2019 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer, Marcy MacDonald completed her 17th crossing of the English Channel on Saturday, July 6th, 2019, on the 25th anniversary of her very first crossing. The following is a note Marcy sent out to family, friends and well-wishers the day after her swim!
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| The English Channel |
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| Marcy swimming at night |
"Greetings from Dover, enjoying a day by the sea with a few muscle aches after yesterday and I'm over the multiple jellyfish ZAPS, but I am happy to say I will be able to swim another day... next stop is in Bridgeport, CT for the Swim Across the Sound. I'll be doing a 2-person relay with my childhood team mate, Geoffrey Michaud, both of us grew up on the Manchester Rec Swim team... great memories, we'll talk about that next week.
THANK YOU for all your kind words of encouragement and congratulations messages. The English Channel is NEVER an easy swim, and I had to pull out a multitude of tricks from my experience vault and prayers to get through it, I was a hurting puppy.
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| Marcy wearing ISHOF Cap!!! |
Yesterday, the planets were aligned perfectly and the greek gods Aeolus, the keeper of the winds, were smiling down on us... and Poseidon may have not seen I was in the sea (experiences from the past). We had fantastic conditions and landed under the cliffs of Cape Gris Nez, France, 12 hours, 34 minutes, a pretty good time for a senior swimmer on the high spring tide...even though it felt like 15 hours.
This is a TEAM event, MANY Thanks for my TEAM: Janet (Jmg Fish) keeps me fed and looks over me, trying to keep me entertained or at least smiling through the tough patches. Dave Chisholm was her 'to go to man' pictures, heating water... and finally a safety escort to the rocks, so SPECIAL, because on his crossing in 2008, I had the pleasure to be his Observer and escort him to the beach.
Then there is the boat team, so important, it certainly takes a special breed of person with patience to guide a swimmer across the Straits, my pilot, Michael Oram plotted out a perfect course for me the reach my original Boulder that I landed at 25 years ago, but I just wasn't strong enough to get past the Cape, so that is why we landed on the north side of the Cape (the tide had changed and blew me north.)
Tanya Harding and Mike Ball sat patiently at the wheel, watching and guiding me safely across Le Manche for a 17th time, THANK YOU.
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| Marcy reaches France! |
My advice to all the aspiring swimmers......Be Patient, you will get there and the discomfort, even misery will be temporary and 24 hours later, you will probably forget all about those parts and remember the SUCCESS.
There are some pictures from yesterday and I will be posting more when I finish organizing them... on my blog
www.cuttingwater.blogspot.com "
www.cuttingwater.blogspot.com "
Dream, Prepare, Succeed
Marcy
Please follows Marcy MacDonald and her swims on her blogspot, shown above, www.cuttingwater.blogspot.com or visit www.ishof.org to read her bio or see her induction video and acceptance speech:
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