I'm Swimming to France

I have been traing since May and now finally my alotted window has come round from now till the 9th Oct, anytime 24 hrs a day. So wish me luck anyone who wants to follow my progress Go to Twitter and look for jonswims2france. It’s my lifes dream to do this so invested some of my redundancy from April to make it happen and 1000’s of lengths later I’ll be off.

Good luck! What a great challenge, something I would like to do one day.

well done! 8) and good luck

good luck!

looks a bit chilly out there to me!

Sorry wrong forum now in chat

Good luck

Crikey! Good on you and good luck.

You do know there is a ferry goes that way? 😉

Good luck

Nuts

Are you wearing a wetsuit?

Good luck Jon!

Best of British…!

wow… hope it all goes to plan. good on you.

just out of interest, what does the training involve ? Obviously lots of swimming but how do you structure that in a pool, and what about food ?

Kev

Brilliant. Good luck to you! Come back and let us know how you get on.

Yeah, France is nice. Go for it.

Fair play to you lad. Don’t forget to tuck your passport into your speedos.

you must be mad

but good luck!

cool, chapeau’s off to you

i don’t think you’re allowed to wear a wetsuit are you, trunks only??

Will you be rubbing yourself in goose fat?

you know there is a tunnel and a ferry service?

How will you take your bike, and other luggage?

In the book “Swimming to Antarctica” by Lynne Cox (a great read btw) she details her cross channel swim attempt at the age of 15 – which broke the all-time record.

The chapter was really interesting, I’d never realised how technical it is to swim the Channel. How you have to wait and judge the exact currents and tides as well as having an expert navigator/captain to guide you. You end up swimming in a big “S” to negate the tides so the distance covered is much further than the A to B. THen the actual landing is really tough too.

Whole thing sounds bloody impossible!

Hats off to heresjonny for having a go. Best of luck!

He will be smearing himself in fat coz the swim isn’t officially counted if you wear a wetsuit.

It’s just about warm enough for non wetsuitage (this was Sunday):

Mind you, the distance was about 1/100th of what you will be doing!

Duck fat on your amrmpits and right up under your groin…

Well that’s how I treated myself after the last time I swam the Channel.

Good luck and don’t block your blowhole!

Is there some kind of passport control? I wonder what the legalities are. What if you stayed in France? Would you be there illegally?

Can you bring me back some wine and some cheese please?

Yes, you’re only allowed to stay for 90 minutes or sommat IIRC.

Why on earth would you not wear a wetsuit when it’s an option Mat!? I was swimming on Saturday and it was chuffing cold, that was only a lake too.

Not tomorrow , as its a F6 gusting F7 for most of the day = an almighty head wind , and will set up a fairly hefty wave too. Its supposed to start SSE then swing S or SSW. Monday F7 forcast as well.
Good luck with the swim thing, You would have enjoyed living where i do , its 100m from the Solent, so sea swimming very accessable.

Can you get me some tobacco and 10 cases of wine please 😉
Oh yeah forgot GOOD LUCK!

njee – the lake was probably colder than the sea TBH! Sea is about 15 degrees so warmish. I just prefer swimming sans wetsuit. Obviously there’ll be no choice as it cools down more!

To the OP – is it for charity or anything?

Nice one.

Some friends of mine attempted recently and were forced to give up about half a mile from the french coast. 🙁

Could be 6.30am monday just spoke to the skipper. Passport needed but only to leave UK I think allowed 5 mins on french soil, before passport comes into effect. Going for a sudocream and vasaline mix so no goose or sheeps fat for me, only works on chaffing prevention no thermal capacity in it. Will post a link to final report when I get back and can move again. Just pray for a bit of sunshine I can look at, and flat calm sea pleeeeaaasssseeeee…..