Jellies

So let's talk about the jellies for a bit. At about 11:30pm Monday we got Catalina Island, there I started to prepare for the swim. I asked the crew about the "wildlife" in the water. They started in with the standard about:
"Sharks are around, but we rarely see them, and they almost never..."
I butted in, "I am not that concerned with the sharks, I was thinking about jelly fish blooms."
"I see, yes, they are out there, not too bad, but a few are out there in the channel..."
Right, no further questions. So, there are tons, get ready you are going to get torn up. (For your edification a large collection of jellies can also be called a smack.)

Let's look at jellies. Invertebrates, been around for 500 million years or so (that is a long time, even if you are a mountain range!), many of them don't even have a central nervous system! o.k. let's not get all strung up in the taxonomy, age and one-ups-manship, these evil little mothers are indifferent and they tend to leave behind these horrible, stingy little f-ing things called nematocysts.
The stinging started one here, one there, about 30 minutes in. By hour two it was about every minute. Incidentally, this is where the water starts to get deep. Not Marianas trench deep, but 3,000 feet deep. You can fit a lot of big sharks in 3,000 feet, and a lot of jellies. By hour 4, regularly, I was getting 1 sting every 2 to 3 strokes. In a way this was good, it kept my mind off the more than half a mile of water below me. Some say, if you can't stand up, it doesn't matter how deep it is. Bollocks. A 110 foot long blue whale can't swim in 6 feet of water, and I can't stand there. A 20 foot shark might also have difficulty in 6 feet of water, but you can stack them more than 500 high in 3,000 feet of water.

I digress, back to the jellies, these insidious little bastards, were everywhere. The stings, one at a time, even added all together, they are not insurmountable, just really, really annoying - and uncomfortable. In the water any single sting only seemed to last about 5 or 10 minutes. What does the sting feel like? Well dear reader, I recently found had a few hours, while swimming, with nothing else to think about, (except much less desirable things like: the sharks, and the whales, and the 3,000 feet of abyss below me). During some of that time I devised a Catalina Channel Jellyfish Sting trainer kit. (The patent is already pending so don't try to claim this as you own.)

You will need:
two (2) car batteries
about 3 meters (total) of 12 gauge (A.W.G., or larger) electrical cable, in one short and two longer pieces
a sponge
a coping saw blade
and about a pint of sea water. (feel free to dissolve some large amount of table salt in water and use this instead, if you live away from the ocean, or are just too lazy to bring sea water home.)
one thick, strong, rubber band

Disclaimer: DO NOT try this at home. I accept no responsibility for anything you do. period. no matter what.

Safety: You must wear rubber insulated shoes, like sneakers, and safety glasses or goggles at all times.

Procedure:
1) Saturate the sponge with salt water.
2) Using the short electrical cable, connect the positive (+) terminal of one of the batteries to the negative (-) terminal of the other battery. This is now the "battery bank".
3) Attach the other two remaining cables to the free positive (+) and negative (-) terminals of the "battery bank".
4) While holding only the one cable, tightly wrap a portion of the long wire from the positive terminal of the "battery bank" around the coping saw blade.
5) Put the rubber band around your wrist like a bracelet, left if you are right handed, right if you are left handed.
6) Place, the now wet, sponge under the rubber band against your wrist, and afix the cable from the negative side of the "battery bank" to the wet sponge under the rubber band.
7) Now, gently drag the coping saw blade, connected to the "battery bank" along a sensitive portion of your arm, (teeth facing you, of course), on which you would like to practice getting stung.
8) Enjoy the jellies of the Catalina Channel!

Seriously, please, don't wire your self up to some car batteries, and get hurt. It is not the worst thing you have ever felt, but it does hurt, and it is not that fun - and 8 hours worth of it sucks. I probably got thousands if not tens of thousands of stings, and it was not fun.

I guess Dori and I have more in common than I thought.

