Baltimore man hoping to attempt swim across the English Channel
By By Jackie Keogh Saturday August 11th, 2007
MORE people have climbed Everest than have swum across the English channel, but in September Baltimore man John Kearney will attempt to do just that. But first, the thirty-seven year-old property developer and owner of the Baltimore Diving and Watersports Centre will continue a gruelling training session that will include a twenty-four kilometre swim from Baltimore Pier to Castletownshend Pier on Friday, August 17, and a sixteen kilometre swim from Baltimore Pier to Schull the following day. In the process, John will be hoping to raise §10,000 for four charities, namely the Marymount Hospice in Cork, CoAction in West Cork, the RNLI and two youth projects – Rathmore National School and the Youth Café Project in Skibbereen. The origins of this ‘Five Hundred Mile Challenge’ are in John’s original and historic swim to Cape Clear Island in the summer of 1995, ten days after a rather long session in the island clubhouse and a rash decision to be the first man to attempt the nine-kilometre crossing. John said: “I saw it as a challenge. I thought I could achieve it. I believe possibilities are endless with a bit of determination.” Despite the hours and days John spends in the water as a diving instructor, he had never actually swum a straight kilometre before, so he promptly set about a ten-day training schedule, which was minimal to say the least. On the morning of Saturday, July 15, 1995, John stood on the pier in Baltimore and got ready for the off. Just before he dived, he said one salty old sea dog – who shall remain nameless – approached him and whispered in his ear: “Christ, you’ll never make it.” Thrown by the comment, John said his entry into the water was less than gracious, and the journey, which had been delayed by an hour, began with a belly flop and left him struggling somewhat with less-than-favourable tidal conditions. “There’s a very tight margin in a crossing like that,” said John, “even when the tide is with you, you have to get it right.” He had some difficulties along the notorious Gascanane Sound, where the tide was taking him away from Cape Clear, but he persevered. “It meant extra swimming and it took me five hours and thirty five minutes to reach dry land on the south side of the island. As it turned out, the same old seafarer was on the pier and was the first to congratulate John, saying: “Christ, I knew you’d do it!” EUPHORIA Despite feeling tired, dehydrated, sunburned, badly stung by jellyfish and sick of drinking salt water, John said there was a feeling of euphoria and it ended up with another all night session back at the clubhouse where he had been ten days earlier. The islanders presented John with a plaque to mark his marathon swim and the funds he raised for the football field on Cape Clear. John didn’t do much swimming after that until he started doing triathlons about two years ago. So far, he’s done twelve and he has even helped establish the West Cork Triathlon Club with Dr. Pat Bailey and Stephen Redmond. More than one hundred people turned up for their inaugural event on July 7 last and the course – which includes a 1,500 kilometre swim, a 45-kilometre cycle (including Lough Ine hill) and a 10 kilometre run – has already been rated as one of the toughest in the country. The year before, John decided to do an anniversary swim to Cape Clear with two of his friends, Kevin O’Brien, who is also a work colleague, and Norman Kelly, from Tragumna. On July 14, 2005 – two days after his thirty-fifth birthday – John, Kevin and Norman set off from Baltimore. It took John just three and a half hours to make the crossing, with Kevin arriving a short time later, and Norman – who had only learned to swim the year before – shaving an hour off John’s 1995 time. As is the case with all of John’s swims, he completed it without a wetsuit. He said there is a tradition among established distance swimmers to do it the old-fashioned way in swimming trunks, and the same will apply to his attempt to swim the English Channel in September. INSPIRED John said he was inspired to take on the challenge after he read Lynn Cox’s book “Swimming to Antarctica.” He was further encouraged, last year, when he was bringing a boat back from Holland to Dublin and he heard the coastguard issue a warning as they passed the south coast of England and the Dover Strait that there were swimmers in the water. “It was a glorious day and I decided to do the crossing myself. When I came home, I made enquiries about how to go about it and discovered there’s a whole procedure you have to follow. I had to join the federation governing channel crossings, book a time slot and arrange to hire a support boat.” In the process, John made a lot of new friends. He even joined some of them on the Alcatraz swim in San Francisco last September. The swim from Alcatraz to the mainland is not far, but the annual swim is carried out in difficult tidal conditions, which is why it attracts so many distance swimmers. On that trip, John said he met a lot of people who succeeded in crossing the English Channel – including Alison Streeter, who has swum it more than forty times and earned herself the title “Queen of the Channel” – and that made him even more determined. “The swim from Alcatraz was wonderful,” said John, “eight-hundred swimmers got up at 5 am and were led, in darkness, by a piper to the fishermen’s wharf, where we registered and were then marched to the boat. “On the way over to the island,” John said, “I kept hearing different stories: For most people the biggest fear was a shark attack, but others laughed it off saying ‘it only hurts if you survive’”.When he returned, John said he began his winter training by swimming one or two hours a day, five or six days a week, in