Dundee - my Tay "Dook" - June 2009

This was a mad swim! 8 miles down the River Tay, starting just as the tide was turning. It took 2 hours of hard swimming and will linger in the memory forever. It was not just how welcoming everyone was that made it so memorable, but how crazy and exciting it was at the finish.

I had no idea how long I would take, but I thought it should be about 2 hours of hard swimming. I knew from the pre-swim brief that we were meant to touch the harbour wall to finish, otherwise we would not get a time and placing. I'd registered this dire warning, but there was no way of really understanding it until experienced at first hand.

The longer the swim goes on, the faster becomes the outgoing tide. By 2 hours it's at least 4 mph and certainly fast enough to sweep you past the harbour wall and on towards the North Sea!

I thought the line I'd taken towards the wall was pretty good, but with water in my goggles, I was struggling to see properly. I saw Dennis and Clodagh on my support boat were still gesturing wildly at me to get in more, yet this was confusing. Anyway, I did so and felt like I was almost swimming perpendicular to the current. Now the wall was looming up ahead and STILL I was a way out. I sprinted for all I was worth and saw the wall begin to race by, literally only a few feet away. To my horror I just couldn't brfeak through the current and the wall ended, but still I sprinted and, after what seemed like minutes, I managed to get in close enoughh just to start getting the shelter from the wall so that I could swim up to the back of it and climb out, exhausted, exasperated but elated!