Did first open water swim race!

The Channel swim nowis a money makingskeam for escort boatmen. i couldn't disagree more with this statement. two friends and i swam a three person relay with pilot mike oram on sept 19th 2009. TL and i thought it would be a good way to learn the ropes and meet the people who could help organize and advise us about the procedures and training required to complete a solo crossing... we have both scheduled a solo for 2010. an added benefit of participating in the relay was getting to spend time observing the actions of our pilot, first mate and CS&PF observer while my relay mates were in the water. our swim took 11hrs 4mins, but our pilot had been planning our swim for days, and it still took another 3 hours to return to dover. the channel is a rather busy place... ferries, commercial shipping, fisherman, leisure craft, and yes swimmer escort boats crowd the waterway; wind, waves and currents are always on the change; add the human factor... a swimmer... to this equation and you can easily see that the crew have their hands full with the first objective which is to keep their swimmer(s) safe. the second objective is to get their swimmer across the channel in the shortest amount of time. that means taking constant measurements of swimmer speed, tidal push, etc and readjusting the heading every 15 minutes or so. the first time you see a tanker or a ferry or a cruise ship from a swimmers vantage point, you know that the fees they charge are a bargain.

The Channel swim nowis a money makingskeam for escort boatmen. i couldn't disagree more with this statement. two friends and i swam a three person relay with pilot mike oram on sept 19th 2009. TL and i thought it would be a good way to learn the ropes and meet the people who could help organize and advise us about the procedures and training required to complete a solo crossing... we have both scheduled a solo for 2010. an added benefit of participating in the relay was getting to spend time observing the actions of our pilot, first mate and CS&PF observer while my relay mates were in the water. our swim took 11hrs 4mins, but our pilot had been planning our swim for days, and it still took another 3 hours to return to dover. the channel is a rather busy place... ferries, commercial shipping, fisherman, leisure craft, and yes swimmer escort boats crowd the waterway; wind, waves and currents are always on the change; add the human factor... a swimmer... to this equation and you can easily see that the crew have their hands full with the first objective which is to keep their swimmer(s) safe. the second objective is to get their swimmer across the channel in the shortest amount of time. that means taking constant measurements of swimmer speed, tidal push, etc and readjusting the heading every 15 minutes or so. the first time you see a tanker or a ferry or a cruise ship from a swimmers vantage point, you know that the fees they charge are a bargain.