North Channel swims

MvG

Fergal Somerville just announced that his attempt to cross the ghastly North Channel will start tomorrow at 5 am from Donaghadee with captain Quinton Nelson. Fergal swims to raise money for cancer research.

I think his is the first attempt of the season? Does anybody have info about the water temperature out there now - the sea must still be ice cold.

Fergal's blog can be found here: http://fergalsomerville.blogspot.com/?view=classic, and has a link to a tracker - what better way to spend a relaxing Sunday? ;-)

Whoever has further information on this swim, please post it!

Best of luck Fergal!

gnome4766

It's about 13 degrees celcius. Good luck to him. Haven't seen many jellyfish around here hopefully his experience is the same.

MvG

Temperature of the Irish Sea near Dublin 11.6 degrees Celsius (buoy M2), 13 degrees sounds a little better. Still pretty damn cold for a long swim in my book, but normal for the NC I believe

ColmBreathnach

I believe it is the first attempt this season. After 2 or 3 false starts last year, Fergal is in the water and underway. He's been in the water since 5:10, coming up to 3 hours now. Sea conditions are good at the moment, there's a slight roll on the water with no chop. There is no wind at the moment. Forget those buoy readings, water is 9.3 degC.
Everything is at the moment. Things change fast up there.
This is his tracker: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0QJQbPUTU7uU8lNcqVWOif9Jp81vKsLUS

loneswimmer

@ColmBreathnach's temperature is the accurate one. It's a rare NC attempt that would get 13c. It's been a particularly cold spring & while we did have one warm week temps dropped again this week. Fergal was expecting about 10c the whole way across. Generally though early season jellyfish are much lighter this year due to cold.

MvG

9-10 degrees celsius for almost 35 kms - jeez...

MvG

Tracker showing great progress, appr. halfway now.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0QJQbPUTU7uU8lNcqVWOif9Jp81vKsLUS

Jbetley

He's going well!!!

MvG

Unbelievably well! Tracker now shows him past 2/3 of the way (as the crow flies) only seven hours into the swim.

Is he about to beat the 1970 men's record, Kevin Murphy's 11h21? Or even Alison Streeters 9h53 (1988)?

MvG

Or is he 8 hours into his swim? Mixing up time zones...

loneswimmer

Yes, 8 hours in, started at 5am (dawn).

MvG

Tracking still moving inexorably towards Portpatrick. What a great swim!

MikeH

Where is the tracker? Maybe I'm blind:), but I couldn't find it on the blog site...

loneswimmer

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0QJQbPUTU7uU8lNcqVWOif9Jp81vKsLUS

ColmBreathnach

Just spoke to the boat and Fergal ! he's flying. About another hour / hour and a half left and now the sun has decided to come out. Water still cold, varying between 9 and 11, but mainly 9. They're aiming for port patrick. The man is a machine. No jellies. So it seems you get the option of going early in the season and freezing the whole way over or go later and be stung the whole way over.

MikeH

That's an amazing swim he's doing...really impressive.

I'd rather be cold - at least with the cold, it's always cold and you're not wondering. With jellies, it's pins and needles while you wait to get stung....

lecummins

This will be the earliest solo NC swim by over a month...the earliest up to now was on July 21st by Stephen Price in 2000. It's also worth remembering that the first EC swims won't begin for another two weeks and it's significantly warmer there (Sandettie is currently reading at 11.9degC). He definitely is a machine all right! C'mon Fergal

MvG

A delightful menu of options!

Excellent piloting by Quinton Nelson, to tell by the way they're managing to swim straight towards PP.

loneswimmer

About 1k!?!

lecummins

Less than 500m now, just a few minutes more!

loneswimmer

That last tracker update interval was an eternity.

lecummins

There was a nice big jump then though! The latest one has him almost on land...still waiting for confirmation on FB but I think that he's just about there =D>

loneswimmer

Just reach out Fergal and touch the rock, you're big enough....

MvG

Facebook says he made it! Who has details?

loneswimmer

Trying phones on boat, no answer.

lecummins

From Maggie Kidd (did it 25 years ago), who is watching from land:

Not yet he's heading towards lighthouse where I finished so won't see him till boat brings him round
Boats out of sight now so he must be finished or not far off

lecummins

Tracker says that the boat is coming back out...I assume we can start the congratulations now?!! Fantastic swim!

loneswimmer

Tracker is heading out! I haven't been able to get through to a phone all day.

loneswimmer

Fergal has joined the illustrious roll of honour of North Channel swimmers in 12.21 with water temps under 10C most of the way. Congrats kid! So very excited and proud for him. We have an early contender for the marathonswimmers.org 2013 Male Swim of the Year!

oxo

We have an early contender for the marathonswimmers.org 2013 Male Swim of the Year!

