I'm just so grateful to the crew who
have become in my adopted family they're
just guiding me all the way back home
via Margate down the East Coast to my
family
[Music]
sup guys
starting this week with mixed emotions I
think it's fair to say and that's just
because as a team as soon as we arrived
in in English waters and we went past a
barrack font we'd you know we were so
excited and we kind of felt that the
East Coast would be quite kind to us
just because of the way that it's shaped
if we get a lot of southwesterly winds
we can kind of hide and tuck behind the
coast because of the way they're shaped
that's not been the case just the other
day we were swimming in 40-knot Gale
force winds and I'm actually said to me
you know we don't have to swim this
tight but I was just swimming like a man
possessed I I was like a caged animal -
as soon as as soon as I was allowed off
the leash again I swimming day and night
tied on tied off every single hour what
made it worse is because there were
southwesterly winds I was just getting
smashed on my right shoulder so Jeff
paid me a visit the other day and just
said you know it's not surprising you're
you're not able to did you get tired
you're not able to get that arm right
over she's like just swing that through
yeah and use more or less muscle the the
protocol would be to rest and Rehab but
it's just it's so unique what we're
doing I think there'll be a moment when
I look back on this and I can digest it
all and we can look at what we learn and
tapping into the the perceived limits of
human potential as a result that's why
me and Matt are having these weird
conversations where we're just purely
stating facts and Matt saying to me I'm
not gonna lie for six hours you're going
to be hit in the face by 40-knot winds
and waves are you okay and I'm going
yeah in my shoulders ligaments and
tendons are crying and then he looks at
me and says well what you want to do and
I'm like well
swim
[Music]
okay guys it is that time of the week
where we get snug and we do a gribbler
swim Q&A the first question comes from
Casper leppe which is what is the most
common thing that stops you from
swimming the main thing is a storm we
can we can swim in pretty much most
conditions but we draw the line as storm
especially at night if a storm comes at
night swim only because whilst I'm okay
in the water it can get a little bit
cheeky on the RHIB so to sight off the
rib if they hit a wave at the wrong time
and they don't see it coming it could
quite easily capsize next question is
from carlson lizzo who asks how much red
blow I'm using for out the Great Britain
swim one thing I'm trying to do is what
I call and the the effective minimum
dose and what I mean by that is this
isn't like an Ironman or a marathon
where you can basically go all-out for
that one single day where it's an
Ironman you know 15 hours of marathon
you know 3 to 4 hours depending on how
fast you run it with me this this kind
of crosses the boundaries of sports and
it enters into this kind of survival and
adventure arena starting each day each
tied quite often I'll be looking at one
kind of Red Bull 80 milligrams of
caffeine caffeine has been shown to
actually increase power output of the
muscles themselves so in terms of
actually effective stroke rate it's
gonna help with that also caffeine has
been shown to positively impact the
neurotransmitters in the brain so
they're the chemical signals in the
brain that can be related to your
perception to fatigue almost resistance
to the cold motivation many things one
thing that I will try and do is
sometimes try and make a can of Red Bull
lasts throughout the entire day so
that's 18 milligrams of caffeine on some
of those harder swims where we know we
have to hit a tide we have to get across
a ferry crossing and get out of a
whirlpool swimming through Scotland you
know something like that I might start
to use more and based on the situation
and that tide got another question from
shred days who says you're still holding
so much muscle mass throughout the Great
British swim what's the secret we
this within the world's Facebook which
as you know is partly the reason why I
wanted to do the whole Great British
swim to to really prove a lot of the
teachings and philosophies within that
we actually challenged a lot of
preconceived ideas that strength and
stamina can't coexist whereas in reality
under the right conditions not only
constraint and muscle size exist with
stamina and they can actually complement
each other I wouldn't recommend the
Great British women to 99.9% of people
but it serves as an extreme sporting
example of what can be achieved when you
understand the sport science that's one
thing that hopefully now on the home
stretch of the Great British swim people
can start to understand it is
