Gibraltar

It’s been a long time in the making but our date for the Gibraltar swim finally came. Splitting the team in two brought its own challenges, as despite a short swimming distance of 15.5 km, we would need to swim as much as in any of the other channels. Now we were two 3 person teams, in the water for a half hour with just one hour off.

We had a briefing as soon as we arrived in Tarifa. The take home message was, “if you are lucky to get the correct conditions you would need to complete the swim in six hours or you will be pulled”.

And so the usual waiting game began. Hydration was high on the agenda as indeed tapering after the intensive training months in the pool, Curacloe, Ballytrent and Baginbun. We found a bar close by and considered our fait.

We arrived in Spain on the Tuesday and got word Saturday afternoon that we were swimming the following morning. The nerves set in. The teams – James, Enda and Denise with Peter, Andrew and Sandra making up the second team.

We met in the port at 7.15 am, had a quick introduction to the crew. Kate and Audrey came as backup and support. The morning was dark and cold. The crew were a little perplexed that we were attempting the swim in skins as water temperature was 18 degrees!!

It took just 10 minutes to reach our starting point, and at 8.00 am Peter and James swam to the cliff. The swell was big enough and sucked James into the rocks where he got bashed and cut. We were off. There was a strong current against us for the first leg, but with Peter, the Bullet Bolger, chasing Hillbilly James we left Spain and with it Europe heading for the continent of Africa.

Enda and Andrew were next up. It was Andrews first crossing. He was as cool as a cucumber although I’m sure he was shitting bricks like the rest of us. They swam together like they had been doing so all their life and made excellent progress.

Sandra and Denise made a swift and clean exchange in the water with the boys. Christine, the captain, said they would have a good current for their swim but the sea had a different plan. They were swept up the channel and really had to struggle to make any progress.

As soon as they got out and Peter and James took over, the tide change and was in our favour for the bulk of the swim.

Lots of dolphins were spotted at the halfway point which we reached in good time. While water temperature was lovely swimming conditions were challenging. There was a decent swell with wind speed picking up. Thankfully the wind was at our back making breathing manageable.

The wind was no help when you got back into the boat. I think we all struggled to warm up and inevitable got back into the water cold.

All in all, while swimming for a half hour is easy enough we all found the fourth swim hard going. Andrew and Enda had the honour of finishing what was to be our fifth successful channel crossing against a difficult cross current.

It was a great experience enjoyed by all topped by a wonderful sense of achievement.

Thanks to all our supporters, family and friends at home cheering us all. In particular, a special thanks to Heike who drilled us and drove us from the beginning to succeed.