With a little help from my friends

By Felicity Inkpen

​Now 77km into his swim, Andre has had a whole team of friends and family to support him.
 
These have been divided into two crews: sea crew, who join him by swimming, kayaking, or paddle-boarding alongside as he swims, and land crew, who follow him on foot or by car, ready to provide warm towels, sugar-rich foods, or emergency assistance as necessary.
 
Jon Harwell helped Andre train, doing 5km swims along the coast of St Andrews in the weeks leading up to the challenge, and joined Andre by swimming alongside him for 7km on Saturday the 18th June.  How did he find it?

“It was the furthest swim I’ve ever swum, and conditions weren’t very friendly, but we had a great time nonetheless. I managed to give myself some horrific chaffing on the neck.
 
“I’d done a few longer swims, and I have the endurance from running, but I don’t have the technique that Andre has.
 
“Andre’s certainly very impressive.  I would not be able to swim tomorrow!”​

Swimming for such long distances and staying in the water for around 4 hours a day, the mind can wander.  Andre disclosed what goes through his brain as he fights against the waves and the currents:
 
“Just keep swimming, just keep swimming... I keep an eye on the safety swimmers around me, I keep an eye on the waves.  Usually I think about spotting jellyfish, or I have a game I play where I count each stroke that I swim and see how close that is to a metre per stroke, which gives me an idea of how fast I am going, compared to the distance on my watch: how efficiently I am swimming.” 
 
And for Jon, was it something similar?
 
“Mostly when I’m swimming, I’m thinking about how to breathe without breathing in a chunk of salt water.  You can sort of zone out, like you’re on a long walk on your own, and think of random stuff.”
 
Happy but tired, and really quite hungry, Jon hadn’t lost any enthusiasm for getting back in the water:
 
“I live in St Andrews, so I’ve got a nice swim from East Sands to West Sands, right on my doorstep, so I’ll be back in the sea soon."