Get back in....(by Kevan)

3rd cold water swim, the long journey back down to Dover

On the way down we muse over how much the water temperature has risen, could be by as much as one degree. Again a grey overcast day with the possibility of rain, but that of course makes no difference when you’re swimming.

Instead of swimming to a point and back, this morning we are told to swim for an hour, we register with the overseer, get our numbered hats and wait for the 10 o’clock start that comes too soon. The extra degree really isn’t noticeable. The cold water shock is still as utterly unpleasant. I lose Andy, my swimming ‘buddy’ almost immediately, goggles misted up as they hit the water, he’s nowhere in sight. I will swim on my own. Turning left from the shore with the current. It is very choppy, impossible to breathe to the right as if looking out to sea, the waves are too high, intermittent higher waves cover my right arm so it doesn’t leave the water, this breaks my rhythm. It’s a tough swim. I turn past the sloping pier and now head back against the current. Having been breathing to my left, I must now change and breathe to my right. I’m not sure why but my shoulder doesn’t like the constant breathing to the right. I push against the tide and head back along the coast past the point where I entered. As I look towards the shore I see landmarks on the promenade that pass so slowly. It’s a slow swim back against the current and onto the main harbour wall. The wall is reached eventually, my hands feet and face now hurt with the cold. Only the swim back with the current left, my focus is on getting back as fast as possible. I push on a pace. I reached the shore, as before my balance fails me from the cold and I crawl up the pebbled beach, the overseer is there to meet me “you are 15 minutes early, you’ve only done 45 minutes, go back out”. I’m not sure whether he’s joking, he’s not, can’t be only 45 minutes, my mind is confused. I submit to his instruction, turn round and crawl back into the cold, cold water for a further 15 minutes.



It took me around 30 minutes to recover, after which time we walked a few hundred yards into Dover, my feet weren’t feeling right, the blood had yet return, I walked as if drunk.

On our return to the beach it was time to do it all over again, another hour, this time I would go further on the first leg, harbour wall to harbour wall so as not to finish early.

When I got home I slept, in the middle of the afternoon, exhausted