Swimming the Channel - and dodging jellyfish and passing ferries

OVER the years many people have gone to great lengths to raise money for Settle Area Swimming Pool, but few can match the endeavour of Jonathan Green who recently swam from England to France to support the pool.

To date his just giving page has raised more than £2,000 but he is hoping to add to that as more people find out about his amazing efforts.

Jonathan, 40, first became attracted to the idea of swimming the Channel during one of many ferry crossings between Dover and Calais. “Looking out from the boat I thought, I could swim that” he said during a family visit to Settle.

Jonathan developed an interest in long distance open water swimming during summer holidays in the Dales and the Lake District. He regularly takes part in events such as swimming around and between the Channel Islands. “If I see some open water, my first instinct is get in and swim” he said.

But Channel swimming is tightly regulated, as you would expect on a route that crosses one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. In order to join the queue of potential swimmers you need to complete a verified six hour swim in cold water (under 60 degrees Fahrenheit), Jonathan thought he had cleared that hurdle with a long swim in Croatia, only to discover the water temperature had been a degree or two over the limit and so he needed to go again, in Lake Windermere – where the temperature was well below the limit.

Next you need to book a registered pilot boat and crew, including an official observer and crucially get a permitted slot.

Channel swimming is only allowed between April and October and then only when tide and weather conditions are right – and these can change quickly. Jonathan thought he had a slot in late September but that got pushed back and in the end was able to go at short notice on October 4. He admits he had not prepared as much as he might – hence the lack of pre-swim publicity and fund raising.

He decided to fund raise for Settle Pool, because of his strong connections with the town. His work constructing eco housing takes him across the country. But his parents, Stuart and Linda, have lived here for the past 13 years and Jonathan has a house in upper Settle, that he visits frequent.

His son Harry learned to swim in the pool and Jonathan, like many others, recognises the essential work done by the pool in teaching children to swim and then encouraging them to go on to swim competitively. He also sees the pool as a valuable resource for the whole community but one which relies heavily on local fund raising.

The actual channel swim took 14 hours and 18 minutes. It did not get off to an auspicious start. There were six swimmers and support boats due to go that day and five got away on time at 11am, but a problem with one of the support boat crew meant Jonathan was not able to depart from the official start point at Shakespeare beach in Dover until closer to 1pm, meaning tidal conditions were less favourable.

But for the first few hours he felt comparatively warm and comfortable. A rhythm quickly developed. His watch vibrated to mark each quarter hour and at similar intervals he would turn over to do back stroke as the support crew fed him liquids and energy gels. That was also an opportunity to look back see how far he was from the starting point at Dover – not far was the usual feeling.

As darkness fell and the water got colder the going got more difficult and though Jonathan did not know it at the time the tide meant that for a while he was actually drifting back. Tides also add to the distance and whilst the point to point distance is around 21 miles the total distance swam is closer to 36 miles taking account of the currents.

There were other hazards – he could see shoals of fish around him – mainly seabass, but there were some jellyfish too – fortunately not the stinging kind that he had encountered in a swim off the Channel Islands.

There is plenty of junk in the Channel – plastic bottles and wood for instance - and that had to be avoided. There is also a lot of shipping, at some points just a few hundred yards away. The cross channel ferries were a constant companion all day and night. Among the bigger ships he saw in mid-channel was an enormous Chinese container vessel, part of the Evergreen fleet – which as a member of the Green family Jonathan took as a good omen.

On board the support boat, alongside the crew, was Jonathan’s father and his friend Rob Baggott, who runs Buon Vino, the wine shop at the Courtyard Dairy near Settle. From time to time Jonathan could see them watching, of course, but also relaxing and eating and he later learnt the captain of the boat even found time to fish over the other side of the boat.

The midway buoy provided a suitable marker and eventually he could see the lights on the French shore. But after many hours just swimming Jonathan admits by then all he was doing was keeping going. He never thought he would not make it, though none of the others that set off that day did. Throughout the night the boat shone a spotlight on him and he too had lights attached to his goggles and trunks - wetsuits are strictly forbidden.

Eventually he was told there was just an hour and a half to go and, thus encouraged, made it to the point where the boat had to leave him and Rob joined him in the water for the final stretch to the beach. That was where he could be officially recorded as one of the 3,000 men and women who have swum the Channel since Captain Matthew Webb recorded the first cross Channel swim in 1875. Captain Webb spent 21 hours in the water and even now, as the record books show, more than twice as many people have climbed Everest as have swum the English Channel.

By the end Jonathan had little idea where he was and what he had done. He even thought he had to run up the beach to touch a wall. But having achieved his goal there was no time to celebrate. Soon after the 3am finish he had to get into the water again and swim back to the pilot boat that was waiting to take him to Dover, where with special pleading he was allowed to stay in his accommodation beyond the usual check out time of 10am. That gave him the opportunity to visit the White Horse pub, Dover’s oldest, where successful Channel swimmers are invited to sign a special wall.

And the next challenge? Jonathan is now thinking of tackling the swim from Wales to England across the Bristol Channel – not as far as the English Channel but still the equivalent of many lengths of Settle pool.

Jonathan’s justgiving page is https://www.justgiving.com/page/jonathan-green-channel-swim2024