One of the questions that I've been pondering recently is, how deep is the English Channel and, more importantly, how deep is it where I'm crossing. So that is what I'm going to talk about, the depth of the English Channel.
As I have never sailed a boat or done this sort of challenge before I didn't have much of an idea on where to get this information. My trusty internet companion, who I like to call Mr Google, just wasn't cutting the mustard. Luckily I sit next to someone at work who is a keen sailor and he brought in a chart for me to look at.
As I have never sailed a boat or done this sort of challenge before I didn't have much of an idea on where to get this information. My trusty internet companion, who I like to call Mr Google, just wasn't cutting the mustard. Luckily I sit next to someone at work who is a keen sailor and he brought in a chart for me to look at.
Now, using a crude program, I have scribbled on an approximate start and end point and a straight line between them. My actual route will be more of an "S" than a straight line due to the tide but I'll talk more about that in a future post. Where I'm swimming it is pretty deep, up to 53m and that's at Lowest Astronomical Tide (LAT). Now unless I'm very much mistaken I'm not swimming at LAT so it will probably be significantly deeper.
One of the things that I found really interesting is that in the middle of the channel there are some areas that are less than 3m deep, that's right 3m. If you don't believe me have a look at the above picture and just below the green line there is a small patch on the map called the Varne. Told you 3.1m... If you look a little bit lower than that there is a bit on "The Ridge" that is 1.6m deep.
I reckon I'd be able to see the bottom if I swam over that bit...
One of the things that I found really interesting is that in the middle of the channel there are some areas that are less than 3m deep, that's right 3m. If you don't believe me have a look at the above picture and just below the green line there is a small patch on the map called the Varne. Told you 3.1m... If you look a little bit lower than that there is a bit on "The Ridge" that is 1.6m deep.
I reckon I'd be able to see the bottom if I swam over that bit...