English Channel

I started the English Channel swim at 8am on the 19th of July 1998 at Shakespear beach near Dover in England. Gallivant was the name of my accompanying boat. For me to be directed in the water as a blind person without touching either my boat or people on my boat, my team used a Loud hailer device of one blast for veer left and 2 short blasts to veer right throughout the swim. Again to be able to get my feeds of carbohydrate gels and water without touching the boat or anyone, my team would blow a whistle into the Loud hailer and my team would lower a long swimming pool like device with ropes attached to a an open ended syringe with my gels in it and a water bottle attached to another rope and I would breastroke up to the pole find what I required it and then throw away what I had taken and my team would take the pole from the water and get it ready for the next feed. I was feed every hour for the first 4 hours and every half an hour after that. The water temperture on the day was 17 degrees Celcius and we started in wind that was less than a Force 2 wind. It was a sunny 23 degree Celcius air temperture day. At the 12 hour mark of my swim was the critical moment of the swim when my team informed me that for the next 10 minutes that I would need to swim as hard as I could do so as I need to get passed a sandbank and if I got passed this sandbank I would miss the upcoming tide and I would have about another 2 hours swim into France. I made the sandbank and at 9.50pm England time or 10.50pm France time I completed the swim at Strouanne beach in France taking 13 hours and 50 minutes and became the first blind person to complete the English Channel and the 23rd Australian to complete the English Channel.