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Start now brought forward to 7 am. Stayed at Folkestone last night and now off to the harbour. Will now pass over to the family for updates.

Barring a dramatic change in the forecast (which is looking very good) I will start the swim at 7.30 am and with a bit of luck may finish before midnight.

Subject to final checks with the weather forecast, I am due to start my swim at around 9 am on Saturday 30th July!

The first swimmer has gone today (Tuesday) and there is then now just a relay team to go before me. The forecast for the next couple of days is not great, however it improves towards the weekend, so hopefully I will get the call before my time slot runs out on Sunday.

I could be swimming 2 weeks today! The big training swims are done and I am now in the taper period of ‘ticking’ over until I hopefully get the call. With the windy weather of late, conditions have not been great for sea swimming, even in the relative shelter of Dover Harbour, so I did my last long swim in the 50 yard open air Pells Pool at Lewes last Saturday. 6 ½ hours up and down might sound dreadful, but I wish I had found it earlier, rather than the constant turns in the 20 metre pool I used during the winter and as it is a spring fed freshwater pool, little if any chlorine, so I avoided shrivelling up. Because of the weather, I didn’t manage to fit in the planned 8 hour training … Continued

Just 4 weeks of hard training to go before I ‘taper’ down for the channel attempt and go on weather watch. Training has been going well and hopefully I have now put on sufficient extra weight (about 2 ½ stone) as insulation to cope with the cold water. I completed my first 6 hour swim in the Channel this ‘summer’ on Sunday and as sea conditions off Worthing were not ideal, I went to Dover harbour to join a number of other swimmers either training for the Channel or an endurance event. The harbour arm offered some protection, although as the wind picked up during the day, the more exposed part of the harbour became extremely choppy, made worse by waves bouncing back off the sea and harbour walls, so they came at you from … Continued

The disappointment of having my 2014 Channel attempt stopped after 3 ½ hours due to thick fog seems a long time ago and I am now well into my training for another attempt in July. Training sessions are up to 6 hours and with the weather warming up it’s time to get back into the sea for the longer swims. I have been going in the sea throughout the winter for cold water acclimatisation, so am fairly used to the cold and also went to Majorca for a swim ‘boot camp’ in early April. The sea temperature there at the time is similar to the Channel in the summer and was a good way to get back into sea swimming, especially as I also got my 6 hour qualification swim for the Channel out of … Continued

It was all very frustrating, but having come out of the water and got back on board the boat to see the fog, I could not argue with the decision to stop the swim, especially with 2 of my kids on board. Visibility was 75/100 yards at most and we were about to go through the main shipping lanes. I understand that 2 other boats also stopped their swims, but the 3 that continued must have been mad. With the the channel swimming season about to end, another try this year was not realistic and as boats are booked up so far in advance, the best tidal slots are already booked for next year, so I have decided to leave it until 2016 when I can book a better slot. In the meantime I have … Continued

Very limited visibility and it seems that another swimmers boat had a close shave with a tanker. The swim was stopped after approximately 3 1/2 hours, although a few other boats are apparently continuing against the coastguard’s advice. Gutted, but there is the possibility of going again in a couple of weeks time.

Dad is swimming very well, however as you can see it’s very foggy with poor visibility! Pilot of the boat is concerned as we cannot see other boats! Will keep you updated on weather!