would have made it without her. (you too MaryClare)

So here they are…some pictures of the swim for those of you who don’t have facebook. Simply click on “More Photos” on the sidebar to the right and you’ll be directed to my flickr page. I’ve been having trouble with the display on the page (sorry), but am working on it. Once to flickr, you can click on the Channel Swim Album to the right where the ordering of the pictures will make sense. I will try my best to add more photos sometime in the future, but I can’t make any promises. Enjoy

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…

 Tori here….So we made it to Dover. It’s absolutely beautiful. Our Bed & Breakfast is walking distance from the harbor where all the channel swimmers practice. On arrival we met with our boat pilot Eddie, quite hard to understand with such a thick British accent. He is VERY positive and optimistic in our making it across which was comforting after he mentioned that we are his first swim of the season and those who have gone before us, have all gone against regulation and worn wet suits.  He gave us all the info we needed and so we set off to take  a swim in the harbor.

No one was out at this time because it was around 5:00pm here but we thought it would be good to  test the water. The water was as cold as expected, but MUCH more murky than I had thought. When looking underwater, you can’t see past the elbow of your arm…yikes.

Today we got up and ate breakfast where we were able to talk  a bit with our host, Allister. He said that he has had many, many channel swimmers stay with him, and NONE  have showed up and swam right away. We are the first. The weather here is unusual to Dover, a whole week that looks clear and sunny. Allister said he has had a woman stay for 2 months straight because the weather was never good enough to swim. Just another thing that has fallen right into place, and I don’t think a coincidence at all.

Our swim in the harbor this morning was amazing. COLD as ever, but truly amazing. The fog was thick, but if you looked up to the mountains, you could see the cliffs and the top of the Dover castle peeking through the clouds. There were about 25 other channel swimmers all in the water with us, swimming back and forth. We were instructed to stay close to shore because of the fog. We swam for about 40 minutes, my arms were almost numb at that point but it gave us all confidence that an hour won’t be too bad. Right? What was really cool about our swim in the harbor was that Lauren (our friend we’re swimming for) got into her suit and joined us for the whole practice. Goes to show how awesome and supportive she is, and she didn’t complain about the cold either.

Everyone that we’ve talked to who has swam the channel, has instructed us to find Frieda Streeter at the harbor. She is known among all channel swimmers because she knows everything there is to know. Her daughter Allison is the “queen of the channel” and rightly so as she has crossed the channel solo 43 times, the most by any one person. Frieda sold us our glow sticks for the dark part of our swim, and this powder mix that she swears by called Maxim. She gave us all a big hug and a kiss and said “don’t look up, just keep swimming and swimming”.

So now we wait. We’ll eat dinner then head to bed at 7pm. We’ll be up around 2:30 am to make our walk down to meet Eddie on his boat. From the marina he will take us to where all of the swimmers start their swim. And we’ll start our attempt across the channel at 4am. The water will be cold, the air will be cold, the sun won’t be shining, but everything so far has come into place and we’re ready to go. We have our snacks, our drinks, our warm clothes but no duck fat. Frieda says it won’t do any good for an hour, so we’ll trust her. No need in getting all greasy for nothing. Eddie is hopeful that we’ll finish in 10 hours. I pray that he’s right. Don’t worry, Lauren and our friend Claire will be on the boat the whole time taking pictures and video of our attempt to conquer the 21 – 30 miles.

Well I’m off to talk with God for a bit and get mentally prepared for the dark part of the swim. Next blog will be all about our swimming (and boating) experience. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers and thank you to all who have been with us throughout our year and half journey to this place. We couldn’t have done it alone. I still can’t believe this is really happening…

**I cannot think of anything to add from tori’s post except…THINK WARM THOUGHTS tonight before you all go to sleep!! xo Kiersten

 IN OUR ENDEAVOR TO SWIM THE ENGLISH CHANNEL!!!!!

We will be swimming June 29, 2009!!!!

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