They have done it. Seven swimmers from Pembrokeshire have become the first, they hope of many, Bluetit Chill Swimmers relay team to swim across the channel.
“We are feeling amazing, elated, epic achy and exhausted,” the team told the Western Telegraph.
The seven women left Dover at 2.31am on Wednesday morning, arriving in France at 7.54pm that night some 17 hours and 24 minutes later.
(Image: Bluetits Chill Swimmers)
The team took it in turns to swim in shifts of one hour, starting off in the pitch black and encountering choppy seas in the middle of the swim.
Despite seasickness, exhaustion the women kept each other going.
“What was amazing for me was there was always someone looking out for you,” said team member Laura Voller.
“If you were cold someone got a blanket for you, if someone was hungry or thirsty somebody else would notice and get food or drink to them. There was always one person that had their eye open for the rest of the team.”
The swim was not straightforward. At one point the pilot of the safety boat called swimmer Makala into the wheel house and said that it was not looking likely that they would make it to France with the conditions and the progress they were making.
Makala came out to confer with the team but didn’t tell them what the skipper had said.
“I had a little check in with the girls and said ‘we have got to dig deep here’ and did they dig deep,” she said.
(Image: Bluetits Chill Swimmers)
Bluetits founder Sian Richardson added: “We things yesterday, one of which is channel swimming is not a glamorous sport. It was very rough and ready. It was all do this do that, there was no time to think.
“We all really pushed it towards the end. We were tired, seasick and hungry but people’s moods picked up.”
Swimmer Eva Rees made the landing on the beach in France.
“It was a massive privilege to be the person that landed the team,” she said. “I will never ever forget it. It was an amazing moment and I had all of them with me in spirit.”
The Bluetits hope that their cross-channel swim will inspire others from the worldwide cold water swimming group to attempt the same.
(Image: Bluetits Chill Swimmers)
“Even if you think you can’t swim, it’s possible,” they said. “We are a bunch of every day ordinary humans but we really are endurance athletes.
“We all gave it absolutely everything we had to get across and showed what seven ordinary women (of all ages and abilities) can do because together we showed how extraordinary we really are.”
The team is raising money to provide water safety training to the 150,000 strong Bluetit flock across the world.
They also want to invest in a portable defibrillator for the Bluetit water safety team to take to events. So far more than £2,500 has been raised.
To sponsor them go to bluetit-channel-relay-swim.raiselysite.com/donate or click on the link above.
Jess is also raising money for Kidney Wales while other team mates are raising funds for Paul Sartori.
They thanked everybody for their messages of support and positive comments on their videos yesterday, which kept them going during the swim.
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