Update for Sunday, July 18

I apologize for the confusion.  I posted on the blog and twitter that I was going 3am this morning.  Later on Saturday, the captain changed the plans when the winds did not die down as we hoped.  I was did not have access at that time to an internet connect so I only updated the Twitter account that is displayed in the upper right corner of this blog.  As a dry run on communication, this worked out to highlight that Twitter will be the most up to date information as we go forward.  Once we are on the boat, the only communication out will be via the Twitter account.

So the lastest plan (as of 3:46pm GMT) is that Eliz meets at the dock at 3:15am Monday morning to begin her journey and I meet at the dock at 5am Tuesday morning to begin my journey.  As we found out with recent events, these plans can change on a moments notice. 

The uncertainties of swimming the English Channel is one of the big differences between this event and many others such as the Ironman.  Early on, people have warned me about the ability to handle the curve balls thrown at you as a critical success factor.  Athletes that require everything perfect (perfect water temp, perfect weather, perfect logistics, etc) should not attempt swimming the English Channel.  You have no idea of the day, time, weather, conditions or worse yet, what will challenge you the most during the swim until it is happening.  Many times in the training, I felt like I was being trained for this and sure enough the uncertainties are happening.  The good news is it does not seem to be affecting me.  The panic yesterday did not seem to bother me at all.  I momentarily froze when Ali asked if I was ready to go on Sunday, 2 days earlier then I thought but I recovered and said yes.  We then scrambled during the afternoon to finalize our prep and some worry about George (my second crew member) showing up in time.  He did show up in plenty of time and we were ready to swim when we got the call to stand down.  I did not feel any frustration or disappointment, just reset my mind for Tuesday.  It did take down some of the stress knowing we were prepped and ready to go on a moments notice.

Otherwise, I have been jumping in the Dover Harbor for about 30 minutes of stretching out each day.  On Saturday and Sunday, Freda holds swims for channel swimmers so I got to meet a lot of friends I made during my training swims in Malta.  One of the guides for that swim (Andy) has the slot right after me on Ali's boat.  I talked with one person that completed an Ironman just 3 weeks ago that is doing a channel relay in a month that was trying to get her 2 hour qualifying swim in.  I was surprised when she was not able to complete it on Saturday when she got too cold.  Meanwhile, I easily had done a 1:30 minutes a couple days ago without even shivering when I got out.  It actually was a confidence builder realizing how far I have come in cold water adaptation.