It's time to congratulate Dani Lobo, our club handicapper who set swim for France at 02:59 Wednesday 20 August, arriving 14 hours and 43 minutes later. Dani is the 16th Spaniard to have successfully swam solo across the English Channel.
There was a surprise start to Dani's swim as he set off early, gaining a full minute on his scheduled 3am start. That 02:59 wave by Dani from the beach was done with our hero wolf swimmer being in a relaxed state of mind. Chronolofgical updates were added throughout the day on this page.
Dani's support crew sent tweets from his account here. Support for Dani include Nick Adams, Henry Fischel Bock, Alan Luckhurst, George Cselko, Sarah Lewis and Rod Newing who were all on boat pilot Paul Foreman's Optimist. Please wish them all well via Dani's Twitter account @dmlobo
Many interesting donations to the anti-slavery charity which Dani swims for are visible here:
Websites for tracking the progress of Dani with Optimist are as below:
Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation website tracker here Spot tracker here
And should either of these not send a signal at any point, you can also check here on the Marine Traffic site
Following a last minute decision, Dani also chose to help a charity who tackle child exploitation. Or as Dani said "I have two stories, the short one and the other one."
The Short Version (2 minutes):
I will swim the English Channel sometime between 17 and 24 August, and am seizing the opportunity to raise funds for Love146 an organization that works to end child trafficking and exploitation. You can make a donation here:
The Long Version (about 25 min, video included):
As you may know, I have been preparing for a solo Channel crossing for the last two years. My fat belly is proof of the hard training I've had to endure just to be ready to stand on Shakespeare Beach, or Samphire Hoe and plod my way to France .My chance to make the Serps proud will most likely be between the 17th and 24th of August.
I was not going to do any fundraising, but I had a change of heart after I saw Vivienne Harr, 9 years old, talk about how upset she was when she saw children being enslaved and forced to work instead of behaving as children like herself. She did something about it, and started selling lemonade to raise money to fight this problem.
Her tiny lemonade stand is now a company that dedicates part of the profits from making lemonade to end child slavery and trafficking.
Her story inspired me to do something about this very real and current problem, which we all think is history but it really is not. My research brought me to Love146 an organisation that fights to end child trafficking and exploitation.
I decided to raise funds for them and I got in touch with them here in the UK. They were very happy that I decided to raise funds for them. Coincidentally, they are about to open the first home survivor care of trafficked and exploited young people in the UK in September, so the funds will come in handy for furnishing the home. This is a really good cause and like Vivienne said, "this is a big problem but I am just trying to be One Person, one person that also wants to make a stand against this problem."
I would deeply appreciate if you can make a donation by going on this link
I also appreciate that you had the patience to read this far. I'd also be thankful if you could spread the word to anyone you think might be interested in helping with this cause.
Thanks a lot
Respectfully
dmlobo-- In the middle of a difficulty lies opportunity.
Dani Lobo English Channel solo swimmer in 14 hours 43 minutes
