Thanks to all of the volunteers who helped to make this evening’s swim a success – the RNLI, Coast Guard, Order of Malta, Funkytown, Gardai, Centra staff, Sea Scouts, Jimmy Long and local residents in Myrtleville and Church Bay.
Results are online on http://www.sportstiming.ie at this link .
Lots of pictures to follow on Facebook and from our always fabulous photographer, Siobhán Russell.
Jimmy Long has very kindly offered to open up the old Coast Guard station for parking for swimmers this afternoon. This will hold a maximum of 35 cars so come early if you want one of these, rather than the spaces available at the Rugby Club.
Drive past the beach and there will be a volunteer guiding cars into the station, if there are places left! I’d say don’t bother if you’re not there by 5.00! These gates are the way in and will be open.
Crosshaven RC have very kindly offered to allow swimmers to park at their grounds this evening. The club is on the left at the top of the hill turning down into Myrtleville.
It’s 1km down the hill – a pleasant stroll! Please consider leaving some cars there and car pooling to the beach and to Church Bay after registration.
It’s going to be very busy at the beach – the sunshine will bring lots of non-swimmers down there and parking will be at a premium.
Come early to register from 5pm or even a bit before.
Thanks to the over 300 entrants for tomorrow’s swim. Entries will close at 1.00pm today. Please read/download the participant instructions from below, or they are also being emailed to each of you this afternoon, once entries are finalised.
RNLI Myrtleville to Church Bay Swim 2017 – Participant Information
Entries are not accepted on the day.
Safety Briefing:
The briefing will take place at 18.30 on the steps at Myrtleville beach. All participants MUST be present for the briefing.
The swim will start at 19.00. All participants enter the water at the same time. High tide is at 21.00.
Transportation & Gear:
Participants should car pool to get some cars to Church Bay and then return to Myrtleville for the safety briefing at 18.30.
In Myrtleville, park well up the hill. There will be no parking near the beach. In Church Bay, there will be three volunteers from the local community group guiding traffic to available parking. Listen to the volunteers. Work with them. If you have to walk a bit further, just do it. You’re fit and you’ll enjoy it 🙂
Enjoy the event. Please assist the volunteers on the day by following instructions and being on time at each stage.
Swimmers have noted an increase in jellyfish activity in the past few days. Investigators have determined that in the absence of rough water for his Distance Camp swimmers, Ned Denison developed a new challenging strategy for them. In the past few weeks, he has been dumping millions of baby jellies in the waters off Cork – just to watch them grow and then hear the swimmers scream as they plough through them.
In Myrtleville, the Committee Of What De Feck To Do With De Shaggin’ Jellies (COWDFTDWDSJ) met in emergency session on Sunday night, just after batin’ Clare out de gate in Thurles, minor AND senior (Up the Rebels!). Various strategies were explored, all of which sounded more and more feasible as the pints mounted up.
In summary, the following was decided:
Get an underwater scoop to lead the swim, bashing jellies aside as we go. This is it being prepared this morning by Angela Carazza and Siobhan Russell at their dawn swim. Thanks, ladies.
Further safeguard our swimmers by having the entire route trawled repeatedly by local fishing fleets. Sample nets are on express order for Thursday.
Finally, in a bid to keep Mr. Denison from advancing his dastardly plot and mining the route with millions more jellies, we are deploying suitable weaponry along the course.
Guaranteed jelly-free swimming in Myrtleville this Thursday night **** See you there.
****Note, loads and loads of terms and conditions apply. See small print in white text below, containing so many caveats, you’d think up was down. “Jelly-free” does not actually mean there will be no jellyfish. The use of the word “guarantee” in this context is not intended to convey any guarantee that there won’t be jellyfish and, in fact, an absence of jellies is about as likely as Mr. Lynch getting a call up to the Cork team for the semi-final – minor or senior. In conclusion – UP THE REBELS 🙂
The weather is looking kinder for the rescheduled RNLI Myrtleville-Church Bay Swim on Thursday, July 13th at 7.00pm. While we don’t want to tempt fate, we will anyway… This time, looks like it’ll be a Go.
Enter now on Active. Click here.
ENTRIES WILL CLOSE (YES, CLOSE AND NOT OPEN AGAIN – EVEN IF YOU JUST FORGOT) AT 13.00 ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 12TH).