I second that. Nice piece of work Fergal. Looking forward to reading your swim report.

Jbetley

Totally awesome! So cold! It's a humbling effort! Wow!

Fergal

I just found my way onto this discussion. Brilliant. I can't thank you guys enough for the support. Just coming to terms with the swim and achievement. What fantastic help from Mags (wife), Tom Healy, John Daly, Martin Cullen on the boat. Quinton Nelson was the pilot and super tactician / strategist. I will follow up in the next day or two with a report on the blog. Cheers, fellow marathon swimmers.

loneswimmer

You're the Chanimal, Fergal. We won't let you go now.

loneswimmer

Here's a radio interview with Fergal yesterday. About 10 mins long.

Dawn_Treader

He has a fan club. If anyone wants details just PM me.

gnome4766

Have you uploaded the swim report yet @Fergal?

Dawn_Treader

To see a shark beneath you once and stay in and to see the same said shark pass again and still stay in is very bold indeed, @Fergal Braveheart! Respect!
[url][/url]http://dublinpeople.com/article.php?id=2538&l=100

loneswimmer

Once again, not many details, but @MvG knocked out 10:34 (I think) beating @FergalSomervilles early season Coldest/Oldest Ever swim, swimming once again with pilot Quinton Nelson. @FergalSomerville @MvG took legend Kevin Murphy's record, and only a couple of weeks ago, Michelle Macy set a new woman's record. Waters are an unrealistically and possibly not likely to be repeated for a generation, 14 degrees.


Well done @MvG!

(edit, fixed my typos from earlier)

gnome4766

Wow excellent swim. With this years jellyfish population booming I can only imagine it was a huge struggle, no wonder he was swimming so fast!

Well done to all swimmers this year who have had huge successes within the North Channel!

MikeH

Impressive swim !

emkhowley

I swam the day after Milko, and can report that the jellyfish are indeed dreadful this year. I have no way to compare to previous years, but about 2 hours in, they started coming at me thick and fast. When I started getting stung in my lady bits, that's when I began thinking that maybe I just wasn't going to be able to hang in there another 7 to 10 hours until we reached Scotland. And how quickly the temperature can change; I was told that during my 5 hours and 15 minutes unsuccessful attempt that the water was in the 12-13 range, never going higher than 13.2 and down to 12.0 in some areas.

This time the jellies and cold had the last laugh; no decision yet as to whether a second attempt for me is in the offing. Need several more pints before I make anything remotely resembling a decision. Still, I'm damn proud of getting nearly halfway across that scary water and have learned a great deal on this journey.

In the meanwhile, I sit here still stinging and itching in awe of Milko and Michelle and their stunning successes this season. That stretch of water is beastly and my hat is off to anyone who can conquer it.

MvG

Hi all,
I have posted a long and probably slightly rambling account of my NC crossing on my swim blog at http://mvgchannelswim.blogspot.com.

@emkhowley: you were unlucky with the thick cloud cover, which makes the jellies come to the surface. During my swim I had sunshine for the first half of the swim, which kept the jellies further down. I swam mostly over them, but still got stung a lot. I agree this is a beastly swim, and my respect goes as much to those who tried but did not succeed as to those who did. This crossing is different from others. Speed is not even a very interesting aspect of it. I try to elaborate on the point in the abovementioned blog post. Best of luck for your next attempt!

Milko

evmo

As indicated on the new Upcoming Solo Swims Calendar, forum charter member Darren Miller is tackling the mighty North Channel tomorrow, jump time ~5:45am GMT. Some links of interest:

• SPOT tracker
• Facebook
• Twitter
• website
• local press

Not sure if any of those, aside from SPOT, will be updated during the swim.

C'mon, Darren! Let's see that game face.

ssthomas

Whoop! So pumped up for him- the last swim of the Oceans Seven! He'll be part of a very special group after this!

JBirrrd

Pretty exciting... Past half-way point. (I have a hard time concentrating at work when friends are doing these big swims. Getting to be a problem.) Go Darren Go!

gregoc

Darren has been at it for about 8 hours with about 3/4 in the bank. I hear the water is a warm 59.8 degrees! Looks like he is headed toward Portpatrick. On pace to finish with about an 11 hour time.

Leonard_Jansen

Go Darren!!!!

8.2 km to go.

ssthomas

Looks like he may have finished!

evmo

Big high five to Big Darren!

david_barra

Nice swim Darren!
7 down!

gregoc

Darren made it look easy on the Spot.