Once again up early preparing for the swim to Africa. Eggs for protein, hot tea for the core warm, stretching, lots of fluids. Everyone was in good spirits and determined that today the swim would happen. Down to the port by 11. Love this Spainish time frame. Seems too late to be swimming. But here it all depends on the tides and what the currents are doing. The swimmers the other day said they couldn’t believe how fast the currents ran and getting across them was the difficult part. 

I was going along with Jordan and Paul, Chris G’s partner. Yves wanted to go as well and the boats captain said only 3. So I made the decision to let Yves take my spot. Not because I didn’t want to be in a rocking boat for 6 hrs in the wind, but because Yves has much more experience as a support person when it comes to feeding the swimmers, supporting them, and dealing with any emergency. 

So sadly I waved them ( and the key to my bedroom) off. Good luck my boys. 

To fill in the time I went with Dan, John and Lisa to Gibraltar to see the apes on the Rock. Great fun but I was so nervous all day waiting on news. We could see across the channel to Africa and it looked a long way off. 

We had a ship tracker so when we could get reception we could see when the boat was. 

Just after 4.30 I heard from Yves. They had finished!  They swam 17.50 km. ( the other group two days before missed the first landing point due to currents and swam 23km) they did a great time. Awesome men. What I didn’t know till we met them at the port was that Steve had missed the last 500 metres. He hit the wall and couldn’t stay in the water. It’s against the rules to assist, otherwise wonderful Rob would have carried him to the rock. It was difficult to accept that decision because the support dingy had broken down and they missed their last feed and were pushed to the limit. Rob, Cameron and Chris G had stayed with Steve the whole time until the boat captain said he had to leave the water. But in every bodies eyes he had finished. He was metres from the rocky shore of  Africa. 

Legends. 

After a two hr recovery time in our rooms, we met for Moët at the white beach cafe to watch the sunset and celebrate. What an achievement. 

Then a lovely dinner at a great restaurant Rob had booked. 

Great friends, great  fun, great night.