So what to do about stings? you can do this almost any time after a sting, seconds to days. You need:

white vinegar (acetic acid),
a driver's license or credit card,
cortisone or stronger if you have it.

1) douse the region in vinegar
2) use the card (credit/license) and press hard, and scrape the area that has been stung, multiple times if needed. (Get the nematocysts out.) I always have gone in one direction, but I see no need to do that. but scrape hard. this hurts in sensitive areas.
3) more vinegar over the area.
4) rinse with soap and water, really just to get the vinegar off, (there is much medical debate about temperature, I would go with what is comfortable. Hot kills the stuff, cold prohibits toxin release...)
5) rub with cortisone of other steroid.

more happier stuff later, more good pictures of sunrise and dolphins. Taggart took lots of good pictures.

Did it!

Davis made it across the Catalina Channel 9:46.31.2

5 miles to go

Davis has just 5 miles to go and the conditions are "like glass."

Throughout the swim he has been averaging 1.7 nautical miles an hour.

Just over halfway

I just received my latest update from Andrew and Taggart. At 8:20 (5:20 Pacific time) Davis was just over halfway across the Catalina Channel, the sky was beginning to brighten, 8 porpoises just joined the swim, and Davis was said to be doing "great."

Here is a photo of the chart - they are the black dot.
And here is one of Davis swimming.

Photos of the San Pedro area

Here are some photos of the San Pedro area

Looks pretty different than looking off the cliffs of Dover.

Looking out to Catalina

Looking over the English Channel

Here is a view out to Catalina-



Here is the point we are swimming for, looking north

Here is the point looking south.

This sign was just silly.

We didn't have this danger in England.

San Pedro

Andrew and I left Boston yesterday afternoon. We had a short flight to Milwaukee, and then a longer flight to LA. Naturally LAX was a zoo, even at 11 something PM when we got in. (I think it is all the red eye flights headed back to the east coast.)

After a little doing, we picked up a shiny red convertible mustang, (pictures to follow later today.)

I was hoping to sleep later, but it looks like I will have to just try for a nap later. We have a few last minute things to get sorted out, we need to get water, sandwiches, or food of some sort for the crew on the boat. Otherwise, we seem to have just about everything.

9PM at the dock. I will try to figure out if there is a website from which anyone that might be interests, could follow.

Guess who's back?

I have set a new goal, The triple crown of open water swimming. What is that you say? It is the completion of three long distance open water swims: the English channel, the Catalina channel, and the Manhattan island marathon swim.

English Channel, check.
Up next: Catalina Channel.
2012: MIMS

For those that don't know, the Catalina channel is the straight of water between Catalina island and San Pedro, or Long Beach, California, Just south of Los Angeles. The distance is about 20 miles. The water is a little warmer, and the currents and shipping traffic is significantly less. That said, it is still a 20 mile swim in the ocean with all sorts of difficulties. ...and plenty of sharks. There is no fun in being a sharky treat without sharks.

I am going to use this swim to raise money for a local charity called Our neighbor's table

If you are so inclined, you may donate to them http://firstgiving.org/fundraiser/sharkytreat/catalina-channel. All proceeds go directly to them. Thank you in advance!

Look for updates as we try to complete this swim, and the triple crown!

Final Analysis

So this will probably be the last post, at least for a while.

This is the official chart of our path, the red line that wiggles (27.5 nm), the black line is the straight line distance (18.8 nm). Those work out to 31.6 statue miles total distance, and 21.6 miles as the crow flies. It was a long, cold bit of swimming.


Here is my official certificate of completion. Not too bad I guess.

The White Horse

The day after the swim, we slept in. We spent the morning wandering around Walmer Castle, one of the Cinque Ports of the Kentish coast, (it seems there are like 8 of them, I didn't really get a good explaination why they were called cinque). For lunch we visited The White Horse, in Dover. (So named for the resemblance between the white capped swells, often present in the channel, to galloping white horses.)

