“Building a positive attitude begins with having confidence in yourself.”

— Roger Fritz

Week 13 in review

The Dovercoaster continues for many. There were a couple of short breaks in the weather and some made their attempts whilst other continue to practice patience. The Dovercoaster is possibly the hardest part of this challenge, be it solo or relay. Look back on this moment in time in the future and you’ll realise it’s a fantastic moment in an incredible story.

It was another weekend of mixed weather with rain and wind at times. Such was the damp weather that Dirk ended up using a hairdryer to dry clothes ready for the next day!

It was only a few weeks ago that we commented that the seagulls had been calmer and quieter, they had been lulling us into a false sense of security as one swooped down and stole a feed treat (including wrapper) during one of the feeds! The cheek of it!

Best of luck to the 6 person Chinese relay team who trained at the weekend and were keen to say hello to the group. It’s hard to imagine what it must be like to see what we see every weekend for the first time. We really are pretty lucky.

I was there for the start of the Saturday session and got to say hello and congratulations to our very own Elizabeth and also to swimmers from around the globe. I love how global this little part of Kent is: India, Australia, USA, UK and more. We could all benefit from being a bit more English Channel. The channel doesn’t care your gender, home country, colour, gender identity, age or any other characteristic. It only cares that you have done the work to be there. It’s not all good of course, sometimes it decides not to let some swims across, I would say it's only human. Of course it’s not, it’s the sea, but you know what I mean.

Saturday:

Swimmers: 17
Water temperature: 17.5C
Air temperature: 18C
Conditions: F6 NE. Cloudy with intermittent rain.

Sunday:

Swimmers: 19
Water temperature: 17.5C
Air temperature: 18C
Conditions: F6 SW. Choppy, Swell - bouncy!

Shout outs to …..

Here are a few of the big achievements from this weekend

Dominic B, Halani MV, Sophie F, Vanessa K for your 4 hour swims
Kevin McC, Laura S for your 5 hour swims
Hayley B, Mark K , Sue D for your 5 & 4 weekends
Marion C, William H for your 6 hour swims
Jason B for your 6 & 4 weekend
Mark P for your 6 & 6 weekend
Andrew B for your 7 & 6 weekends

If I missed you, I apologies, please shout about it. As well as the achievements that are measured in hours or badges, there are also those more important personal victories, I’d love to hear about those as well.

Thank you!

Thank you to the following volunteers who were on the rota for the weekend:

Level 1: Dirk G
Level 2: Sarah D, Kristen S

Thank you to all Level 3 volunteers who helped out a little or a lot. We have made a lot of change to how we run things on the beach and behind the scenes and you are the core of these improvements that everyone benefits from. Thank you 🙏🏻

We are looking to expand our Level 2 volunteer team, if you are interested, visit our volunteers page or contact our volunteers lead.

I’d like to say an extra special THANK YOU to Vikki Chester who is stepping down from our Leadership Team and as our safeguarding lead. Thank you for all your input, passion and knowledge.

Mandi is stepping in as our interim Safeguarding Lead. You can find out about all our safeguarding policies and processes at the bottom of every page of the website.

Channel Swimmer on the beach!

Despite the shocking run in weather, a few people have managed to squeeze a swim in. These are the swims that I heard about in the week of this blog:

Elizabeth Culcay: English Channel Solo - 10 hours 46 minutes. Pilot Andy & James King
Deniz Kayadelen: English Channel Solo - 15 hours 8 minutes. Pilot Eric Hartley
Carol Wortman: English Channel Solo - 13 hours 38 minutes on 21st July. Pilot Simon Ellis & Marilyn Critchley
Aspire Chipmunks: English Channel Relay - 13 hours 57 minutes on 20th July. Pilot Lance Oram / Tanya Harding

Walter’s Worries

Bad Fur Day

I tried to talk to Bonnie about my worries, but she wouldn’t listen.

Then I saw the poor soft toy soul in her mouth. I know Bonnie is kind and gentle, but imagine the mess the drool will make of your felt or fur! Bit like the mess I get in on a rainy day in the beach.

Apologies, I got a bit distracted by that. I think the concerns mostly about the weather still. Though I don’t think they were related to bad fur days.

Paddlefish Ponderings

Well, err, thanks Walter. I think.

I get it though. Early days of the Dovercoaster are novel, even somewhat exciting. The sustained impact is really starting to take its toll on a lot of people now.

I’m always impressed by those who are able to relax into the twists and changes, that isn’t easy and it is a skill that makes a difference. If you can look at each change as if it were the first, you’re more likely to make rationale choices and keep your nerve.

Hang in there, trust the training, and lean on the community. The best is yet to come.

Looking ahead

On Tour

Once a month we will be On Tour on on a Saturday:

Saturday 19th August
Saturday 16th September

The location will either be Hythe or Ramsgate, depending on the weather forecast. The final decision will be made on the Thursday evening before this swim. These sessions are shown as ‘On Tour’ in the booking system, they are considered ‘standard’ training sessions and are included in training packages.

Spotlight in the shop

We all know that you need red or yellow hats for training, but other colours are available as well. I’m not intending on any reprints this season, so if there is a hat you want, grab it now whilst stocks last. Some colours are already out of stock.

Photos

A few photos from the weekend….

Key Contact methods

Please do not contact Emma directly as you’ll likely find that she doesn’t have time to respond to your message in a timely manner. Emma is one person with a very demanding full time role and part time additional responsibilities on top of long-covid and what she does for DCT. You may be one person with a simple question, unfortunately there are several hundred other similar people. We have put these contact methods in place so that you can get answers to your questions in a timely manner without any one person being overwhelmed.

On the beach after training. Our Level 1 volunteers will be happy to chat whilst not engaged in core safety processes.
Weekly community call. This runs on a Monday evening from January to September and is hosted by a member of the leadership team. We've set this time aside for you. You can find details of these call within the membership area and within the booking system.
Membership queries can be directed to our Membership lead
Safeguarding concerns should be directed to our Safeguarding Lead
Other queries that can’t be answered at the community call should be directed to the Swimmer Liaison lead.

Other more informal routes to support:

WhatsApp groups these are open to all members and you’ll find details of how to join one or more of the groups within the membership area
Social media channels. You’ll find us on Facebook and Twitter.

If you have a swimmer welfare or safeguarding concern, you can speak to Mandi, our Safeguarding Lead in confidence.

Reminders

Remember to book your sessions online. Bookings close 48 hours ahead. Any bookings after that will need support and that comes with a £5 admin fee.

Bookings can be cancelled or rescheduled up to 48 hours ahead. The system doesn’t arrange automatic refunds, so if you would like a refund, please check out our refund policy and get in touch if you would like a refund.

Those of you with training subscriptions, enter your email address and click in the discount code box and your automatic voucher should appear. Let me know if you have any trouble with this.

Please remember to cancel your membership when you no longer want it.

Week 13 - Smiling - the best medicine