One song I remember when I was growing up was Nightswimming by REM, I think I was about 13 when it was released as a single and it reached number 27 on the singles chart. Now according to Wikipedia it is about a group of friends who go skinny dipping at night and when you listen to the lyrics you can’t help but agree that is exactly what it is about.
You’ll be glad to know that this entry isn’t about skinny dipping (well most of you will be) but it is about night swimming. According to my pilot I’m likely to have to swim part of the channel crossing in the dark or at night. Now, like most people, I have splashed around in the sea as the sun sets or as it has just set but I’ve never swum properly in the dark, in the pitch black of night.
I originally thought that it would just be for an hour or so but after seeing the twitter feed of my pilot I realised that it could be for quite a time as some swimmers recently have had to set off at 1am. This brings another level of difficulty into the challenge, as I’m not really going to be able to see where I’m going for some of this swim. From the looks of it I’m also going to have to swim with a glow stick so that the boat crew can see me not to mention everything else in the channel, I might as well swim with a bright neon sign saying eat me! There is of course the fairly major problem of where to put it, I don’t have pockets in my swim wear and if I hold it in my hand I won’t be able to swim properly. I’m guessing that there will be some sort of arm strap but having things strapped to you while swimming in the sea will chafe...you don’t want to know how much skin I lost due to my stubble rubbing on my shoulders while in Dover last weekend.
Luckily I received an email today from my chosen charity, that had an interesting link to a Night Swimming event. Needless to say I want to stand the best chance possible of crossing the channel and so any experience I can get before hand seems like a good idea. On the 11th of October (brrrr the water will be cold) I’ll be swimming 1.5km in the dark with a glow stick, I’ll be humming Nightswimming while I go round.
You’ll be glad to know that this entry isn’t about skinny dipping (well most of you will be) but it is about night swimming. According to my pilot I’m likely to have to swim part of the channel crossing in the dark or at night. Now, like most people, I have splashed around in the sea as the sun sets or as it has just set but I’ve never swum properly in the dark, in the pitch black of night.
I originally thought that it would just be for an hour or so but after seeing the twitter feed of my pilot I realised that it could be for quite a time as some swimmers recently have had to set off at 1am. This brings another level of difficulty into the challenge, as I’m not really going to be able to see where I’m going for some of this swim. From the looks of it I’m also going to have to swim with a glow stick so that the boat crew can see me not to mention everything else in the channel, I might as well swim with a bright neon sign saying eat me! There is of course the fairly major problem of where to put it, I don’t have pockets in my swim wear and if I hold it in my hand I won’t be able to swim properly. I’m guessing that there will be some sort of arm strap but having things strapped to you while swimming in the sea will chafe...you don’t want to know how much skin I lost due to my stubble rubbing on my shoulders while in Dover last weekend.
Luckily I received an email today from my chosen charity, that had an interesting link to a Night Swimming event. Needless to say I want to stand the best chance possible of crossing the channel and so any experience I can get before hand seems like a good idea. On the 11th of October (brrrr the water will be cold) I’ll be swimming 1.5km in the dark with a glow stick, I’ll be humming Nightswimming while I go round.