Outside The White Horse in Dover.
So called "white horses" of the channel, out past the break water. Maybe you can see...

Although a relatively recent tradition, when one swims the Channel, either solo or as a member of a relay team, one is then entitled to write their name, the date, the time, and a few words about their crossing, etc. on the walls or ceiling of the pub.
Here we are scouting a spot to record my crossing. The times vary from widely, the names are of people from all over the world. Some names have many dates and times under them. One of my favorites, because I could relate, had the name, time, date, and just said "It was bloody horrible."

Alison Streeter, MBE has under her name, "Queen of the Channel", and as though to justify this statement, there is a 41 with a line through it, a 42 with a line through it and a 43 with an exclamation point! (Although Major Bad-ass English-women would be appropriate, MBE is a form of knighthood, Member of the British Empire. 43 is the most number of channel crossings, by any person, ever, living or dead, real or imaginary. There are some ferries that havn't done this many crossings. She is amazing.)

I found a little spot right over he corner of the bar. It reads: DAVIS LEE 28/9/10 12:41 E -> F "IT WAS COLD"

Here we are with some celebratory pints.

If you are ever in Dover go check it out.

The Crew

I would like to use this post to introduce you to, and thank the crew. They are:

Lance Oram: Channel pilot, skipper of the "Sea Satin", chief Channel navigator and chief harasser of swimmers.

Toby: Mate of the "Sea Satin", future Channel pilot, secondary harasser of swimmers and auxiliary tea brewer.

Jordan: Official officiant representing the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation, tea brew master and primary sheep counter.

Andrew Soracco: swim coach, Channel beverage apothecary and poop deck sleeping wizard.

Tim Lee: part time assistant coach, photo/videographer, communication expert, beverage and bottle hurler, water warmer and bhisti and, to coin a new phrase, a "poop deck polymath". (We were very lucky to get him on such notice, he can book up years in advance.)

Here are Toby (left) and Lance (right). This is on the dock after our triumphant, if exhausted return.

Here are Andrew (left) and Tim (right) that is the coast of France in the background.

Jordan proved a little more difficult to photograph, like a snow leopard or a yeti or something. Just as he had materialized out of the dark, simply appearing on the dock about 12:50 AM, so too, when we landed in the afternoon, he seemed to merely dissipate in to the luminiferous aether. Before we lost track of him, we were assured that he would take the required steps to ratify our unofficial time of 12 hours and 41 minutes.

I can't thank these brave souls enough, without them, this crossing would not have been possible. Working all through the night, with disregard for their own comfort, pushing through sea sickness and rain, huge swells, tankers, ferries, the pod of dolphins, they ensured that I was taken care of for every one of the 761 minutes I was swimming.

Dover to Calais

So as most of you know, by now we made it. You also probably know about the 1 AM start and some of the other details. Before I get into it blow by blow, let me apologize for being silent the last 48 hours or so, leaving you all wondering what happened.

Monday, we suspected that we would be swimming Tuesday, so we took it a little easy. In the morning we went to Deal Castle for a short visit, and then home for lunch and rest, I am not sure anybody actually napped, save Oliver. The afternoon passed without event. We had a terrific, great big pasta dinner, and I went for my evening call with the Orams. As you probably know by now I had been calling every night, about 7 PM or a little thereafter, to check in with Michael and/or Angela Oram about the prospects of swimming the next day. Monday evening, Angela responded: "Right, you are on for tomorrow, meet Lance at the marina at midnight. Cheers."

So it was time to go. We rounded up a few last things, and all "went to nap" in reality not one of us could get a wink of sleep. At 11:30 PM we said good bye and headed to the docks.

Here we are on the docks at midnight.

About 12:30, Lance showed up, he had done a kayak channel crossing earlier that day.


