Being a 17 year old, writes Max Hodgkinson, swimming the channel is by far one of the most impressive things I've done in my life, and of course as many of you swimmers will know, there are a lot of life lessons to be learnt from every channel crossing.
I was extremely surprised to be told I was on a channel relay team when I received the phone call on a Friday evening just over a month ago, especially as I didn't seem to have any choice in the matter. So my first lesson was quite simply, never mention how you would "quite like to swim the channel some day" to Rob Ouldcott over a curry as I had done the day before! Although I was somewhat shocked, I was delighted to think that I would be visiting France in a month's time. The next few weeks were extremely eventful, I did my qualifier the next day, I met the rest of the team - four other 17 year old lads and Benny - down in Dover two weeks later and after one more training session at Dover the big day arrived.
So, on the 7th of July, we set off bright and early on Sea Farer II and we were on our way. I was the second swimmer in the team so I jumped in the water at 8:30 for my hour slot. It took about quarter of an hour, and my first sighting of a rather large blue monster of a jelly fish, to remind me of my "slight" phobia of swimming in the sea, but my second lesson of the swim was that sometimes you just have to tough on and keep swimming, which I did.
We, as a team, were lucky enough to have "King Kevin Murphy" on board with us for the crossing, and those of you who have met Kevin will understand what I mean when I say that during the chats we had between swims, life lessons 3-100 came from his extraordinarily large bank of knowledge.
As you would guess, the middle hours of the swim where pretty much the same, waves every now and then, some big boats, numerous jelly fish and far more enjoyably, the numerous jelly babies! However, the last and probably most memorable event came merely 200m from the French shore as the mighty Sea Farer II encountered an even mightier force as the rope of a lobster pot got caught up around the propeller. As it was dark, the pilot wouldn't let the final swimmer and his safety swimmer set off for shore alone as he feared they wouldn't be able to find the boat again amongst the many lights of Boulogne. They had to tread water for half an hour while a punctured inflatable dingy was deployed, but due to the fact that the petrol had been spilt out onto Benny when it was being transferred onto the dingy, they had to row. Finally, the idea of the dingy was scrapped and when everyone but the swimmers were back on board, the pilot reversed the boat and the rope whizzed off the propellor and we were back on our way for the final 200 glory meters. 16h and 52min after having set off, we landed in France!
Over all, the relay was an incredible experience that I will remember for years to come, and I have to admit that somehow, despite my fear of swimming in the sea, it has really tempted me to swim a solo some time in the future (but i won't mention that to Rob)
(Max Hodgkinson)
The time will be officially confirmed at a later date by the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation.
