AFTER almost an entire day at sea, a three-person swimming team successfully concluded a marathon record attempt with almost the same level of precision as you might find on the Swiss railways.
Paul Harris, Sean Collins and Nichola Murch became the first team to complete a three-way crossing between Jersey and France when they landed near Port Bail in Normandy at 9.37pm yesterday.
With an estimated target time for completing the feat having been 24 hours, and having set off at around 10pm the previous night, the trio were inside this mark by around 20 minutes.
The team members, all of whom hail from England and swam for two-hour shifts on rotation, also shared out the “honours” in terms of completing each leg.
Mr Harris said: “It was a great team effort in that I started the swim [at La Coupe in St Martin] and then reached land in France during my second turn, then Sean touched back in Jersey [at White Rock] at around lunchtime, and then Nichola was in the water for the final few strokes.”
Matthew Clarke, who acted as pilot for the team on his boat Lionheart and has been involved in more than 100 long-distance swims, said conditions hadn’t been quite as good as predicted.
“The forecast was pretty much perfect and going across on the first leg it was like being in a swimming pool with a clear sky and full moon – really beautiful,” he said. “Unfortunately around halfway back to Jersey the wind got up quite quickly and it made things uncomfortable for the rest of that leg.
“It wasn’t easy in the closing stages either, but the three of them were really determined and showed great resilience, which really saw them through.”
The 42-mile swim – if measured in straight lines – was the first time the feat has been attempted, with Paul and Sean having hatched plans to make the attempt after a previous two-way crossing.
Asked if a four-way crossing might be possible in the future, Mr Harris said: “Let’s get some rest first… but never say never.”
With Mr Harris working in the dental industry, three different charities were chosen to benefit from the record-setting swim: DentAid provides treatment to homeless people who cannot afford treatment for their teeth, with the British Dental Association has a fund for those who work in the industry and have faced hardship, while the Dentinal Tubules Foundation builds and equips schools and libraries in less developed countries.
