The Julie Bradshaw International Medley Relay

An international Medley Relay involves 4 swimmers in order of
1/ Backstroke - SUSAN RACTLIFFE
2/ Breaststroke -- PETE MAY
3/ Butterfly -- JULIE BRADSHAW
4/ Front Crawl -- KIM OWEN
Each swimmer swims for exactly one hour in turn.
No-one has ever swum a medley across the English Channel before.
A first!

18th September 2010
CSA 100IMR
Vessel: THE VIKING PRINCESS
Pilot: REG BRICKELL
Crew: RAY BRICKELL
CSA Observer: MONELLO
Music: BLUES IMPROV by LefthandDavey -- thanks mate..
http://www.youtube.com/user/LefthandDavey

I joined the Viking Princess at Dover Harbour and we were later joined by The Julie Bradshaw International Medley Relay team. Consisting of Susan Ractliffe (backstroke), Pete May (breaststroke), Dr Julie Bradshaw (butterfly) and Kim Owen (front crawl). The attempt has been organised by Dr Bradshaw after she spotted that a medley Relay of the Englisg Channel had never taken place before and had therefore decided to be the first.
So, as we steamed down to Shakespeare beach the Doctor and her companions prepared themselves, a pleasant day had been forecast and the full swim flotilla was out.
At 06:41 Susan Ractliffe entered the water at Shakespeare beach, to ensure that the relay is recognised as a Medley attempt the swimmers are swimming in correct international stroke order. Susan is the backstroker so she starts, however my protestations that she should walk backwards into the sea were ignored, pity, it would have made good video footage.
Susan gives us a good start and a smooth changeover see Pete breast stroking his way south, I have observed Pete before and breaststroke is not his first choice stroke, in fact he only really seriously took up the stroke whilst training for this swim. With a following swell Pete goes in for a bit of body surfing and at 08:41 Julie takes over with butterfly stroke. Julie is the holder of the channel solo butterfly record, quite an extraordinary feat and watching her swim shows the dedication and strength needed for such a task. As Julie powers onwards, Kim, the next swimmer is being extremely ill, as usual it is seasickness that threatens the success of a relay attempt, but Kim rises above it and at 09:41 she takes over from Julie and quickly takes us into the South West Shipping lane. A strong front crawl swimmer is essential to the success of this attempt and Kim doesn't disappoint as she pulls on through a very busy shipping lane, a 360 degree ship count gives a total of 26 ships within view!

And round we go again,
Susan is a strong backstroker and we now have a beautiful day, blue sky and slight seas, there is almost no flood tide and we are heading almost straight out. We enter the Separation Zone at midday and 45 minutes later Julie takes us into the Northeast Shipping lane. Ahead of us lay a line of fishing boats each with a dozen or so anglers, due to our close proximity to these boats as we weave our way between them the swimmers are seen, noticed and photographed by at least 100 people, perhaps this is a record for the largest viewing crowd for a long distance swimming event?
With Kim in the water it is obvious that the ebb tide is also gong to be weak, ahead us is the beach at Wissant but inevitable a relay that include breaststroke and butterfly is not going to be a fast crossing.
At 16:00 we enter the French coastal waters and continue on towards the coast.
There was one record certainly set today, it was set by Pete and is unlikely to be ever beaten, the "Most Tasteless Costume Ever Seen In The English Channel" award must surely go to Pete!
Kim unfortunately continues her seasickness whilst on the boat but remains unaffected when in the water and at 18:10 she lands on the beach just to the East of Cap Gris-Nez.

The Julie Bradshaw International Medley Relay swam the English Channel in 11 hours and 29 minutes.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• CSA
• Monelloswim
• LefthandDavey
• medley relay
• channel swim
• English channel
• Julie bradshaw
• yt:quality=high
• swimming
• cross channel swim

[EdMuirton]

Great stuff Mikee, and great playing by Davey! Cheers to all involved indeed!

[monelloswim]

@EdMuirton

hi Ed..

cheers mate

mikee

;-}~

does MSM float?

[alexandraxxxxxx]

weather looks a little more pleasant than it is in the mo...sept was a great month ...great video Mikee they all did great..first time ey this has been done ..real cool..there is no way I could do what they do ...I avoid the sea like the plaque lol....

great choice of music..lefty is so cool .../O) smiles xx

[monelloswim]

@alexandraxxxxxx

thank you Tina, it was a great day, one of the reasons (apart from sloth) that i leave making these video til wither is that when i make them i can forget the weather outside.

only 11 more to make for this year.

love your comment, does your dentist have a floating practice?

lol

mikee

;-}~

[saffbrat]

@vegasdaddy17

how do you think i felt?

;-}~

[vegasdaddy17]

@vegasdaddy17...Could have done without the close up at the end tho'...lol...

[vegasdaddy17]

And here we go...Rolled a large 1,Large Glenfiddich,Great Blues from Davey and his left hand!...These swim vids make the long Baltic Scottis evenings fairly fly in...Well done to all concerned...

[Rumpep]

Hi mikee, congratulations on a great video, my hat goes off to these people on their wonderful achievement especially the backstroke. Never could master this I managed to stay afloat but made no progress forward and to attempt it in the sea must take great stamina. So congrats to all and I loved the choice of music/

[Lonelyschizophrenic]

obviously a fake! Julie was wearing skiing goggles and you can see her ski's.

[joezjoezjoez1]

Grerat guitar and video:)

[sproutcentral]

Well done team !!!

Some fine playing by Davey.

How can it be a proper medley swim without someone doing the "dog paddle"?

[JPRBlues]

An awesome feat and some real nice playing by the man...LefthandDavey...Peace...­Jake

[Gregparkerblues]

Hi mikee,That's my kind of soundtrack. Could swim the channel,myself,with waterproof ipod,playing blues like that.(These people make it look too easy,so,I just might be a tad overconfident.)Congratulations to the swimmers.We have warm water & islands over here,but England to France is 'THE swim',I suppose. Regards,Greg.

[sherrywine1941]

Congrats to all involved...Looked like beautiful weather... Great video Mikee.

2 push-up's lol

Hugs, Sherry