Today was very eventful! We met with my boat pilot mid-day and went over the necessary information for swim day. One of the people who was ‘in-line’ ahead of me hasn’t arrived from South Africa yet and isn’t due to arrive until this Friday. As a result, I’m effectively now in second position.

For those of you who don’t know, each boat pilot arranges for approximately 4 swimmers during the neap tides throughout the season. My neap tide is August 8-16. Originally, I was in third position. So, I expected that two swimmers would go before me. As a result, realistically, I thought the earliest date I would swim would be August 10th (the third day of the neap tide). But, since the second swimmer is unlikely to arrive until Friday…I’ve been bumped up and am tentatively scheduled to swim this Thursday!!

So, what does that mean. I will start about an hour before high tide in Dover. On Thursday, the first high tide is scheduled for roughly 4:15 a.m. That means, I likely will start swimming around 3:15 a.m. We will need to meet the boat pilot about an hour before start time – so around 2:15. So it looks like a wake up time over night Wednesday/early Thursday around 1:00 a.m.  To do the math for those on the East Coast – I will likely start swimming around 10:15 p.m. on Wednesday night and will swim into the day on Thursday. Assuming a 14-16 hour swim – that would put me finishing around mid-day on Thursday – East Coast time.  

And…yes, that means I will start swimming in the dark and swim into the sunrise! I will know more tomorrow…but, as for now, the weather is looking good as of Wednesday and is predicted to be good through the rest of the week. So,  I’m off to bed as I will need as much rest as I can get over the next 48 hours. Had a great pasta dinner in Dover tonight. More tomorrow…