Here is our escort boat, The Sea Satin. It is a 36 foot, steel hulled, trawler type boat. We left Dover Harbour and headed out to the sea. We left from a beach just south west of Shakespeare Beach, a little further than usual, due to the slightly stronger tides. It was cold on deck but you could see the horizon and not feel sea sick, and down below, the crew were guzzling cups of tea and chain smoking cigarettes, you could not see horizon, but it was warm.


Here we are a few minutes off the the beach, about 1:15 AM doing last minute preparations, i.e. Vaseline and glow sticks, party?

A few minutes later Lance pointed off into the dark and said: "There is the beach over there, swim in and walk completely out of water, when the horn sounds get in and swim; stop when you get to France."

Cold, I walked to the rail of the boat, stepped over the life line, and plunged feet first into the water. It was cold. I started to swim ashore, and they managed to find a flashlight to shine on the shore. I got out, cold and wet, and waited for the horn, I was not totally comfortable with the prospect of 5 hours of cold, night swimming.

The horn went off and the I got in and started to swim.


The first half hour or so was nerve racking, but smooth. By the first feeding, 1 hour in, the sea had picked up quite a lot. I got sea sick, about 2 minutes after eating, and lost that, and most of dinner. It was still quite cold, I thought after we got moving I would warm up, not really. I swam on, figuring it would warm up as day broke. As the sky started to lighten something huge, with many lights, passed behind us, I later found out it was a 700 foot (or so) container ship.

Here, just after daybreak, we see another ship on the horizon.

And a ferry a little while after.


And then an 800 foot tanker that seemed not to get the call from the Dover Captain, to give us a wide berth.
The French coast comes into view after about 8 hours. The sea was still choppy, tough to swim in and still quite cold. About hour 6, I had switched to warm beverages and added a strong kick to my stroke to generate more heat. It was cold.


Look right next to the rock protruding from the water, (it is like a where's Waldo), we made it, 12 hrs 41 min. After being within 3/4 of a mile of the shore, the tide changed, and I was swept about another 3 or 4 miles down the cold shore, and had to swim a bit further to get out on that "beach" not the 2 miles of those huge rocks to the right of the frame. The hardest 200 yards of my life were swimming back out to the boat, like insult to injury.


Back on the boat, nobody looks good after nearly 13 hours in freezing, salt water. I drank a cup of hot tea, and shivered for 45 minutes, slept for about 15 or 30 minutes, then went on deck. and watched Dover get closer and closer.

A cheerful family reunion on the dock about 15 hours after we left. We made it, it was long, very cold and often lonely. Did I mention it was really cold?

1:12, update

0.75 miles to go

2.25 miles to go

Tim sent a message at noon - 2.25 miles to go!

9.5 miles to go

I received my first update from Tim at 1:56 AM - Davis had been in the water for about 20 minutes and was doing well. Over the past several hours I've received more updates - all echoing that Davis is doing well. I guess it was pretty choppy there for a bit and another swimmer (with a different boat) abandoned their attempt because they (the swimmer) got seasick. The chop has now been reduced to swells and they recently passed by a pod of dolphins.

Just got an update from Tim (8:25AM) 9.5 miles to go.

I am not sure about the tracking link. We were told to use the Sea Satin one, but as has been pointed out it doesn't seem to be working. Perhaps the other link http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=009OxM7v3sf07EMkZkUqMsLX2SF1442fP is the right one. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Green Light

At 7:00 this evening Davis was given the green light - he was told to meet Lance, the pilot, down on the dock in Dover at midnight.

We spent the next little bit getting things ready to go and then Davis and his support crew (Andrew and Davis' brother Tim) tried to get some sleep. I am not sure if Andrew and Tim got any sleep - I know Davis didn't. Excitement mixed with nerves mixed with a huge amount of pasta made sleep impossible for Davis. The thing that Davis was most concerned about, and which was his biggest obstacle to sleep, was the idea of swimming in the dark (it is currently dark, raining and in the 50s). Although he's done it before, it's been awhile and there weren't a ridiculous number of huge ships lurking about. I told him that I would be worried if he weren't concerned about the dark and the ships - yes, he is prepared and there is no doubt in my mind he can do this, but it would be unnatural if he weren't a bit nervous about this undertaking.

