Openwater Issue 2, Autumn 2016 | Page 17

trusting him that it would fine up. That confidence in Andy was a big reason I got through the first 5 hours of the swim.

OWM: Can you actually talk us through getting in the water and making the crossing, I know it took you roughly fourteen hours?

GRANT: Yeah, 14 hours and 22 minutes and I was kinda hoping for about 15 to 18 hours, so I was delighted with that and I gave myself a 50% chance of making it, so I over performed really.

OWM: I think 14 hours is like the mean so you like a right on the average for the crossing?

GRANT: Yeah I think under 12 hours is supposed to be really fast and then 10 hours you're looking at breaking World Records pretty much. An Australian guy has a record of 6 hours 55 minutes.

I don't really remember jumping in the water. I remember, before the swim I was off my face on adrenaline. There was a lot going through me and I don't remember jumping in the water, but there wasn't really any fear. One of my friends was swimming that day and I gave him a hug and he left a half hour before me. I jumped in the water and it was pretty rough, I took off and I didn't really notice the cold at all but later on, I found out that the lowest it got to was 13.2[degrees Celsius] and it was pretty rough. After about an hour the sun started to come up a little bit but then it started to become misty and it was grey, cloudy and overcast. I keep telling myself that it will fine up because that's what the captain said and I should trust him.

Then after an hour and a half I heard this voice in my head that said “this is just too rough”. I kept swallowing water every 2-3 strokes, getting swamped and I could see the keel of the boat it was so rough. I didn’t see my girlfriend and coach for the first 5 hours because they were on the other side of the boat throwing up. I suspected that was the case or they were lying down asleep. After about five hours the captain pointed over my shoulder, I looked over and saw my training partner, Glenn’s boat, going back in and that really scared me. Glenn is an amazing swimmer and I thought even he can't get through this, there is no chance I can get through this rough weather but I said I'll just keep going. Then about half an hour later, I saw everyone looking back and we’d seen our first big container boat going through the channel. Every day on average there are about 500 container ships going through the English Channel and a really large ones are amazing to see when you’re at surface level watching this huge boats going through and I think it was a mental milestones for me actually being in the shipping channel.

Just then the sun started coming out and felt it on my back. I started to warm up a little bit. They gave me some codeine as well and that really helped because I think I hurt my bicep in the rough waves and then after that everything started fining up. I went from every 10 strokes being swamped, to every 20 strokes, to 50 strokes I’d count. My girlfriend and Chloe started waking up from the illnesses and then they both started cheering me and we all started settling into a nice kind of rhythm and I thought “well I'm probably going to make it now”.

OWM: Do you remember the end of the swim then?

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"I remember being in a car accident when I was a teenager and sitting on the side of the road just looking at my crashed car and it felt the same way. It was just pure relief and that's it."