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At 02.35am on 4th September 2010, after 18 months of intensive open water training at Southbourne and competing in open water races, Angus Rowley a BHSC swimmer and a team of 5 other boys from Bristol and the surrounding areas became the youngest relay team to swim the English Channel and they broke the world record held by a team of school boys since 1968. It took the team 13.5 hours to reach France with most of the swim taking place in the dark. Each boy swam an hour at a time and battled their way through fish, floating debris and tankers. They were supported by an amazing team of professionals made up of coach Penny Porter, doctors and lifeguards. One of the main aims of the challenge was to get children interested in open water swimming-Angus loves it and is planning his next swim!! The exploits of the team are fully documented on the BEST web site <click here > but the event is best summed up in Angus’s own words written for Blue Peter. Friday 3rd September… I was supposed to be at school.. Were we going to go or not? We were now getting desperate after a 2-week wait when the weather was bad. We woke up at about 8am on Friday 3rd September in our dormitories and waited to see if we were going to swim today. When it looked as though it was a ‘no go’ the mums cooked pasta anyway just in case and we settled down to chat and play games! Then at about 11.30 am we got a phone call from Mike, our pilot. Sarah came rushing in and shouted, “Who wants to swim the Channel?” At last we were going. We had about 45 minutes to get ready, so everyone was rushing around getting food and bags ready. The mums were flapping and making millions of ham sandwiches. We were all given our seasickness medication by Paddy, the doctor and the mums told him he could be strict with us if he needed to be! Penny, our coach was given a list of things we needed to be reminded typical mum things like-, eat, drink, and keep warm and to wear hats. All the Best Committee, dads and brothers and sisters were told and they started to head to Dover to be here when we returned. We then made our way down to Dover marina for a safety brief on the boat. We met Mike and we were pretty excited by then and couldn’t believe we were finally doing it. We loaded our bags on to the boat and took pictures of us sitting at the front of the boat .The inspector( who was there to make sure we complied with all the Channel swim rules) and Mike told us the safety of the boat and we said bye to our families and set off, excited. We motored to Shakespeare beach where we were to set off and Lewis our first swimmer got ready and put on his hat, goggles and Vaseline. The instructor told him to jump in and swim to the beach, when he got to the beach all our families had walked round and were waiting there. It was a beautiful day and the sea glistened. It looked as though it was going to be kind to us. Word was out that some swimmers in the Channel had dolphins swimming alongside them. Mike pressed the siren when the instructor gave the ok and Lewis ran in and jumped into the water and started to swim. We all cheered for ages. Fifteen minutes later we waved the pink t-shirt to symbolise that Lewis had been in the water for 15 minutes. We were all pretty relaxed so we were sunbathing at the front of the boat and eating some lunch, you could still see the shore of Shakespeare beach.We all took our turn. We had to swim in a specific order otherwise our attempt would fail. Lewis, Alex, and Danny all swam strongly. Alex had a near miss with a yacht as it came very close to him. Alex was a bit phased but we gave him lots on encouragement. I was next and 15 minutes before Danny finished I started to get ready. I undressed into my trunks, checked my hat and goggles and put Vaseline on to stop my trunks rubbing with salt water. I cheered on Danny as I was about to get in at 4pm.The change over was really important otherwise we could be disqualified; luckily everyone else had got it right so far. I jumped in behind Danny and we both started swimming then Danny slowed and I overtook him and the boat stopped but I carried on going whilst Danny got out. I was a bit worried when I got in, as there was 10 meters of seaweed in front of me and I was worried about putting my hand through a jellyfish or something worse. I remembered what we had been told as a team during training…keep going. I continued going and I swam for my hour! While swimming I kept my mind occupied by thinking about how long it would be before the pink shirt was waved. I then had to changeover with James. All went to plan and I climbed back into the boat on the rope stairs in the middle of the boat. I got out and dressed and Paddy checked that I was ok. I ate Haribos and bread sticks for energy. He told me to get warm. I cheered on James and then had a sleep, as I knew I was going back in at 10pm when I would be tired and cold. Half way in to James’s swim a large container boat came very close to him (apparently even the mums and dads noticed this with binoculars from the shore). But James bravely carried on. Followed by Drum by this time it was getting dark. We gave Drum lots of encouragement, as it was getting dark, and whilst we had had some practice in the dark we hadn’t expected to do most of the swimming in the dark. Lewis went in and now it was properly dark so they turned on some of lights and one was really bright so it kind of blinded you, but when it got back to Drum they dimmed it. Alex put on his green glow stick so that we could see him. We all had green lights fitted to the back of our trunks and swimming hat and Danny swam like billyho. Then at 11pm it was me again. I was tired but not really worried as I knew everyone else had done it and I was not going to let anyone down. Again I kept track of the time by guessing every 15 minutes. I watched the boat’s light rays and tried to keep swimming in them and this kept me focused. When I came out this time I fell asleep straightaway, as I was feeling a bit queasy. Luckily James was swimming with fish, which were thin and long, and they jumped over him, which he enjoyed. When I woke up Lewis was in for the third time at 2.30am. I was very excited, as I knew we were nearly there and I could see the lighthouse where we were planning to land. We cheered Lewis and sat at the front of the boat thinking that yes we were going to do this. We were all chatting now and getting really excited. Then Alex went in at 2pm. We begged Alex to swim as strongly as he could as none of us could face a third lap. Alex was 200m from the shore when the pilot told Penny she had to go for safety to make sure Alex didn’t get bashed on the rocks. Alex clambered up and managed to stand up for 3 seconds when he was knocked back into the water. But this was enough we had swum the English Channel. We went crazy we had done it- the youngest team to have swum it! None of us could believe it. We had broken the record held by the 1968 British schoolboys for 42 years to the day! Sleep overtook us all and we slept all the way back to Dover until we were woken up to sit at the front of the boat to hold the Union Jack flag as we motored into the harbour at 4.30am back to our cheering parents and supporters. |