Tim is going to send me regular messages to update me, and I'll try and post updates to keep you up to date on Davis' progress. I expect a message any moment now saying Davis is off and going.

Sunday 26 September Update

We went for a swim this morning, about an hour, just to get loose.

Vaseline, your best friend in salt water.

Taking the plunge, it was fierce and funky out there. If the visibility was bad Friday, it was just plain dark swimming this morning, I couldn't see a thing. (Note: really large ship in the background, more on this later.)

Fighting my way out of the ocean, the fishermen thought I was nuts.

During the afternoon, we went to the white cliffs and Dover castle, this is a view across the channel. You might not be able to see, but there are 14 ships in this picture, and that water is rough.

While we were at and around the cliffs and the Dover castle, I kept track of the ships I could see, the fewest I counted was 8 the most was 21.

I guess I would be lying, if I tried to convince you that I was not a little intimidated. After the swim this morning, looking out over the Channel, the ships, and not seeing France, it was very real what I am up against here. The enormity of this undertaking is really made clear by a view from these cliffs.

This is a similar view a little later in the day, here you can see France, (and 17 ships). It is a little more manageable when you can see the other side, it is just swimming right? One stroke after another...

Update, September 25

Today was cold, gray and blustery. I talked with Mike Oram tonight and was told that there were eight foot swells in the Channel today. He said that it looks like things will improve Monday and then by Tuesday be good. Although the reality is that all that is needed is one day, I would rather not be ticking off days and waiting (my friend Thor has nicely offered to see what he can do about the weather - please do!).

Showing Oliver where I plan to swim (I don't think he believed me).

Given I couldn't swim the Channel today we did some exploring. Our travels took us to a wildlife conservation area that had lemurs and foosa - which, as you know, are prominent characters in my new favorite movie, Madagascar.

On another note, I've received several donations the past couple of days and really want to say thanks for the thought and support. I've also been asked by several people if I am still accepting donations - I am, they are welcome and very much appreciated.

Update, September 24

So I am waiting to have my evening call with Michael Oram about the weather and the departure time, I call after 7pm once he has listened to, and digested the weather forecast.

This morning we went down to the seashore and I swam for a little more than an hour, Andrew walked the shore and discussed sea obstacles and conditions with the two fishermen, and helped keep me clear of their fishing lines.

The beach was desolate to say the least, besides us, the two fishermen were the only other people I saw. The beach itself was smooth stones between about 3/4" to 1 1/2" in diameter. The water was calm this morning, (it "freshend up a bit" this afternoon, huge white caps, very rough). The water was quite salty, the visibility was near zero, I could see my elbows, but not my hands. It was cold, but not debilitating, never comfy though.


This is looking down the beach towards the white cliffs of Dover. The two fishermen can be seen near the sea's edge.This is looking North East up the beach, towards the pier in Deal, the little white thing in the sea is, I think, a ferry and actually looked really big.


This is looking out to sea, because of the way the coastline curves, here we are actually looking towards, northern France or Belgium. You may or may not be able to make out the big tanker, the ferry and the HUGE container ship out in the distance. Plenty of traffic.

Arrived

We have arrived in the UK. Had a great flight and have begun to settle into the house we rented for our stay. I plan on contacting the pilot boat shortly and determining the plans for the next few days. Right now it is sunny and beautiful out. Fingers crossed it remains that way.

Making waves

Hurricane Igor has created some amazing waves and Andrew and I took full advantage - we headed out to Plum Island at 5:00 this morning to surf.

A different kind of waves tomorrow- airwaves. Tomorrow (at noon) I am going to be interview on NPR's Emily Rooney Show. Tune in - 89.7 in the Boston area, or you can listen via podcast online http://www.wgbh.org/897/programDetail.cfm?programid=854