English Channel - 10 July 2011
The English Channel is the 21-mile crossing from England to France. The English Channel is the classic, the one everyone has heard of. It's the classic, the one everyone has heard of, the one I walked away from as a boy, the reason I started again decades later.
Facts & Background
Distance: 21 miles (34 kilometres)
Route: Dover, England, to the French coast near Calais
Governing body: Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation (CS&PF) or the Channel Swimming Association (CSA)
Cost (as at 2011): £2,300 for pilot escort, plus a £260 fee to the CS&PF
The English Channel is the benchmark of long distance swimming. Tides produce a distinctive S-shaped track, and swimmers can cover up to 35 miles through the water, the extra distance created entirely by currents.
The first crossing was made by Captain Matthew Webb in 1875, a triumph that captured the public imagination and proved long distance swimming as a serious endurance pursuit. The next did not occur until 1911, the gap highlighting his achievement.
The Channel is the busiest shipping lane in the world so only 12 escort boats are allowed on the water at any one time. Swims normally take place between June and October with water temperatures from 13 to 18 degrees. An official observer ensures the rules are followed: one cap, a standard costume, no touching the boat, and no physical assistance.
By the early 2010s, over 1,000 solo swimmers had successfully made the crossing.
Photographs from the Day
Captain Matthew Webb was the first to make it across in 1875. It took 36 years before the next person made it.
As well as the distance, the cold and the weather, the challenge is finding a slot. The number of attempts is limited across one of the busiest shipping routes in the world, where large vessels aren’t going to stop.
Original Film of the Swim
I've kept some of the documents from the swim, including the observer's report and the write-up I made immediately afterwards.