Adams account:
"The swim was due on the 10th July 2008, however due to bad weather this did not happen. I remember having to leave Dover on the 9th July (my birthday) to travel back home to Nottingham which was very upsetting.
There is nothing worse than getting yourself hyped up for a swim only for the weather to make it not possible. When I arrived back home, I left all my swimming bags in the hall in preparation for the call to go again.
Fortunately for me, it was only 4 days wait. On the 13th July around 8pm I travelled back to Dover on a 50/50 chance of swimming in the morning. We arrived at the hotel around midnight and was due at the harbour which was only 10 mins away at 7.30am. On the way to the harbour I received a call from another chap due to swim the channel that morning as well, he said that a friend of his in the Navy said it was going to be up to 20 knott winds that day on the channel. I said ‘It will be ok, there doesn’t seem to be much wind’ we were in the harbour though!! But I was just desperate to go!! We boarded the boat and headed out to Shakespeare beach where you start.
When we arrived, I jumped off the boat and swam around 200 metres to the beach, cleared the water and siren sounded off the boat and off I went. The first 30 mins seemed fine getting out of Dover and was only a little bumpy for the next 2 hours or so, nothing I couldn’t handle. I made some good distance and was going well. At 2 hours 45 mins it all changed the waves were getting bigger and it was very choppy the choppy water didn’t really subside for the majority of the swim. I was repeating sick for the next 3 hours and it wan’t until they gave me the carbohydrate drink without water that it subsided, which was the advice of the pilot as i think the cordial was reacting badly with my stomach. The carbohydrate drink was in a sports bottle tied to a piece of string. The issue I had was treading water next to the boat with the waves bashing into you which was a real challenge the sickness is a real disaster in the channel as you burn approx 1100 calories an hour and with the drink you take, if you drink a carbohydrate drink approx 500ml every 30 mins you will lose approx 500 calories an hour. Therefore by about 4 hours you will be into your reserve calories and then burning fat. If you are sick and therefore cannot hold any calories down with the feeds, this will happen much sooner!! Having got though this issue, I was fine for the next 4 hours before the next crucial point which was 3 miles from France where tides and currents are changing and anything can happen which in my case did!! There is a buoy that marks out the 3 mile distance from French soil. In a pool this would take me 1 ½ hours. Unfortunately, for me I swam 1 1/2 hours and subsequently due to wind and tide missed the shortest point ‘Cap Gris Nez’ which meant swimming a further 3 miles into Wissent Bay.
When I eventually finished, the total time taken was 11h 35 mins and I was in disbelief when I stood on land having swam all day. A French family asked to take a picture with me and said ‘Have you just swam from England?’ I replied in a very weary state ‘I think so!!’
The swim pushed me beyond what I thought was my limit, you suffer on a different level, you have to block out all the mental and physical pain and the doubt for hours on end. It has to become life and death that’s how important it has to be to succeed". |
