MORAG HUGHES

I joined the Viking Princess at Dover Harbour and we were soon joined by the Morag Hughes and her husband Ronnie.
The weather was good and we left Dover Harbour with a beautiful sunset behind us as we steamed towards Shakespeare Beach where Morag entered the water at 05:25.

It was immediately obvious that we were in for a long day as Morag headed south at 42 Strokes Per Minute. Morag is a slow but very steady swimmer, as the day went on it was obvious she could maintain her pace indefinitely. Her crossing attempt was blessed by very good weather and a very slight tide allowing her to make slow but steady progress to France.

Morag swam for an uneventful 4 hours to reach the South West shipping lane but on entering the lane the pilot was almost immediately forced to circle the swimmer to protect her from a Russian cargo ship called TEXHOAOI KOHHOXOB that failed to alter course to avoid us.

Morag was in good spirit all through the swim, smiling and showing every sign of enjoying the day and continuing at the same pace she entered the Separation Zone at 12:15, by now the sun was beating down and light shirts and hats were the order of the day. A naval ship passed to our stern but the heat haze made national identification impossible.

At 13:30, running westwards quite fast on the ebb tide we entered the North East shipping lane where we were destined to stay for the rest of the afternoon, running parallel to the SEPERATION Zone as Morag was unable to make any southerly progress.

The afternoon was very pleasant, warm with a calm sea and a slight rocking swell induced a very sleepy mood. Morag however continued onwards never slacking from her 42 SPM and during her hourly feeds continued to display a very happy demeanour.

At 15:30 Morag appeared to be tiring as she was not pulling properly with her left arm, the problem persisted for an hours or so but then she seemed to rally and push on past the problem and soon resumed her previous stroke.




During the day a fair amount of good humoured banter took place between the Observer and Morag's husband Ronnie on the usual English/Scottish lines. With more than an occasional mention of England lamentable football performance in the world cup.

At 20:00 we finally entered the French costal waters after being carried 8 miles west of Cap Grenez, now being carried east on the flood tide we were treated to a spectacular sunset and as the as we approached the Cap it seemed we would be swept past and carried Eastwards up the French coast.
It was time to push Morag to dig deep and push herself across the tide.
An hour of loud verbal encouragement finally saw Morag follow Ray in the dingy on to touch the rocks of the Cape and complete her tenacious crossing in a time of 18 hours and 31 minutes.

Swimmer : Morag Hughes
Posse: Ronnie Hughes
Boat: Viking Princess
Pilot: R Bricknel
Crew: R Bricknel
Observer: Mikee Monello,
Music: Boogpatton - http://www.youtube.com/user/boogpatton -

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Boogpatton
• Morag Hughes
• cross channel swim
• english channel
• csa
• long distance swimming
• swim
• swimming
• monelloswim
• monello198
• yt:quality=high

[streetspiritlive]

Morag was Awesome!

Circling around this amazing swimmer

to avoid an aberrant russian ship

kept her going

And she kept going!!

The music is So appropriate...

I thank you mikee for this video n all!!!...

though i know you'll have more

where that came from!... ; )

[monelloswim]

@streetspiritlive

thank you M

she was great, just kept on going, slow but steady.

and Boog did the business

and yes there are more, uploading one as i type, ready in ...

half n hour

lol

mikee

;-}~

[myscha2]

well done cousin and best wishes from all your Stewart relations in New Zealand.

[monello198]

@JPRBlues

Thanks Jake

waiting for your piece of music

;-}~

[JPRBlues]

Hey Mikee. What great tunes from the Boogpatton to this amazing event. 11/10..Peace..Jake

[Demoman1980]

Great playing from the Boog !! Well done with the swim.

[sproutcentral]

Great effort by Morag. I'm sure Billy and I saw her doing laps of Loch Chon as part of her training.

Very tasteful playing by Sir Boog of Patton.

[boogpatton]

Hi folks ... thanks for all the kind comments. It really is an honour to have my original music attached to this video. Well done Mikee, but especially WELL DONE Morag!

[tps607]

Congratulations on a great effort and a successful crossing,Morag!

Boog,a fine bit of traveling music...and Mikee,a good video...thanks for putting it all together and sharing this and all of the others.It is something I would never get to see if not for you.

[gerdenshed]

Congratulations Morag, great effort my friend ;0)

Mark...