The teams of six plunged into the black waters of the famous loch at 6 am on Saturday to swim the 23-mile stretch, despite a water temperature of 13 degrees Celsius and waves of around three to four feet whipped up by the Force 4-5 winds.
With the reduced buoyancy of fresh water also in the equation, it was always going to be a tough crossing, but the teams were in good form.
The B squad – Gerry Leonard, Sarah-Jane Stirling, Dario Parmesan, Ian Anderson, Kerry Blandin and George Telford – completed the challenge in 11.06 hours, to knock an amazing 1 hr 10 min off the existing record.
The A team – Alexis Militis, Alison Wood, Natasha Abels, Ian Jones, Steve Toudic and Simon Dowling – simply ripped the record apart to finish in 9 hrs 21 min, almost three hours faster than the 12 hr 16 min pre-Polar Bears record.
The loch has an average depth of 600 ft and the water is black because of the amount of peat in it.
‘It makes you feel like you’re staring into the abyss,’ one member of the party commented.
‘I always thought that if we got reasonable conditions the A team would have a good chance of breaking the record,’ a delighted Ian Anderson said this morning.
‘For both to knock so much time off the old one was fantastic.
In retrospect, Sunday would have been better, weatherwise, but of course we didn’t know that on Saturday.’ He added: ‘It was a really good weekend, and everything went very well.
We’ve raised somewhere in the region of £2,000 to £3,000 which will be shared between the Jersey GOSH Appeal and CI Air Search.’ The Polar Bears are already starting to think about next year’s challenge, although nothing has gone beyond the initial idea stage.
‘I fancy a Scotland to Ireland swim,’ Anderson said, ‘although the weather could be a problem.
‘If that’s not possible then maybe an Irish lake swim.
We’ll certainly do something.
We have a good group and it would be nice to keep them together.’ l The swim was sponsored by Abacus Financial Services and Empire Catering.
A team (in the order they swam): Alexis Militis, Alison Wood, Natasha Abels, Ian Jones, Steve Toudic, Simon Dowling.
Skipper: Ed Sharpe.
B team (in the order they swam): Gerry Leonard, Sarah-Jane Stirling, Dario Parmesan, Ian Anderson, Kerry Blandin, George Telford.
Skipper: Peter Gibbons.
Further information on www.swim-fast.co.uk