challenging the limits of human
potential and what we previously fought
was possible final question comes from
r49 Sion's who asks it would be great to
see what the crew get out to you whilst
on swimming and to shared their
experience of the great british whim
offer I'm gonna be honest I love this
question because I also want to see what
everybody get out it's up to you which
sounds really odd but I'm obviously just
you know completely oblivious in this
swimming solitary confinement so what I
want to do is I want to hand over to
Harriet who is gonna be able to give us
a tour of the boat introduce all of the
crew and hopefully show me as well as
you crew life my name is Harriet and I
am one of the crew members here on board
Hackett II on the Great Britain and we
give you guys a little insight into what
we do to look after Ross that's our main
job supporting him and what it's like
living on board Hackett II these are
where our cabins er
so I am pass one of the three members of
the boat here we all do better thing I
do their cooking the cleaning but
watching up helping Ross get ready for a
swim and stuff oh we're down here let's
see let's see the cabins has shown us
where you live
a big bed - but I'm in here alone at the
minute sometimes I share with the
cameraman this is a little cupboard this
is a jacket we've got a bathroom oh he
goes to work the deck this is where we
all hang out we've got lots of different
bits of kit on board this is our paddle
board lifeboat got a couple of
surfboards on board just in case this is
the washing up station as the washing up
wench that's my bedroom in there
captain's bedroom and here is
Himmler captained the most important
part of the vote the hub of the home
that integrity is the galley that's
lower just down here in this little
cubby alright so when I'm on galley duty
which is today I am in charge of
they have been jumping in a while and
we're running really low on any fresh
veg and pretty much everything else so
has to make do before we've got into
cupboard which is usually a situation of
wood we have some potatoes we've got
loads of potatoes so I'm going to make
bangers and mash and this is the rib so
one of our main job is to like go in the
rib alongside Ross when he's swimming
because sometimes he can get off off the
path so what happens gonna do now is
just jump in the rib so that he just has
someone as a guide of what line to take
is when you're actually serving in the
waters my heart does pick on one line
[Music]
so that was a pretty awesome end this
week it started to rock in the morning
like most days putting on a cold wet
suit getting in the cold North Sea and
and then I think he was about 6:30 mat
gets a a call on the VHF and it was the
roof of victory team who are planning to
compete in the Atlantic rowing race
they've been following the Great British
swim and they said look you know we were
just wondering if we could keep Ross
company for the last of the tide and
then escort you guys into into the
harbor it was so great to chat to the
guys and then listen this was a huge
honor they said that they hadn't
christen the boat yet and so they said
look if we go back into the harbor we
would love it if we could show you
around the boat and if you would you
would christen it needless to say I
don't have a good track record when it
comes to champagne so I was trying to
redeem myself and and I gave like a
little speech and then and then and I
blessed the boat I known the ship
victory and I bless her and the people
in it
[Applause]
[Music]
just exchanging like stories and talking
about the sea and you know understanding
currents and tides and open water
swimming is is so often done just off
the coast and you know where we're
swimming whether you're a boat or a
rowing boat we're fishing boat it
doesn't necessarily matter
it's surviving at sea and and that's the
thing it moves from conventional
swimming into into something completely
different so to share those experiences
with with guys like you know the roof of
it you guys was just amazing and it
doesn't matter if you're in a rowing
boat a sailing boat or the swimming it's
just great to actually just talk about
the British coastline and and how you're
navigating your way around which is why
I end this week just so grateful to the
crew who have become you know my adopted
family they're just guiding me all the
way back home via Margate down the East
Coast to my family back home so yeah
it's just been a really nice week great
people and just swimming with a deep
sense of gratitude this week I think so
as always don't forget that you can
follow the progress on the red bull
tracker which is Red Bull Dakota UK /
Great British whim and fingers crossed
I'm going to be speaking to you a little
bit further south a little bit closer to
market
[Music]