Cold Wet Bloke Channel Swim Update

Well after 3 years of thinking about it and training my time to swim to France is nearly here! I've enjoyed fantastic support and very much doubt I'd be doing this if it wasn't for you guys! I'd like to say 'Hi' to all my non swimmy friends and thanks to all the swimmers and friends I've met along the way including all my regular buddies in Beyond The Blue, Durley Sea Swims, East Dorset Open Water Swimming Club, Just Swim and the Steve Bailey Coaching Swimsmooth Squad.

When?

Swimmers book a 'slot' with their pilot, a period of a few days over a series of neap or spring tides, and go when weather and tide allows. My slot is booked from 27th July to 31st August. The forecast for the first day of my slot isn't great but there is a chance of leaving earlier, I have a provisional start time of 3am on Tuesday.

Rather unluckily for me I developed a summer cold a couple of days ago but I'm fighting this off well and should be fit to go. So today I've been busy monitoring and predicting my health - as well as tides, waves and wind! Another spanner in the works is the recent news about horrendous traffic jams on the roads to Dover! On top of all this I have to make sure my crew are available and coordinated - this Channel swimming business is getting complicated!

Updates and Tracking

The closer I get to my start time the more accurate the information will become and I'll update my Facebook page if there's any news. Cold Wet Wife will update things during the course of my swim for as long as phone signals allow. Progress can also be tracked as the pilot boat is fitted with Automatic Tracking System (AIS). Tracking data is utilised by various websites - to find me you just need to search for my boat and may need to know the following:

Vessel mame: Sea Leopard
Pilot: Stuart Gleeson
Vessel type: Dive vessel (GB)
MMSI: 235023771

Tracking websites

www.channelswimmingassociation.com
www.cspf.co.uk
www.marinetraffic.com
www.vesselfinder.com

Finally, thanks so much to everyone who has sponsored me. It's great for Julia's House and really does help motivate me too. If you'd like to sponsor me, please visit my Just Giving page. I'd really love to hit my target before I swam if I could.