The verdict is in:  I swim on Saturday!

Dover weather forecast for Saturday:

• Sunny, with a high of 66 degrees F
• Winds out of the ENE gusting at 3mph (pretty calm!)
• Visibility:  poor (<– Eh, well, that’s why they have GPS)
• Night weather:  clear skies, with a low of 48 degrees F (eep!)

On Sunday the wind picks up to 6-7 mph, up to 9mph on Monday, and Tuesday looks dreadful (15mph winds with grey skies and icky conditions).  So I’m glad to be going tomorrow!

No set departure time yet…I’m meeting Paul this evening to chat about final details.  In the meantime, I’m off for a swim, and then we’re going to run around getting everything ready for tomorrow.

I’m going to swim the English Channel!  AHHHH!!!!  =D

Two words to describe today:  Jet Lag.

I tried to wake up at 8am.  Pressed snooze.

I tried again at 9am.  Managed to get a Cliff Bar down my throat before once again passing out.

At 12pm, against my will, the visit from Mike, our friendly upstairs neighbor and successful Channel crosser, finally got me alert enough to realize how ridiculous it was to still be in bed at noon.  I dragged myself up, for 3 hours this time!

And then needed another nap before going down to the beach for a swim.

However, I managed 3 accomplishments today:

1. We now have a phone!  Meaning I could…
2. Call my pilot and give him a way to contact me.
3. Went for a training swim.  Sun was out and water was calm today – yay!  They’re already taking people out for their crossings, so it looks like my turn should be up sometime this weekend!

Goal for tomorrow:  get up before noon.

“Ouch!  Ow, ooof, aiy, dude, this hurts!”

My sweats were off, my cap was on, and I was stoked to get in the water.  That is, until I took my shoes off.

In all fairness, I had been warned.  On numerous occasions.  “The ‘beach’ is all rocks,” Dolphins told me.  “It’s really hard on your feet.  Bring flip flops or something to wear down to the water.”

It wasn’t that I so much ignored this advice, thinking I was some sort of super human with super studly feet.  It was more that when my mom woke me from my nap at 3:30, I was so out of it from jet lag that I almost forgot my goggles.  Footwear, unfortunately, was no where on my radar.

Once I finally picked my painful way down and flopped gracelessly into the water, all was well with the world.  The water here is really beautiful and clean, albeit a lot rougher than the Bay, and when you breathe and all you see is green-blue, you sometimes feel like you’re far away from land.

I swam for an hour and chatted with some swimmers from the Czech Republic, Iceland, and London when I got out, actually crawling with my hands and feet in an effort to distribute my weight.  I’m sure I made a hillarious sight for all those on shore.   I’m going to go down tomorrow morning (Rainbows in tow) around 9 when most of the swimmers gather for a workout.  Maybe I’ll run into Bill Bradley, a fellow Dolphin who’s around here somewhere.  Should be fun!

We’re in Dover! I met up with my mom and sister in San Francisco and we shared an uneventful 10 hour flight, followed by a 2 hour drive, to arrive at 9:30am on an overcast morning at the Churchill Guest House.

Passed out in the car, I didn’t see much as we entered town. But I did catch a glimpse of the White Horse Inn, where successful swimmers write their names on the wall to commemorate their accomplishment. Just seeing the writing on the wall through the window gave me chills of excited anticipation.

I met a swimmer from Chicago named Mike in the entryway of the Churchill House. He was position 1 on the previous neap tide, and only did his swim a couple of days ago! The weather was so bad, he had to wait it out and do his swim on a spring tide, when the currents are a lot stronger. Major props – that’s tough stuff. The weather seems to be looking pretty good now, so hopefully I’ll be able to get my swim in over the next 10 days.

Really fantastic news: the water is holding at a lovely 63 degrees! Awesome!

Time for a nap, then off for my first dip in Dover Harbor!

NOTE: my apologies, I won’t be able to post many pictures until the weekend. It’s going to be just boring text for a few days. Sorry!

Only 2 more days until I board a plane for England! So exciting!

That means only a few more days left to donate to my Channel Swim Fund! Here’s what your donation will be used for:

• Piloting fees
• Swim fees
• Lodging
• Flight
• Nutrition

Every little bit helps – $25, $50, whatever you would like to contribute to be a part of this adventure!

So much goes into one person achieving a goal, and I could never do this without the amazing support I’ve received. Thank you so much, and happy swimming!