Halfway to France

John is just after feeding on 700ml of iso and a gel pack, his stroke has increased slightly as he passes the half way mark. Weather has started to brighten up. Sea temperature is 16 degrees and the air temperature is also 16 degrees. Sea state has increased to one metre swell. Wind SW force 2 to 3. Robbie and JJ say that they are just starting to smell the garlic!!!

lunch time!!

JJ and Robbie are busy preparing the next feed for John. 8 hours down but not necessarily half way yet as the tide is against him. JJ gave a report of John's progress on County Sound 103FM and all is well with John and the team. JJ explained that the sea conditions are good for John.

doing good

battling on at 9.30am

looking out for traffic.

Total gridlock on the English Channel!!!

the Big Dipper!!

John started his swim this morning at 4.26am.

This photo was taken of him at 7am eating a banana and taking an isotonic drink.

Robbie has reported in that John is doing really well, he is averaging 56 strokes a minute.

the water temperature is 16 degrees and at that time the air temperature was 12 degrees so as Robbie says "feel sorry for us, we're colder!!"

the eve of the big dip!!

Final preparations are under way as we speak. John and his crew are currently polishing the swimming shorts and hat and de-fogging the goggles before they tuck themselves into bed at 7pm!!! This will be their last sleep before John throws himself into a cold sea for a gruelling swim to France.

The photo above is Shakespeare's Beach where John will be leaving in the early hours of tomorrow morning. John will need to get into the water around 3am in order to work with the tides. This means that the first few hours of the swim will be in darkness with the boat guiding him. However the majority of the swim will be done in daylight and this will help John motivate himself through the tough hours.

The starting point of the swim is Shakespeare's Beach but he will have to take the boat from the marina in Dover in order to get to the beach. He will then have to swim from the boat to the shore and then start the official swim! He will have to cover his whole body in lanolin on the boat before he leaves for the shore.

This blog will be updated on an hourly basis tomorrow to let you know how John is doing. Robbie and JJ will be recording the event from the boat and his fans in West Cork will be wishing him well from a distance.

From Baltimore to Dover

John and JJ left Baltimore in the early hours of friday morning and travelled on the ferry to Wales. There they picked up the other team member, Robbie, and drove to Dover to camp down for the remainder of the week. There was a great sense of tension and excitement( as well as a bit of tiredness as the three men were up at the crack of dawn to get here!). with John doing the driving, i'm sure they made it in quick time!

During the journey John received sereral texts and calls from people wishing him well, including Red FM, County Sound(103FM) and Seascapes on Radio one. Each station interviewed him and gave John great confidence to continue his journey. We are hoping that as he is now a minor celebrity, his ego won't get the better of him (I wonder is he secretly practicing his autograph yet or has he started his biography???)

After a good nights sleep( and a few beers for the boys- not John though, he'll have to wait til France!!), the three men went on the ferry to France for a quick reccy of the journey involved. The weather was good and John is still happy to continue his madness. they met with the Skipper of the boat that will support John on the swim. The Skipper advised that it would be better to leave for France on Wednesday morning 5th September, based on the weather conditions. The skipper reckons that John will complete the swim in 12 hours, John told him that he is hoping for 16 hours so they agreed that they'll split the difference and get there in 14!!