A JERSEY swimming legend has marked the 50th anniversary of conquering the English Channel for the first time as a teenager by leading a relay team on yet another successful crossing.
Sally Minty-Gravett (68) and her “Sal’s Pals” team-mates landed at Audresselles near Boulogne at around 6.45am local time yesterday, stopping the clock for their six-person feat at 13 hours and 31 minutes.
completing her second ‘leg’ just before sunrise yesterday.
The challenge came ten months after it had been originally scheduled last August – exactly half a century since Mrs Minty-Gravett first took part in a cross-Channel relay at the age of 18 – but weather conditions prevented them going ahead before the end of the summer.
She also completed her first solo crossing later in 1975 – the first of eight solo swims on this stretch, including a “double-crossing” in 2016 at the age of 59.
Although she has “lost count” of the number of relay swims she has completed, Mrs Minty-Gravett estimated the total may be around ten.
Having indicated that she might “retire” from solo swims after her most recent cross-Channel effort in 2022, the swimmer – known as “Dolfin Sal” – has since taken part in several relay swims.
She recruited five friends from Jersey Long Distance Swimming Club – Will Ellis, Alice Harvey, Jenny Fitzgerald, Graeme Lowe and Julia Morris –for the latest challenge.
“We’re absolutely knackered, but really delighted,” Mrs Minty-Gravett told the JEP while waiting for a flight back to Jersey yesterday afternoon.
“We were supposed to go next week, but the pilot called me and said there was a potential ‘window’ this week, so after checking that everyone could adjust their schedules, we decided to go for it.
“We only left Jersey on Wednesday morning and were expecting force two to three winds – as it turned out we had [force] three to five for the most part after leaving Dover, but that’s the thing with the Channel, you have to take what you are given.”
With each swimmer in the water for an hour, it was Mr Ellis – an actor who completed a round-Jersey swim last week – and Ms Harvey who were left to battle against large numbers of jellyfish.
Mrs Minty Gravett said: “Jellyfish are usually most prevalent around dusk and dawn, and those were the two legs I was in the water – but I was lucky and poor old Will and Alice got the worst of it on the seventh and eighth legs.”
Having originally scheduled the swim for next week, the Jersey-based members of the team will be able to put their feet up – although the team leader did not rule out a social swim, nor the possibility of another challenge next summer, when she will turn 70.
