Congratulations to the TI6!!!

[tomoy]

Successful English Channel crossing!!!

https://www.facebook.com/TotalImmers...ation=timeline

[Talvi]

Obvious question. If the sinuous trace on FB is the path the team swam, then team swam about 70% farther than the direct route across. Why? I'm imagining it's the tides/wind? Amazing that the fish distance as opposed to the crow distance is so much greater. They must have swum about 36 miles? Makes it even more impressive. Does the "fish distance" vary with time of year?

[CoachStuartMcDougal]

Thanks Tom!

It was quite a journey for sure, and full week of terrific experiences swimming and training (and sightseeing) in Dover. I've swam in some pretty rough conditions in the SF Bay, but nothing like what I experienced swimming in Dover harbour and across the English Channel - this was the "big leagues" of swimming. But then again we were at the tail end of Hurricane Bertha with turned up seas and as the English say, "lumpy conditions". One of the best most suspenseful weeks of my life, and swimming close to 30 miles in rough water in training the week before and in relay across the channel combined was a first for me - and I think for most of my teammates on TI6, except for Coach Dave Cameron (our team Captain) who's swam the channel solo twice and on several relay teams.

The drift is the Spring Tide pushing us both south and north. And yes, close to 30 miles, although I haven't plotted the lat/lons yet to find the actual swim distance. We just missed the Cap Gris-nez point which meant another hour appx 2+ miles. Team TI6's finish time 12h 49m and we were the first of four relay teams to land on France. There was one team of young triathletes that declared themselves at the dock in Dover they were the fast "super-sonic" team of the day. They left 30 mins ahead of us and we passed them at hour four after Coaches Rachel Van Scoy and Mandy McDougal finished their first swim legs.

Team TI6: Dave Cameron (Minnesota), Rachel Van Scoy (Denver), Mandy McDougal (San Francisco), Jai Evans (UK), Todd Erickson (San Antonio), and me (Los Angeles). More details, photos, & videos on the TI6 FB page: TotalImmersion6

One of my favs is Coach Rachel and Coach Mandy "Changing of the guard" at swim legs 3 to 4: Mandy and Rachel, swim legs 3 & 4

It was quite a week, and we were ready to head for home, swim was scratched - until a British team bailed out in the 11th hour to wait for better conditions. And we were INNNNN! It was an honor to be part of an incredible team of TI coaches, passionate about swimming and coaching- AWESOME!

Thanks again!

Stuart
MindBodyAndSwim