[Laughter]
[Music]
morning guys
it is I don't even know what I think
it's Thursday morning
I think it's Thursday morning it was a
big swim yesterday we did 13 miles in a
single tide which is a good swim for us
so I'm having to fend for myself this
morning and make my own breakfast which
means two pizzas so while one is cooking
one thing I've learned in the 70 days so
far at the great Bruce whim is mother
nature just doesn't care about your pace
and strategies she has no regard for
your tactics and strategy for that day
which is which is hard for me to accept
coming from a sport science background
because with any insurance of them you
have everything meticulously planned
from your pacing your nutritional
strategies you know the timing
everything in that race you have plotted
and planned but the ocean just doesn't
care it really doesn't care it will
throw fairies at you it will throw
whirlpools in Scotland at you so I had
to start what was a 13 mile swim
yesterday by sprinting the first two
hours can is lactic acid that burning
sensation in your shoulders it's just
like your shoulders are on fire your
joints are like what are you doing what
are you sprinting 30 miles and then you
almost have to have this conversation
with your body saying look like I know
this is wrong and no this makes no sense
from a sports science point of view but
I need you to just sprint get us around
this headland and then I promise we can
just cruise for another ten miles but
what's crazy is people have lost their
lives in the Irish Sea and I've got such
a newfound respect for the ocean you can
be the best swimmer in the world and the
ocean just doesn't care it really
doesn't care so pacing strategies aside
it just shows that you can have a plan
and the ocean will look at that plan rip
it up and at best it will slow you down
and make sure that you don't necessarily
get the miles that day and at worst they
could just bring a halt to the whole
great british whim altogether so every
day that I don't quite hit the miles I
always think it could be worse
[Music]
one thing I want to talk about this week
was the less tangible factors of the
Great British swim and what I mean by
that is this kind of idea of
self-imposed swimming solitary
confinement I've concluded that the
great very soon it has very much two
sides that is the swimming and the
sailing for example if your swimming
area have a very different view of food
navigation and the weather compared to
if you're sailing around break room when
it comes to food and looking at the menu
the crew will quite often think in terms
of flavors and seasonings and what foods
go together whereas me with my salt
tongue I'm just thinking just give me
calories and carbohydrates that's all I
want in any form that my tongue can
tolerate next in terms of tides
matt is a genius when it comes to
currents waves whether he just
understands every single metric whereas
me when I'm swimming I'm just thinking
in terms of you know shoulder
biomechanics how I'm swimming vo2 lung
capacity lactic threshold haven't eaten
enough and it's this constant contrast
but also teamwork to make sure that we
actually manage to get all the way
around great breath and on that note
when it comes to the weather if you're
saving around the coast of Great Britain
you want blue skies and you want plenty
of sunshine
whereas with me I don't want too much
sunshine cuz I'm gonna get burnt to a
crisp equally if there's big waves the
boats and they're going to do this
whereas that southwesterly zand I'm
heading north and then I'm just
basically body surfing my way all the
way to Cape ruff and around the Johno
gross
finally if it's raining it's probably
not going to be that Pleasant go and
sail around whereas with me it honestly
doesn't make a difference
I'm wet anyway one of the hardest things
about the Great Bear Swim is this
self-imposed solitary confinement I
didn't know how hard it was gonna be and
you know for the crew if you're sailing
around you absolutely should go and see
some of the mountains like the castles
it's gonna it's stunning you should go
and see the scenery but for me if I'm
not staring at the bottom of the ocean
barefoot for 12 hours a day sometimes it
means I just return here and I'm sitting
in the cabin which brings me on to
probably the most frequently asked
question of the Great Britain
so far what do I think about when I'm
staring at the bottom the seabed for 12
hours a day this is where it gets a
little bit weird you have to almost find
yourself funny swimming just telling
yourself jokes and I always say swing
with a smile but if you're gonna be in
this self-imposed swimming solitaire can
find them the only person it'll make you
smart is yourself
so you almost have to enjoy your own
company now this is gonna sound so weird
but everything from just like making
funny noises which sound really funny
when you're underwater if I'm honest we
had a journalist come and join us the
other day and I saw swimming I saw that
they were taking pictures and everyone
was really intently watching him I was
just doodling to myself because that's
all swimming I was thinking grab an
apple in your pocket and I was giggling
to myself because it was it was such a
private joke or I get on the boat I'm my
boss that's that's not normal
that's not normal behavior but the
reality is you shouldn't have to go to
these pretty abnormal places if you are
going to try and swim around the coast
of Great Britain and what could be well
over 100 days
[Applause]
yeah one of the amazing things about
coming up really the Hebrides is that
roses challenge is to go swim around
mainland Great Britain which means there
we get the opportunity to duck and dive
little bit in and out of the islands to
the west of Scotland this one particular
coming up it's a really small island
called seal the channel between seal and
the mainland is actually really tiny
little channel so small in fact that
there's this lovely little old bridge
which have been built across it's called
the bridge over the Atlantic it's gonna
be visually really amazing but it's
quite narrow the current runs through
it's beautiful inside there's this
lovely old stone bridge over top of it
so yeah so we can't actually fit through
on their big boat so it's gonna be tired
sup i'm harriet on the rig that we're
going through the Delta Ross and we'll
be going around the outside
[Music]
what's up guys it's a big day it's
official as of today as of this swim the
great British wave has become the
world's longest staged sea swim it
sounds crazy to say just because it's so
easy when staring at the bottom of the
seabed to lose track of what's going on
outside and distances covered any
metrics of success it's really easy to
lose sight of that so today was amazing
for media guys all came on the boat we
were talking about the swim I've got a
plaque never had a plaque before that's
pretty cool
I really wasn't expecting this I thought
it would just be like a few guys with
got to spray some champagne which was
awesome I don't I don't usually do that
I panicked
and then I just thought just so
champagne over everyone took some
pictures and it was it was really cool
I've never celebrated with champagne no
one teaches you don't teaches you to do
that but you have to also take that and
think we've got probably 900 miles to go
we've got 50 to 60 days it's so weird
because everywhere from Land's End to
arriving in Wales Island Isle of Man
Northern Ireland we've wanted to
celebrate but you just can't allow
yourself to you there's so far to go so
that's why I've kind of remove myself
from everybody upstairs and and sort of
thank them all for coming but but now
it's it's back down to reality wetsuit
is in the toilet
wetsuit still wet chafing still a little
bit of an issue salt Tong you know it's
all still there I think the other thing
as well is speaking to the president of
the the world open water swimming
Association and the crazy thing is is
everything that we've just done all the
way from Margate swimming to Sky will be
considered irrelevant
if you don't finish it'll be it would go
down as a DNF it did not finish so
although we've set the world record you
have to actually finish what you said
you were gonna do so you have to say you
swimming from point to point and
anything less than that as great as it
might be is considered a DNF so it's a
weird mindset to be in so that's it for
this week guys been a great week it's
always gonna be a good week with there a
world record in the bag but the reality
is still got some cold hard Scottish
miles to swim so as always you can
follow my progress on the red bull
tracker where I go through the Hebrides
and over the top of Scotland and fingers
crossed weather permitting I'll see you
next week somewhere a little bit