My swim is tentatively scheduled to start in the wee hours of Thursday morning (5 July). The current forecast is for very light winds, little to no swell and plenty of sunshine.
Recruiting an expert from the Met
I like to research things thoroughly. After arriving in the UK on Friday I met with Joyce, who previously worked at the Met where she specialised in the forecasts for the English Channel. Her techniques are, however, a little out of date: her last work with them was in 1943, when she transcribed German forecasts (they were very accurate!) into Morse Code for the RAF. Incredible. At the age of 17, she asked a boy “who was very good at art” to alter her birth certificate so that she could join the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. She travelled to Scotland and Egypt with the WAAF, in spite of (or perhaps because of?) her “repeated insubordination”. Such a fascinating lady. Our conversation ranged from foreign exchange restrictions following the war, to Britain’s first female doctor (Dr James Barry – a must read), the Wellcome Collection and her job as cigarette vending machine coin-filler-upper in Seattle in the late 1940s. I want to be like her when I’m 92.
Who’s been sleeping in my bed?
I travel half way around the world, only to find that my compatriots have defiled the walls of the Airbnb I’m staying in!
Lynton is just about to finish the mammoth Molokai Channel swim.
