Alternative ways of rewarming after a cold swim - on a boat, in the middle of the English Channel...

In the last 2 weeks it feels like Autumn has well and truly arrived. The water in the lake has become cooler. In reality it has dropped only a couple of degrees, and yet I’ve been getting out feeling quite chilled. I soon realised, through chattering teeth, that no amount of wishing it would give us the Indian summer I would like for our Channel swim, and I’d just have to get on with it.

 I’ve learnt a lot these last couple of weeks of cooler temperatures, some of which has been invaluable. For example, on Saturday, I spent a chilly hour thinking about the cold, which could be thought of as counter intuitive, as many suggest thinking warm thoughts to help take your mind off it, however actually I actually wanted to think about it. To remind myself of how my body responded to it, and make sure that I had all the kit I needed afterwards to get me warm again, because for me feeling cold would be unavoidable, and so whilst I needed to get comfy with being cold, I also needed to make sure that I was prepared afterwards, and had all the resources I needed on the boat to deal with this. 

 

And so after our swim last Saturday, the swim buddy and I decided, over a socially distant coffee and cake, that we needed to do one of my favourite things- compile a list. This included what you might expect: hand and feet warmers, hot water bottles, Swimzi XK, hoodie, leggings, hats, scarves, gloves, thick socks, fur lines crocs (my contribution and I will not be embarrassed by this, and actually Shark had banned the whole crocs and socks combo, so this was as near as I could get), thermal vests, salopettes (the swim buddy’s contribution – I don’t own any now. They were confiscated by some friends that I went skiing with several years ago, after an incident involving my ski and a snow plough at near enough 0 feet above sea level caused mayhem, and brought one French ski resort to a standstill for 40 minutes!) and a sleeping bag.

In addition to this, Shark had already confirmed with Andy, our Skipper, that there was a kettle and a microwave on the boat for hot drinks and certain food, but refused to ask as to whether their kitchen also included a deep fat fryer for the chips we loved to have after a cold swim. She told me that she was terrified he would think that he had a boat full of divas. I didn’t say a word, although I did look to see if JustEat or Deliveroo was an option, surprisingly, it wasn’t! 

 

We decided that really it should be belt and braces. We couldn’t risk forgetting something important, and so we set about researching alternative ways to keep warm on a boat whilst crossing the English Channel. A good half an hour later we reconvened to see whether some of our findings were actually viable…

 

First, heated camping chairs. I Googled to see if they were a thing, and I admit I was feeling very hopeful that they were after Google revealed 6,500,000 results. I can confirm that heated camping chairs ARE a thing, but there are not 6,5000,000 of them! Shark pointed out that the length of time we would be on the boat, we would definitely need a battery recharger… which would probably be huge and take up half the boat.

 

I did wonder if this was a little – extravagant, and whilst I didn’t rule it out altogether, I carried on searching, and after not very long the search took on a different direction, when completely by accident I found a recliner and, wait for it, a double camping chair (pretty much a sofa then), which when wrapped up in a sleeping bag would probably be pretty cosy, I showed the swim buddy, who immediately reminded me that we were not swimming with a super yacht as a support boat, and also that we would still be socially distancing, and me selfishly rocking up at the harbour with pretty much a three piece suite would leave less than the government’s recommended 2 metre social distance rules… 

 

In our quest for warmth Shark had a top find - fur lined leggings, and just like that, we thought we'd found the ultimate item of clothimg to keep us toasty warm. The hunt was over! And as we were thinking we had pretty much cracked it, I was sent a Tweet informing me of an alternative, and much better option – actual heated clothing. I have to admit, I was sorely tempted by this, and voiced my excitement to the swim buddy, who immediately banned me from getting one in case I blew up. She explained that a) if I was injured by said item of clothing they would pull the swim or b) (she didn't want to frighten me but...) if the boat caught fire because of a malfunction caused by electricity and water, we would all be doomed, or worse would have to jump overboard to save ourselves, and probably into the jaws of multiple sharks that had sensed our panic stricken selves in the water. 

 

We also agreed that a patio heater idea was most definitely dangerous. We finally concluded, after our second coffee, that our searching had become rather outlandish, and our suggestions were rather ambitious and not actually viable after all, and we should really stick to our original list, although there was one other thing that we touched on during our discussions/cake fest. Shark also mentioned the need to warm up on the boat before we each got in. I assumed she meant some stretches (as we would be short of space – especially if I were to be bringing the 2 seater camping chair that I hadn’t altogether ruled out as an option), however the swim bud had a much, much better idea.. to watch 'Mr Motivator in da House' from YouTube and do that instead. Literally THE best suggestion by a long mile…fingers crosses the boat has an internet connection! 

Finally, here are a couple of previous blogs I wrote about hypothermia and the after drop for reference. 

https://openwaterwoman.blogspot.com/2017/09/hypothermia-what-i-needed-to-know.html

https://openwaterwoman.blogspot.com/2017/11/swimming-in-cold-water-and-struggles.html