Going swimmingly!
On Saturday May 14, 14 swimmers - eight from the Wild Highlanders swimming group based in the Inverness area (Helen Beveridge, Hilary Richardson, Hannah Richardson, Terry Gallagher, Dominic McAdam, Lorna Stanger, Cathy Jones and Laura Walker) - took part in the Sound of Mull swim from Fishnish back to Lochaline on the mainland.
The water was cold, between 7°C and 9°C, while wind, tides and shipping added to the complexities of the challenge.
The swim itself was successful and all 14 completed the event. The tide became a problem towards the end of the swim but the swimmers kept going and successfully finished the challenge.
CalMac kindly supported the swim by allowing the swimmers free passage as foot passengers from Lochaline to Fishnish.
It was a beautiful and sunny day and almost £ 3,000 was raised for the charity Children with Cancer. This was the final swim in a series of six, with five smaller swims to build up to the big one in the Sound of Mull.
Those five training swims were Ballachulish on September 13 last year, North Connel to the Falls of Lora on October 11, Dallachulish to Loch Creagan on November 1, Corran Ferry on January 31, and Skye Bridge on April 24.
All the swims were organised by Jeff Forrester, who had thought that the Sound of Mull was too hard for anybody to swim. So he thought up doing six swims for charity.
All of these were channel crossings and were dangerous from the cold and tides with the final three also being busy shipping channels. Each swimmer wore a tow float and was paired up with another swimmer with a safety RIB and kayaks circling them.
Jeff’s idea had been to bring people together who loved to swim to achieve a dream.
All of the advertising for the six swims was done through Facebook or on a website @ www. Highlandopenwaterswims.wordpess.com where anyone can join.
Help is still needed to raise £ 3,000 so please keep donating.
Readers can also join in with the swimming because there will be more in future, so fill in a registration form to give it a try.