When the time comes.......

On Sunday, Chris Boland, our team organiser called and said that Pace Arrow (our boat for the Channel) had been recorded headed to France on AIS (a tracking system) and we should prepare ourselves as we were next in line. He hadn't managed to get hold of Paul Foreman, our pilot, but be ready to go any that night as the next tide was around 1am. Adam was up early to go shooting with his uncle, but I declined as I wanted to be prepared in case the call came in so I stayed behind and did the cleaning and shopping! The last track on AIS showed Pace Arrow about a quarter of the way across at 6am, but there were no further updates and Chris couldn't get any news from Paul. Finally around 5pm Chris texted to say Paul was in but the weather meant a swim was unlikely. He was going home to check the weather and consult a second opinion from Mike Oram of the CS&PF and would let us know by 8pm. At 7pm the call finally came from Chris that we were to assemble in Dover by 11.30pm for a 1am start.

I must admit to having a little wibble at this stage - after all the waiting I had begun to wish it would be called off as it had taken up so much off my time and energy and I felt so unprepared when the final call came in that heading down to Dover at midnight on no sleep to swim through a forecasted rough sea in the dark didn't seem particularly appealing! After some calming words from Ad, I hit the road. I am always better once I am alone. While I am with family and people who care about me I can resort to being a bit pathetic knowing the will look after me and tell me it is ok and still care about me if I can't do something. Once I am out there on my own I get tougher, it is just me then and I have to get on with things. Especially with a team of people I haven't met whose dreams also rely on me to get it together.

I arrived in Dover around 10.45 so grabbed a quick 20mins nap in the car before meeting up with Chris and the two members of the team I hadn't yet met, Andy and Mike. We got out bags together and set off round the marina to meet up with Paul Foreman, our pilot, Graham, his mechanic and Michelle, our official observer. Paul explained the weather forecast and how the swim was going to go and we confirmed our names and order of swim with Michelle. There was one other boat due to go out with a soloist - Eddie Spelling, who I have a relay booked with next year - so we waited until they were prepared to set off together before heading out. We headed through the dark out of the harbour round the coast to Shakespeare Bay where we were due to swim from. Andy, our first swimmer, got prepared and on the approach to the bay, dove in and swam to shore ready to start. Once he was clear of the water, he raised a hand and on Michelle's signal waded back into the water to start our swim. It was 01.32am......