Dover - Day 4

Today is the first time we can see France since we arrived

On Sunday morning we left a calm and sunny Rosslare and boarded the ferry for Pembroke for a very flat and relaxing crossing of the Irish Sea.  Four hours of driving through Wales, across the New Severn  Bridge, and the weather changed from sunny to cloudy to wet.  Sunday evening traffic meant traffic jams on the M25 but at about 8:30pm we finally arrived at Varne Ridge Holiday Park, a caravan park half way between Dover and Folkstone, and a traditional waiting spot for Irish Channel aspirants.  Craig and Donal had been here for two days already, and we were soon to be joined by Liam and Catherine on my crew, Jen Lane and her crew, and Lisa crewing for Craig.

Pace Arrow

On Monday I met with my pilot Paul Foreman and, along with fellow aspirant Fionnuala who is swimming next month, Paul showed us his boat Pace Arrow and answered all our questions.  Pace Arrow is not a big boat compared to others, so it is fast and shallow - good attributes for getting close to shore and getting back home to Dover quickly.  Paul is a very nice guy and we all got on well.  He said not to worry about the technicalities too much - just get in and keep swimming 'until your feet touch the deck' in France.

Friday's weather forecast

A lot of people have been asking how to follow the swim.  Pace Arrow uses AIS on his boat and this is how people can keep track of the boat during the swim - I will put a link on a new blog entry when I get the go-ahead for a swim, hopefully with a bit of notice.  People can also check out my Twitter feed here, and I now have tweets displayed on the right-hand side of this blog, as you may have noticed.  Twitter is probably the best way of keeping in touch.  Internet access isn't great but I will update when I  can, if I have news.  At the moment the weather has been very bad for swimming - lots of wind.  It doesn't look great before Saturday, and not great even then.  A Dublin swimmer John Downes has today left for home, as his pilot doesn't think he will swim before Monday and he has run out of time for this tide.  It is quite possible that the weather may be too bad for me to swim.  After that, I will have to come up with another plan.  In the meantime, we wait and watch the weather...