On the 9th August around 05:00am I boarded a boat called The Radiance skippered by Kieran Collins along with my crew (Marian Burns, Jim Canavan and Cellie Loughrane ) and my official observer Elaine Burrows Dillane. The goal was to attempt to swim from Fastnet Lighthouse to Baltimore. This swim was on my list for a few years, and I was delighted to get the opportunity in what was a very busy Channel / Marathon Swimming year for me. It was a dark, grey and misty morning with air temp of 16deg and water temp 14deg. Sea state was flat with no wind so perfect for swimming. There was another swimmer from Dublin – Brianna Wallace attempting the same swim at the same time and she came out on the bigger boat with me to the lighthouse and then transferred to a smaller rib with her crew.
As usual, everyone was a little nervous heading out as we got ready for the start. Lots of lanolin / grease applied and some nutrition and the usual banter as we approached the “Rock” helped me to focus on what was ahead. Shortly after 6am, I jumped into the water and swam into Fastnet Lighthouse. Water felt chilly and there was a small swell as I approached. Once there, I touched the Rock and held my hand up to say I was ready to go. My official start time was 06:12am and I swam towards my boat which was about 400m away. I got into my rhythm of 58 / 59 strokes per minute pretty quick and just started to stroke it out. I didn’t encounter any major problems throughout the swim and enjoyed the sights passing Cape Clear and Sherkin Island. I knew once I saw “The Beacon” that we were nearly there and finally the sun started to appear. By the name I reached Baltimore Harbour, we had blue skies, music blasting from the boat and some supporters cheering on the slipway. I completed the swim in 6 hrs 12min and the average sea temp was recorded at 14.44 degrees.
The Fastnet Swim is one of the Irish Triple Crown swims (North Channel and Galway Bay are the other two ) and a beautiful swim to do in a beautiful part of Ireland. Once I showered, we went down to the slipway to cheer Brianna in as she completed her longest swim ever and we all then headed for lunch doing the usual full analysis of the swim. Our Pilot, Kieran Collins did a fantastic job navigating me into Baltimore and Noel Browne was very helpful with the organisation of the swim. I would highly recommend this swim to anyone interested in taking on a long distance challenge.
