REBECCA LEWIS

ENGLISH CHANNEL SWIM
CSA 12
29/09/09
Swimmer : Rebecca Lewis
Family: Roger and Katie Lewis
Boat: Viking Princess
Pilot: Reg Bricknel
Crew: Ray Bricknel
Observers: Dan Earthquake & Monello

Music: Greensleves arranged and recorded by Russell Sprout
http://www.youtube.com/user/sproutcentral

I joined the Viking Princess in Dover Harbour at 05:30 accompanied by a second observer Dan Earthquake after Reg and Ray prepared the boat we collected Rebecca and her parents Roger and Katie. We steamed to Shakespeare Beach, the weather was fine and the sea had a slight swell.
Rebecca entered the water at 07:05 and set off at a very fast pace, she was swimming at 90 Strokes Per Minute and in the first hour she covered 2.6 miles makes approximately 3 knots.
Rebecca was making an attempt at the British womens record for a crossing that stands at 8 hours and 48 minutes and at this pace she would smash it.
Whilst the weather forecast showed perfect sea and weather conditions the wind and sea ignored the forecast and continued to freshen through the day, at 08:25 Reg moved Rebecca from the starboard to port side to give her a smoother swim in the lee of the boat, and Rebecca covered 2 miles in each the 2nd and 3rd hours. At 09:25 we reached the South West shipping lane. Her pace had settled down to a steady mid 80ies SPM and all was looking good.
The SW lane was extremely busy and at any given time we could see up to half a dozen ships bearing down on us. One particular ship the Molby Innovation, an enormous container ship passed extremely close to our stern, never any danger and due to our pace we crossed the lane in 1 hour 50 minutes.
We sped across the Separation Zone and entered the North East lane at 11:55, just after that we were overtaken by a beautiful yacht heading for Calais

By now Rebeccas stroke rate had slowed to 80/82 and the chance of breaking the record was slipping away, whilst the conditions were not helping they were not actually bad and we headed onwards. The N/E lane was also very busy and we counted 8 ships in line, they all passed close ahead of us causing quite a considerable swell.
By 14:20 when we entered the French Inner Coastal Rebecca had slowed to the point where the record is was now gone. She swam on but continued to slow obviously aware that speed was no long essential, she kept lifting her head to look ahead at the approaching coast line, she even changed her breathing pattern adding an extra breath whilst looking ahead.
At 15:48 the record attempt was over and we were still 2 miles from the coast and by now the with the turned tide we were in a very heavy swell with the boat rolling heavily.
We entered Wisant bay and when sheltered by the Cape found that the sea had lots of large jelly fish. Rebecca seemed unaware of them and was not bothered by them, but as we neared the beach there were more and more of them.
At 16:50 the dingy was lowered to accompany Rebecca to the beach and at 17:02 after swimming for 10 hours and 2 minutes Rebecca stepped onto the beach just to the west of Wissant.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• english channel
• channel swim
• csa
• rebecca lewis
• monello

[chsgdss]

***** BEAUTIFUL *****

All Stars Rebeccas. It is beautiful.

It is equal the of Canal da Mancha?

Kisses,

Raíssa (Brasil).

[monelloswim]

@chsgdss

english channel, Canal da Mancha...

same place

;-}~

[sproutcentral]

Shame about the record but that's not really the point.

Top effort Rebecca!!!

Nice vid Mikee.

5*****

[monelloswim]

@sproutcentral

when you said shame about the record i thought you were talking about the music...

;-}}~

[saffbrat]

@vegasdaddy17

this is her last years attempt..

please engage your brain and watch this years attempt by Rebecca

;-}}~

[vegasdaddy17]

Bad luck Rebecca but a terrific attempt...think I may have heard that tune before!...Love Dan's surname...lol...

[hideous852]

I just downloaded this mp3 at audiogetnow..com

[monelloswim]

@DanEarthquake

just read this again...

hard to keep a straight face

;-}}}}}}}}}}~

[sneakyuploader]

swell done Rebecca, great soundtrack Dave, good video

Wayne

[sproutcentral]

Ahahahaha!!! Funny man.

[anitashelby]

Simply Great Rebecca! Wonderful Soundtrack Also! 5*s Thankyou sprouty for sharing....Anita..

[DanEarthquake]

@monelloswim

Charm, good looks, humour, confidence, talent, enthusiasm, strength, fitness, a great girlfriend, a name that makes other youtubers jealous...that will do for now.

My swimming stroke is not the best I'll admit, but it's enough to propel me ten miles when I want to. Oh I forgot, you can't swim can you? Those who can, do, those who can't teach, those who can't teach criticise... Mikee, you are such fun. Hope you are well.

Dan Earthquake (a name to be jealous of)