Channel Swim

The English Channel is a 21-mile swim from Dover to Cap Gris-Nez (the shortest point across the EC). That’s 33.5km or 1,340 lengths of a 25m swimming pool or the running equivalent of just over 3 marathons back to back. The Channel in the summer on average is 16 degrees which when compared to your local swimming pool usually heated to about 28 degrees is reasonably chilly. As you leave from Shakespeare’s beach in Dover the pilot’s role is to safely guide you across the Channel – many people think you cross in a straight line but due to the tides you feel that you are swimming in a straight line but the tide changes every 6 hours move you from one way to another as you make your way across in an S or bell shape – you hope you have swum hard enough to hit Cap Gris Nez, if you don’t it could mean a much longer swim or a possibility that you won’t make it.