andy’s english channel swim: august 2007

Last SMS " HE’S DONE IT! HE’S DONE IT! HE’S DONE IT! My husband. My Hero. 14 hours"

The word is in "200m" left! It’s all over bar the shouting

Good news from the pirate ship : "eta within the hour – 1 mile to go!"

lastest pirate ship SMS: "Rough out here. In slack tide – hoping to catch the tide on the up again. GPS = 58 62N  01 40 152E " … Not sure about GPS but guessing that means 50-58-62N so translated into google earth is 50.977N 01.6692E

latest SMS from pirate ship : "Hard work this side – keep those SMS’s coming – 082 777 8186. Tnx 4 all the support"

ok got the GPS update : "51-00-50N  01-39-67E . Eta 3 hours Calais"

that translates into "51.008333N 01.66117E" for google earth. See pic below…

For those sport track watchers panicking that andy is not making progress there is good news…received SMS : "Almost at final zone. Lost Sport Track – battery is flat – no place 2 charge. Andy is in good spirits – just had hot choc. Very bumpy – overcast – swell’s increasing"

the last sport track update was at 13h53 local time (GMT+2) and received SMS at 15h19 so andy is 1h 26min ahead of that point which places him about 8km further. Have estimated his position on image below but am waiting for GPS update…  (btw: the other way points below andy’s are for Barend who swam on 11th August…he must have had spare batteries.)

latest Sport Track screen grab. Last marker indicates that andy has been in water for 6.5 hours and has done 26km…but the actual arrow is a bit further along. At center of image view the scale indicator which applies to all images. Also note the way points which are also new…somebody at sport track must be fiddling…

latest SMS from pirate ship: "Reached halfway after 6 hours. Celebrated by having potatoes (roast chicken to follow?). Back a bit stiff – otherwise ok. Just entering zone 4."

latest Sport Track screen grab shows andy making good progress. Image shows extended tail from start (not sure why this suddenly appeared but it certainly helps.)