On Thurday 22nd October 2022 four club members attempted to swim the English Channel from Dover to France to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute, RNLI, aboard the good ship Gallivant skippered by Mike Oram. You can find our fund raising page at gofund.me/743e3194.

The original date should have been the end July but this had to be postponed due to bad weather and since then the team have been on stand-by. Finally the phone call came from Mike on the Monday saying the weather was good and instructing the team to get down to Dover on Thursday for a 6am start. The four person team included Billie Wilcox Brooke, Mike Daniels, Patrick Palmer and Tim Sutton (unfortunately the planned fifth member Charles Johnson-Ferguson was unable to join due to work).

Provisions were hastily bought (jelly babies, sea sickness tablets, ginger biscuits, champagne, etc.) and the team arrived for sunrise at Dover Marine to meet the crew of Mike, Mike and Dan, and David our official observer. Bags were put aboard and after a delayed start, due to a faulty bilge pump, the Gallivant set off.

First to jump in the water was Billie who swam to Shakespear Beach, just next to Dover Harbour, to touch UK soil before then heading across the Channel. Next was Mike, followed by Patrick and then Tim, each swimming one hour at a time, in rotation, until someone stood on a French beach.

The water was a little choppy with a .4 metre swell, but there were no complaints about the temperature which was at a very mild 19ºC. Half way and the team were doing well, putting up a good pace and starting to feel optimistic. By this time each member had swum two one hour slots and apart from a little shivering after getting out spirits were high.

The French shore was now clearly in site and Mike predicted the team would land at Sangatte after dark. Night fell as Tim was doing his third swim, green lights flashing in the black water and fingers brushing through clouds of non-stinging jelly fish. Tim was followed by Billie for her fourth swim. Then Mike swam nearly his full hour before standing on the French beach, the claxon sounded and Brockwell Swimmers could at last claim they had swum the Channel in a very repectable time of 13 hours and 55 minutes.

Seven boats set off from Dover that morning attempting the crossing. Only two made it, including the Gallivant, which is an idication of how tough this stretch of water can be.