the pool at the Baltimore Harbour Hotel. “I had to learn how to swim again,” he said, “I had to learn new techniques, such as dual breathing, and I found the Lynch brothers – Tom and Bernard – from Cork very helpful.” He said the techniques they taught him changed his whole pattern of swimming and allowed him to change and adapt his swimming style depending on sea conditions. POSSIBLE John admits that his ability has improved dramatically in the last six months and now believes it is possible for him to swim the channel. On May 1 last, John said he began swimming in the sea. The temperature at thirteen degrees was just one degree warmer than winter, but John said he’s hardened to it at this stage, especially after a trip to Scotland, where the water temperature was just eight degrees. They had been diving off a couple of abandoned islands when they got weather bound. John decided to use the downtime to get in some distance swimming along the shoreline. The Scottish crew thought he was mad and were willing to send ashore for a straight jacket, because they knew how cold it was and John wasn’t even using a wetsuit. “When I came back to Irish waters in June it was, by comparison, like jumping into a hot bath,” said John. “Yes, it was still cool, but it was easy for a while.” Since then, John has been constantly swimming in the sea for two hours a day, five or six days a week. He said he is averaging about forty kilometres a week, but sometimes – usually once a week – he will do a five or six-hour swim. He recently re-visited Cape Clear. On Saturday, July 14 last, he made the island in record time – two hours and thirty minutes using his new improved swim technique and better judgement of the tide. Forty-eight hours later, John was back in the water. This time, his crew dropped him off at the Fastnet Lighthouse at 2pm on Monday, July 16 and he set off, through one-metre waves, via Cape Clear, to Baltimore. The twenty-one kilometre trip took just over six hours, but it was not without incident: “My back-up boat failed to tell me that I was not alone in the water … a set of fins following me for about a mile off Cape Clear.” It is hard to imagine that his crew didn’t tell him, but John said they reasoned that if they told him, it would have one of two reactions: “I’d speed up, or get out of the water, so they decided to monitor the situation rather than tell me. “All joking aside, I reviewed my crew after that and we now have a few new rules, including one about sharks, even though there is no recorded shark attack in Irish waters!” Intent on the swim, John said he didn’t see anything, but he later found out that the shark – possibly a blue shark, which is considered ‘okay’ – lingered behind him from Cape Clear in towards Baltimore for about an hour. “All I saw was the boat I was following go into reverse, but they waved me on while they went to investigate.” John said the sea conditions were only rough in patches, but he had to do battle with strong tidal flows around Cape Clear. “When you are doing a long distance swim you will get over the pain, but you will not get over hunger or dehydration,” he said. “You cannot touch the lead boat, or the support boat, they have to pass food and drink out to you every thirty minutes.” The training swims have also provided him with an opportunity to experiment with his diet and, it seems, that there is no way to develop a liking for salty bananas. ‘DISGUSTING Someone suggested he try Turkish Delights. He did, but said salty Turkish Delights are “disgusting.” He said: “It’s impossible to keep the food dry, not to mind salt-free because they have to be passed to me by a fishing road or in a bucket attached to a pole.” Nevertheless, he said he learned a lot on the swim from the Fastnet. “I never took anything warm in the six hours. I didn’t drink enough and I took too long over eating and drinking. I will have to drink twice as much in half of the time, approximately three-quarters of a litre every thirty minutes.” John’s most recent endurance test was from Tragumna to Baltimore, a nine-kilometre swim that took him three hours in tough tidal conditions. It’s all part of the training that starts some days at 4 or 5am and is done in addition to a full day’s work at his Baltimore Diving and Watersports Centre, overseeing various building projects, and spending time with his wife, Vivienne, and their children, five-year-old Amy and three-year-old John. John has been training a lot in Lough Ine. He starts some days in darkness at 4am, because he knows that his attempt to cross the channel will involve four, maybe five, hours swimming at night with the lights of France beckoning him in the distance. “I’ve talked to a lot of people who’ve succeeded in swimming the channel and they all agree that, psychologically, that is when the channel swim really begins – the last leg in darkness,” said John. As part of his strict training regime, John knows he will have to complete two tough back-to-back swims and rest for a few weeks, if he is to be in peak condition to successful complete the channel swim. The first of these will be the swim from Baltimore Pier to Castletownshend Pier on Friday, August 17, at 2 pm. After completing the 24-kilometre swim, which is likely to take seven or eight hours. John will then undertake the 16-kilometre swim from Baltimore to Schull at 9 am on Saturday, August 18. The combined two-day swim represents the distance John will be expected to swim on the channel crossing. “If I can do the Castletownshend swim and the Schull swim,” he said, “I think the channel will be achievable – that is if I can master the feeding and dehydration.” Anyone who would like to mark John’s endeavour by contributing to the four local charities can make a donation to the following TSB Skibbereen bank account: 990717-11349034.
