English Channel

Hi all
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All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dream with open eyes to make it possible. T.E. Lawrence


It is early Friday morning, on a blowy but clear August 7th. Whilst many are fast asleep, we nervously make our way to Samphire Hoe, a beach near Dover.


At 00:45 wearing just a regular swim costume, a latex cap, and a pair of swim goggles our first swimmer, Karen, leaves the comforts of the shore and slips into the icy cool dark waters. And so begins our journey to France.


The night swim is the roughest part with gale force winds reaching 5-6 making the already cold and very choppy seas even more foreboding. What else will the channel hold for us?


It's 01:45 and now it's my turn. The first thing I notice is the complete isolation and sensory deprivation. However I am totally enthralled by the plankton as its phosphorescence glows as your hand passes through it. This is probably why I set off in the wrong direction. It takes some time for me to hear the team shouting at me, I look up and wonder what on earth the boat is doing all the way over there?


With the second hour complete, thankfully Jamie takes over, as I now have a full body shiver going on. I think that Jamie had the worst start, waiting for 2 hours, dealing with the motion of the boat and contemplating what is about to happen.


On your day, in the dark, in the middle of the ocean, you can find out what kind of man you are - the one who quits or the one who swims. It would be so easy to quit. All I need to do is reach out and touch the boat, then it will all be over. I could climb aboard, put on some warm clothes and have a hot drink. But to swim on in the dark with my imagination going wild, motion sickness taking its toll, shivering uncontrollably with the cold, and depleted energy stores making my body desperately scavenge for more, what reason is there to continue? Then I remember the cause; the money we are raising for brainstrust and I notice that the sun is rising, the ocean is calming. That’s it, I'm a swimmer. Life is good.


We are feeling confident as we pass the midpoint of the swim. During this part of the journey, we make it look easy and carefree, well as carefree as you can be when traversing the ice cold waters of the English Channel.


By 11 hours we are less than a mile from shore but the tide has turned and is pulling us up the coast towards Calais. Each time we look up we are reminded how close to shore we are but the strength of the currents makes it so hard to swim forward to land. We know that our job is simply to swim hard now and think later. My throat is raw, reminding me that I am swallowing so much salt water. I feel like I'm slowly drowning.


Karen is swimming the 12th hour. She is nearly there but unfortunately for her hour is up. The final sprint to shore is mine. What a feeling. Standing up with out being rocked as a crowd of holiday makers make their way over to me. I quickly clear the water line because if one of them touches me before I clear the water line the swim will be classed as a fail. Karen and Jamie jump from the boat too and are close behind me making that final swim to shore. Now we are all on the beach smiling, happy and posing for a few pictures. We collect a couple of pebbles to keep as mementoes and swim back to the boat and back to Dear Old Blighty.


Steve McMenamin channel swimmer 13hrs 18mins


I have learned to set goals with "failure potential." Do not be afraid to fail. In fact, risk failing. If you have never failed, you are not trying hard enough. Mark Twain said, "twenty years from now, we will be more disappointed by the things we didn't do than by the things we did." It feels so much better when you achieve something that once seemed so difficult. The Channel seemed pretty impossible to me once, and I have had plenty of failures, losses, and bad races along the way. That's what makes the finish line so rewarding.


You may ask why do such things. I have a lot of varied answers to this question but basically sometimes you have to explore if you have what it takes. Will I reach out and touch that boat or will I swim on?


Many thanks to the dozens of people who took the time to respond and email/text me, you've been an inspiration. The amount raised is amazing and we are truly grateful to you. So far your donations (£2200 and still growing daily) would buy 36 brainboxes or pay for two MRI scans or pay for 7 private consultations, which could save 7 lives. Brilliant!


Until next time, au revoir
H2O: two parts Heart and one part Obsession

PS
One of my team mates has also written a good review at http://www.thelongswim.blogspot.com/
If you can get access http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YJBNExMwU0