Blitzkrieg Bop, courtesy of Johnny, Tommy, Dee Dee and Joey (and no, they didn’t write this song for a fridge ad). http://www.ramones.com.
There was a big surprise last night as Carmel Collins completed a fantastic North Channel crossing in a time of 15:58:21. Carmel decided to be very low-key in preparing for this swim, having found the pressure on her before her English Channel attempt in 2012 had distracted her focus. For anyone who doesn’t want it, the huge social media focus on swims in the last few years can create its own stresses. Carmel made the decision to cut out that external part of any potential pressure and it paid off for her. She was putting enough pressure on herself personally without any publicity.
Smiling as she heads for her North Channel swim start
The swim start was quite rough but then it calmed and conditions were very good for most of the swim. The biggest issue (and this will surprise anyone who knows Carmel) was the cold – it was a real battle. The water temperature was 12c-13c during the swim. Carmel had prepared for up to an 18 hour swim but was thinking in the first two hours that she wouldn’t be able to do more than half of that. She was frozen. As the day went on it got a bit warmer and in the second half of the swim there were hot (relatively speaking) and cold patches but the cold ones outweighed the hot ones and moving from one to the other was horrible! Carmel was shivering in the water and her hands were locking up at stages. Despite this, she was very mentally strong and really determined to get the job done, with fantastic crew support.
On board yesterday were her crew of Ger Kennedy and Claire Ryan with Pádraig Mallon and Kieran McClelland . The Pilot was Charles Stewart. Carmel was full of praise for the crew, who encouraged her at every stage with whiteboard messages from her family and even lied convincingly to her that she was seeing a dolphin…..
It was a Minke whale joining in the fun. This video taken from the Infinity Facebook page is one for Carmel to cherish! When she saw it first, Carmel thought “killer whale!!”. Fortunately, not – just an amazing experience! It swam under her for a bit, moving slowly. Carmel was able to see it clearly as the visibility in the North Channel throughout the swim as incredible.
The water was so clear that there was not time for any boredom, as there were constant distractions and things to look at. Being able to see clearly meant that “DodgeBall with Jellies” was the order of the day. While there weren’t as many as she feared, Carmel did get her first chance to go up close and personal with a Lion’s Mane. She swam right over him but avoided the tentacles and luckily didn’t get stung by him. She picked up a few stings from other jellies during the swim, but nothing to cause her problems. On balance Carmel reckoned the distraction value of being able to look at all the different colours and shapes of the jellyfish was well worth the few stings.
The one everyone wants – Channel swimmer with ship!
The big problems Carmel had for the swim – apart from the cold – were a couple she brought into the day – a really sore left shoulder and a long-standing dose of bronchitis. The shoulder meant a change of breathing side for most of the swim and the bronchitis caused a lot of breathing problems during the swim, with two hours or so in the middle being very slow as it kicked in badly. This time, however, she was determined there was no stopping her and even when she had feed problems and had to skip some feeds, she slowed down but never stopped.
Currents were very strong in the Channel. Ger Kennedy did one support swim during the whole crossing, with about three hours to go. After he got out, Carmel was looking at Scotland and thinking, “that’s it now, nearly there”. An hour later, she was still thinking “nearly there”. Another hour later…..same thing!! The current was a big push against her and reaching the shore in the dark felt like it took forever, over a distance Carmel felt she would normally have covered in 30 minutes.
Headed for Scotland – in the dark and against the current.
Problems or not, there was no stopping and 15 hours, 58 minutes and 21 seconds after she started, Carmel Collins was a North Channel Solo Swimmer.
At the finish – still smiling but shivering a lot too.
According to Carmel, Myrtleville to Monkstown and back is the next plan after a short rest. After yesterday, she says she can take on anything!
Congratulations to Audrey on her success with the LastMinute.com channel relay team in a time of 14 hours 51 minutes for the five swimmers. Well done, Audrey!
Next up is Distance Camp, followed by joining a 38 mile round-Jersey relay team and then solo for the London Docklands 10km. No stopping the lady this Summer 🙂
Lastminute.com team.
Audrey on board and ready to go. Always a smile!
Beautiful scene from the Channel.
Record of Achievement – well done all, but especially Audrey!
33 hours 35 minutes. Not easy 😊
Myrtleville Selkies English Channel Relay Team
This is just going to look great when it’s finished 🙂
Only a few KM left now. Dover well in sight.
Myrtleville Swimmers 