Channel swimmers of Out To Swim

On 15th / 16th July 2019 two intrepid members of Out To Swim, Vicki Carter and Michael Jennings, made solo English Channel crossings.  Hunter Charlton, another OTS member, will make his crossing in the next couple of months. OTS has previously had two relay teams making the crossing in 2009.

It was a remarkable piece of luck that both Vicki Carter and Michael Jennings, MJ, ended up swimming on the same tide.  They both set off from Samphire Hoe beach at about 10:20pm on Monday evening with two separate support boats.

The water was a toasty 17/18 degrees throughout, the weather fine and the sea calm.  There was an almost full moon which gave the whole proceedings a fairy-tale glow. It was the perfect day for a crossing.

For Vicki this was the culmination of an eleven year quest – in 2008 she had a crossing for late September, but when it came to her tide the weather changed and she was unable to even start. Then life intervened with sick parents, but eventually she booked to go again in 2019.

MJ had given up competitive swimming a couple of years ago and needed a new challenge. His great friend Nick Murch encouraged him to enter a Lake Geneva relay and he got the bug.  He also acted as support swimmer in the fiercely cold North Channel crossings Nick made in 2016 and 2018. 

Vicki, MJ and Hunter all met on Dover beach in May 2019 to start their training for this year’s Channel crossings.

I was on-board Vicki’s boat with an old friend of Vicki’s, Kevin, and a new friend in the form of Hunter.  Hunter and Vicki have trained together a lot, and both did a six hour swim in Weymouth harbour, which also doubled as Hunter’s Channel qualifier. Hunter swam twice during the crossing as Vicki’s support swimmer, for company and moral support - the rules are very strict that he is not allowed to pace her or even to go ahead of her at any point.

The crossing seemed easy for about the first ten or eleven hours: time passed quickly between the hourly feeds of carbohydrate drink and jelly babies; dawn dawned most goldenly, and Vicki was happy and having fun.  On MJ’s boat he was serenaded and cajoled by two of his lovely mates, Mikey and Fiona - it looked like they had lots of fun.  Into hour twelve we were in French waters and heading for the Cap Gris Nez.  There was a vicious current pushing us off the Cap, but MJ just managed to get in, clambering onto the rocks to claim a crossing time of 12 hours 38 minutes, an amazing time.  Vicki couldn’t quite push through and ended up having to swim a bit longer to land at Wissant beach, a little further along the coast.  Hunter joined her for the last stretch and they greeted some French children on the beach with many Bonjours.  She finished in 14 hours 40 minutes – or as her boat skipper said to her “well the official time then is 11 years, 14 hours and 40 minutes”.

They join a very elite group of fewer than 2000 people in the world who have made a solo crossing, fewer by far than those who have scaled Everest. Well done Vicki and MJ, you are truly amazing, and massive good luck to Hunter, where Vicki will return the favour as support swimmer, if she can keep up with him!

Oonagh Gormley.

Dart 10k swim 2018

After a hot summer, the River Dart was a calm and balmy 16C this weekend for its swimmers. 6 OTS open water swimmers took part this year with Rowan, Izzy, Grace, Katie and Simon completing their first 10k, and Emily her 3rd Dart 10k qualifying her a “gold cap”.

The meandering salty river was punctuated with 2 floating feed station pontoons, lots of spectators waving along the right bank and 800 swimmers of all ages, sizes and speed in the water.

Due to a lack of rainfall over the past months, the current was considerably slower than previous years, but that (and the wetsuit chafe) didn’t stop Grace from cruising in at 2hr11. Katie came out of the water shortly behind Grace. Then Emily, Izzy, Simon and Rowan followed, all with a spectacular silt beard on their faces. 

In lieu of medals, all swimmers were awarded with a much appreciated Dart10k mug filled with hot chocolate as they cross the timing mat. 

“So great to achieve something I’ve been meaning to do for years! Looking forward to doing it all again in Wales (Hurly Burly 10k swim) in 2 weeks!” - Rowan

SwimSerpentine weekend and Dunmow Tri

24-25 September 2016

A new open water event SwimSerpentine in Hyde Park has attracted thousands of swimmers and quite a few of OTS swimmers this weekend.  On Saturday, there was a "casual" 1 mile where Tess, Alex, Emily, Monica, Jonathan and Chris had a quick dip.

Results: 

1 Mile
Emily C 29:43
Jonathan C 31:00 (breaststroke)
Alex G 32.25
Chris J 34:17
Tess C 34:29
Monica G 37:36

Para Elite 1.6km
Leo J 28:01 2nd

British Open Water Championships 3.3km
Geraldine 52:49 2nd
Alastair B 56:10 4th
Jonathan C 1:01:00
Rob J 1:15:15 4th
Monica G 1:16:28 6th

On Sunday, a more serious British Open Water Championships took place over the same course, but double the distance at 3.3km.  Geraldine T took a silver medal, Alastair B, Rob J came 3rd, Monica G and Jonathan C came 6th and 7th  respectively in their age group.  Leo J raced in the Para Elite 1.6km and was 2nd in his classification, 7th overall.  

Dunmow Triathlon
Lizzie B was at Dunmow Triathlon and took 2nd overall woman title.   

69km across Lake Geneva

On 7th Sep Emily from OTS and her Serpentine SC team the "JENBO Jets" set off to swim 69km across the length of Lake Geneva to celebrate her birthday (and to fundraise for Peace Direct and Lifeguard Hellas).  They chose a beautiful day and the crossing was a very speedy 27hrs 55min, that makes (almost) 7 hours each for the 4 swimmers: Jo, Emily, Bee, Natasha.  They swam all day, all night with shooting stars in the sky, moon on their backs, glowsticks on their costumesand reached the iconic Jet d'eau around 1pm the next day.  

When they finished, they joked that they felt fresh enough to swim back, that was mainly because of super star supporter Octavia (who has sailed across the Atlantic before) looked after them so well that they had enough time to rest and eat between swims.      

To read more about their awesome trip, please see here: Bee's blog and Serpentine news.

The JENBO Jets were also featured on the World Radio Switzerland, click here to listen. 

Video by Bee Heller. A successful four-women relay swim of the 69km length of Lake Geneva in September 2016. Total time was 27 hours and 55 minutes.

Dart 10k and Dock 2 Dock 10k

Dart 10K

On 4th and 5th September half of our open water contingence travelled all the way down to Devon for the famous Dart 10K in the River Dart (The other half stayed in London for Dock2Dock 10K).  On the Saturday Geraldine (3rd female non-wetsuit), Emily (5th female non-wetsuit), Sine, Monica, Peter W were in the water.  The sky opened up as they finished and torrential rained all night.  On Sunday more OTS swimmers took advantage of the fast flowing current, Alex H, Gosia, Oti, Laura and Leo all completed in (neoprene cladded) style.  It was Leo's first ever open water swim and first 10k for many others, so very well done! 

Alex and Gosia are fundraising for Paralympic legacy Level Water, you can support them here: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Gosia-Murakowska-Dart10k
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Alex-Hopps

Dock 2 Dock 10K

Out to Swim took part in London's newest and possibly the only 10k swim the "Dock 2 Dock" on Sunday 4th September.  Vicki, Chairman Phil, Martin, Rick and I took to the water in the Royal Victoria Dock, swam past Excel Centre, into the Royal Albert Dock, swimming next to the London City Airport runway and a number of BA planes, round the corner into King George V dock and back.  It was a lovely swim up the way with the wind behind us, but was more of a challenge on the way back when the wind was in our faces, but we all did it.  It was great for OTS to be part of what will hopefully become an iconic swim in the open water calendar.