Channel Swim

Eike Laspe said:

what does it take to swim the english channel? :-)

I saw you swimming the other day,' said the Captain of the Fleet. 'Swimming in the sea. And I said
to myself, This is madness, stark, staring madness; the fellow will catch cold directly and then go
wandering about the squadron like a mad lunatic, spreading infection far and wide, like a plague-
cart. Swimming, for God's sake! In a sheltered cove, under proper supervision, on a warm, calm day
with the sun veiled and on an empty stomach but not too empty neither, I have nothing against it;
but in the open sea, why, it is just asking for a cold. The only cure is raw onion.'

The Ionian Mission - Patrick O'Brian

Donal Fagan AIA Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com (Anglicise the name to reply by e-mail)

"Eike Laspe" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi everybody,

what does it take to swim the english channel? :-) I guess there's a lot to say and it surely
depends on the individual physical fitness, but are there any rules of thumb. At this point I'm
not seriously considering to do this swim but the more I think about it the more it seems to be an
alluring idea. My "swimming-skills" put me at a weekly distance of about 15-20 Kilometer.

I

Quoted message said:

go five times a week and do alternate drills (long distance and

intervall).

Quoted message said:

My "long distance" would be 2 Km in 30 minutes. So how would someone get from this level to a
point where he can seriously think about the channel-challenge? My guess would be, that it
would take

at

Quoted message said:

least a year of intense training and organisation for an event such as

that.

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I do not care about the time it would take me to cross the channel but

just

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the fact that you did this must be awesome. What are your opinions on that?

Join the group smartgroups.comgroup.cfmOpen ↗ Ask the same
question there and you will get advice, support and news from current channel swimmers, aspirants
etc. They're the best in the world. Good luck, you'll need that too. Regards, Duncan Heenan (France
- England 1988)

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I saw you swimming the other day,' said the

Captain of the Fleet. 'Swimming in the sea. And I said to myself, This is madness, stark, staring
madness; the fellow will catch cold directly and then go wandering about the squadron like a mad
lunatic, spreading infection far and wide, like a plague-cart. Swimming, for God's sake! In a
sheltered cove, under proper supervision, on a warm, calm day with the sun veiled and on an empty
stomach but not too empty neither, I have nothing against it; but in the open sea, why, it is just
asking for a cold. The only cure is raw onion.'

The Ionian Mission - Patrick O'Brian<<

One of your best. Loved it.

On 30 Jan 2004 19:18:51 GMT, [email hidden]

(Larry Weisenthal) said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I saw you swimming the other day,' said the

Captain of the Fleet. 'Swimming in the sea. And I said to myself, This is madness, stark, staring
madness; the fellow will catch cold directly and then go wandering about the squadron like a mad
lunatic, spreading infection far and wide, like a plague-cart. Swimming, for God's sake! In a
sheltered cove, under proper supervision, on a warm, calm day with the sun veiled and on an empty
stomach but not too empty neither, I have nothing against it; but in the open sea, why, it is just
asking for a cold. The only cure is raw onion.'

The Ionian Mission - Patrick O'Brian<<

Quoted message said:

Loved it.

I think I'll put that quote on a tee shirt with a picture of Russell Crowe as Lucky Jack Aubrey on
the other side. He does swim fairly well and even saves a few of his men from drowning.

These are great books. About a year and a half before the film came out, I ran across a reference to
'The Wine-Dark Sea' and gave 'Master and Commander' a read. Now I'm hooked.

Donal Fagan AIA Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com (Anglicise the name to reply by e-mail)

I strongly recommend *Haunts of the Black Masseur*, subtitled *The Swimmer as Hero* by Charles
Sprawson, Penguin paperbacks, 1992. For an idea of what it's all about,here's the Contents: The
English Ascendany Classical Waters The Eton Style The Byronic Tradition Characteristics of the
English Swimmer German Romanticism The American Dream The Japanese Decade

This is in no sense a How-To Book. It's pure literature and fascinating. Did you know Horatius swam
to shore after defending whatever bridge he was defending and Cloelia, a Roman matron held hostage
by the Etruscans in the same war, escaped their clutches by swimming down the Tiber? Flaubert's very
erotic experiences while sort of swimming is colorfully described. It continues into modern times
with nice photos of Annette Kellermann at age 60 leaping into the Yarra River and Anita Ekberg
posing like Esther Williams, in Fellini's La Dolce Vita,as well as Esther herself, plus photos by
Leni Riefenstahl circa 1936, and reproductions of paintings of swimmers.

Ruth Kazez

Waaaaaaaaaay off topic: does anyone here have their interest in swimming spill (yes, pun) over to
other aspects of their lives? One swimming philosopher I know makes almost all his metaphors in
class water-related. I'm drawn to swimmers with fins and tails and shells.
personal.psu.eduSW7.htmlOpen ↗

Just published: Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne Cox. It seems she really is the author, no ghost
writer involved. I don't care how she writes; this has got to be very worth my reading. First person
accounts of adventures up mountains, to the ends of the earth, across oceans in a sailboat, down
infinitite rivers in a raft - these are all favorites of mine and I'm confident Lynne Cox's details
about her incredible swimming adventures will be a good one.

Ruth Kazez

she swam to antarctica?

"rtk" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Just published: Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne Cox. It seems she really is the author, no ghost
writer involved. I don't care how she writes; this has got to be very worth my reading. First
person accounts of adventures up mountains, to the ends of the earth, across oceans in a sailboat,
down infinitite rivers in a raft - these are all favorites of mine and I'm confident Lynne Cox's
details about her incredible swimming adventures will be a good one.

Ruth Kazez

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Just published: Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne Cox. It seems she really is the author, no ghost
writer involved. I don't care how she writes; this has got to be very worth my reading. First
person accounts of adventures up mountains, to the ends of the earth, across oceans in a sailboat,
down infinitite rivers in a raft - these are all favorites of mine and I'm confident Lynne Cox's
details about her incredible swimming adventures will be a good one.

Ruth Kazez

Woops, sorry, didn't see this until I already started a new thread "Lynn Cox Audio Interview." At
any rate, here's the link:

tinyurl.comyu32xOpen ↗

- Al