Swim Is A Go

I have just met with the captain and the swim is good to go for tomorrow morning (Tuesday) UK time.

Will be be meeting the boat at 3:15am for a 4am swim start. First hour will be in the dark with the rest in daylight. The weather here has been improving all day with the forecast tomorrow being a light north westerly hopefully pushing me towards France.

Just getting everything ready at the moment and then an early night.

No backing out now!

You Legend

In the next day or so I am going to have a crack at the English Channel which both excites and scares me at the same time.

Its also special because I get to honour and remember my good mate Charles Erasmus. We was right behind me doing this swim from the first day I told him about it and we spent hours discussing it on the way to the ocean swims over summer. Unfortunately Charles isn’t here to see me achieve my goal but I know he is looking down on me from the training pool up in heaven with a big grin on his face just like the last photo we had together just hours before he passed away.

Your a legend Charles. You always will be. You were a man of incredible integrity and you made everyone around you believe they could do anything they set their minds to.

When it gets tough out there (which I know it will at some stage), I will be thinking of you and the way you lived your life. You never gave up and always saw the positive side to every situation.

This one is for you big fella….

Support Water Aid

This is most likely my last post before leaving next Thursday for the UK so I thought I would provide a few quick updates.

Firstly a number of you have asked whether I am using my swim to raise money for charity. The answer is yes and the charity is Water Aid Australia.

Working in a water company, I am very attached to the work they do in the developing work, providing to water and sanitation services to people who don’t currently have access to them. This work saves lives on a daily basis, but due to the scale of the problem at hand (750M people in the world done have access to safe water and 2.5B don’t have access to adequate sanitation), their work is never done. If you can spare any money, it would be greatly appreciated. If you can’t that fine also.

https://give.everydayhero.com/au/glenn-wilson-s-channel-swim

Many thanks to Water Aid UK for promoting my swim over on the other side of the world as well as everyone at YVW (Anna and the Water Aid Team) for getting behind it.

Secondly, if you would like to follow the swim, I have now published the live tracking link on the “track the swim” tab as well as below. As mentioned, the swim will take place sometime between 22-29 June 2015 – hopefully more towards 22 June than 29 June.

http://www.channelswimmingassociation.com/pilots/viking-princess/

Finally, if I don’t get a chance to see you all before I go, I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your support of me in achieving my goal. Long distance swimming is just about the mental as it is the physical and I feel like I am going over as prepared as I can be in both. A couple of special thanks you’s:

• Paul Hoffman – thanks so much for the regular phone calls to check in and see how I am doing. You didn’t need to do that but the amount of information and support I have gathered from you over the past year has been incredible. Means a lot mate!
• Steve Lennox – for getting out in the Bay all year round to swim with me. You have motivated me to get out of bed on the cold mornings and get out there. Your a champion!
• Amanda Jacob – for supporting me across the Bay and again for the Channel swim. I literally couldn’t do this without you! Your a great friend and looking forward to a few drinks afterwards to celebrate.
• Thea, Frank, Dave Mason, James, Millsy, Nic (my coach), Christos, Lex, Kendra, Declan, Kayla and the other guys I have been swimming with over the past 18 months – thanks for the support and hopefully I can do you all proud.

More updates to follow once we arrive in the UK.