Isle of Man Swims
Leonard_Jansen
Charter Member
Some years back, I spent some time on the Isle of Man. Other than almost starving to death due to my work schedule not matching well with the restaurants, I really liked it.
In looking at a map, I was wondering if anyone has ever done an Isle of Man to mainland swim - does anyone know? It looks like Scotland is the closest, but that's just by eyeing it in. Of course, there may be other circumstances that make it impractical, like the cold, but is it any colder than the North Sea swims?
I've never seen this mentioned anywhere. If it has been done, albeit, only a few times or if it hasn't been done, but the feeling is that it's theoretically possible, I may place this on my list of "impossible" swims that I started in another thread.
Opinions?
-LBJ
In looking at a map, I was wondering if anyone has ever done an Isle of Man to mainland swim - does anyone know? It looks like Scotland is the closest, but that's just by eyeing it in. Of course, there may be other circumstances that make it impractical, like the cold, but is it any colder than the North Sea swims?
I've never seen this mentioned anywhere. If it has been done, albeit, only a few times or if it hasn't been done, but the feeling is that it's theoretically possible, I may place this on my list of "impossible" swims that I started in another thread.
Opinions?
-LBJ
“Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” - Oscar Wilde
Comments
Thanks. Although their constitution mentions open water swimming, I saw nothing in the results, calendar or records that mention OWS. Also, they are definately focused on kids and not we old farts, so not sure about them.
-LBJ
“Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” - Oscar Wilde
And by the way @Leonard_Jansen..."mainland"? That recalls the famous British newspaper headline "Fog in Channel, Continent Cut Off".
loneswimmer.com
The werent created all that long ago but have a few skins swimmers of repute in their club. They arent linked to the IoMSA as far as I know. Without being unfair to them you'd maybe classify the OW ones I know as more of a "pod" in OW parlance.
I took part in a successful end to end relay down the West side of the island http://www.isleofman.com/News/details/34087/sea-swimmers-make-history-with-end-to-end-relay-
I think Loneswimmer's friend is one of our team.
The water isnt warm and you'd be thinking more of similar temperatures to the North Channel, as well as the wildlife that inhabits the North Channel. We chose to go early in the season to avoid the large blooms of jellyfish - hoping the cold would suppress the numbers. As a consequence we didnt get much more than about 12C most of the way. On the other hand we had the compensation of swimming at one of the areas where Basking Sharks are very common and we had 5-6 sightings while we were in the water. It was a hard swim as a relay and even though we succeeded one year after the first attempt, you'd need to think the support and logistics carefully.
The year after we did line up an attempt from IoM to the SE corner of Northern Ireland. Same team of 4, same boat, and the same bunch of seakayakers to support us. We were tied to one weekend and as a result went on a night that wasnt suitable, ie too windy and about 2m swell once we got into the open sea. The water felt surprisingly warm, probably given the terror of losing sight of the boat from time to time never mind the kayakers who got seasick. Common sense pulled the swim about 10 minutes into the 3rd hour and I was never happier than getting on the boat.
I dont think we had really researched the landing spot in too much detail and we may well have had fun and games getting in around Ardglass in NI. But the timing of the planned swim wasnt impossible and we reckon its doable again if one has the time to sit out bad weather.
Hope this helps
JB
Yesterday / today a relay team organized by Infinity Channel Swimming and consisting of Elina Mäkinen,
Anna Carin Nordin,
Rory Fitzgerald,
Olive Conroy,
Conor Turner, and
Carole Laporte completed an epic route from Isle of Man (near Peel Harbour) to Northern Ireland (near Ballyhornan), in 18 hours, 8 minutes. Shortest line is about 33 miles / 53 km.
GPS track on track.rs/triskelion-IOMIRL
Wonder when someone will have a go at the solo?
Sounds right up @thelittlemerwookie 's alley!
The Triskelion team's Isle of Man-to-Ireland swim is now published as a MSF Documented Swim:
http://marathonswimmers.org/swims/2017/triskelion-isle-of-man-ireland
This was a remarkable swim - a "first" on one of the few undone British Isles-region channel routes. Their detailed documentation will be a valuable resource to any teams aiming to follow in their wake, or perhaps one of the small handful of solo swimmers who could reasonably attempt it.
Well done to Infinity Channel Swimming for organizing the swim and making the effort to document it well.
Has anyone attempted Point of Ayre (IOM) - Isle of Whithorn (Scotland)? The distance is 29 km in a straight line.