Well Done Howard! 35Km rowed in under 2h40m
Ali’s uncle has completed his own fitness challenge in support of her Big Swim.
"I had not rowed beyond 1.5 hours previously and the last third of the row was tougher than I expected.".....read more here
Penguins complete double crossing in three hours
50 swimmers from Winchester Penguins completed a sponsored swim "to France and back" for Ali’s charities on Sunday 11th July. Find out more.
Ali is really touched by the support she’s received from so many people: “As the swim got closer I was carried along by the support of friends and family and so many really generous supporters. HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE”
Swimming up the River Dart
A family holiday in Devon gave Ali an opportunity to swim from Dartmouth towards Totnes - and back again.
Watch her swimming in the video below:
Did you know?
The first man to swim the English Channel was Captain Matthew Webb, in 1875. On 12 August he made his first attempt, but was defeated by strong winds and poor sea conditions. Less than two weeks later (on 24 August) covered in porpoise oil, he dived into the Channel from the Admiralty Pier at Dover. He swam breaststroke and although he was stung by jellyfish, and strong currents kept him off the French coast for five hours, he finally landed at Calais, after 21 hours 45 minutes.
The Dover Strait is the busiest shipping lane in the world – with many of the ships passing through carrying dangerous cargoes. The passage of ships is further complicated by the presence of strong tides, sandbanks, shoals and a great deal of concentrated cross-channel traffic. Much of the crossing traffic is made up of high-speed ferries.
The average age of a solo swimmer is 33 years, 180 days. Ali was exactly 13 years younger than this average in August 2010.
The water temperature is typically between 14 and 18 deg C (57 and 64 deg F) in August.
There were 85 successful solo attempts to swim the Channel in 2009 and 35.7% of Channel swimmers have been female.
More people have climbed Mount Everest than swum the English Channel.