The last longish swim before the Channel, was beautiful. If the Channel is anything like this - flat and sunny, I will be overjoyed (and very lucky!).
Napa Bob was in fine form, with a full briefing, and plenty of verbal abuse. He blew the horn while we were all still filing down to the beach, and we splashed off to Alcatraz. Morgan was wearing her wetsuit, which must be the only reason why she was so much faster than everyone else.... Hank and Joel started off hard, and then paid the price of not having been in the bay yet this year, and I slid past Joel on the way out, and Hank on the way back to the cove. Since they both usually beat me, this was the perfect ego boost for the Channel - thanks guys.
I tickled a seal on the East Corner of Alcatraz, which made me jump, but he was just being friendly.
Melissa caught some beautiful footage of the swim, as Bob ran her around the bay shepherding swimmers.
Morgan came home in 1:12 - not far off the 1:05 record. I trickled in probabaly about 1:15, which I was very pleased with, seeing as I was trying not to go too hard (although the competitive juices definitely started to flow) and when I was sprinting in Pedro's around the rock race (see http://www.englishchannelswim.com/2007/05/swim_round_the_.html) I did 1:20. Clearly the conditions were almost perfect today.
So - just a splash around the bay on Tuesday morning, and then I fly to England on Thursday! Can't wait.
Julian
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