Elaine Burrows Dillane
To say successfully swimming The North Channel is a dream come true for me is an understatement.
On July 21st 2021 I actually swam from Scotland to the North of Ireland, how cool does it get!!! But not without the expertise of Infinity Channel Swimming and the belief they had in me, and the trust I had in them.
We had a lovely middle of the night start on infinity’s vessel ÉIGRÍOCH , leaving Ireland at 12.30 am and starting my swim at 2.18am from Scotland, on board was my pilot Padraig, Jacqueline and also under the watchful eye of Bobby infinity Crew.
As always Kevin my coach and John were with me. Literally it was all hands on deck from the start as I was being tattooed by jellyfish and everyone was trying to steer me away from them.
The sea gave me nothing all day as I battled currents and temperatures from 11-13degs, as Jacqueline said “at times you could cut the atmosphere with a knife” as Padraig worked so hard to get me through the currents, and gave me no sympathy and told me sprint for 2 hours!!! So I did as I was told!!!
I had plenty of company along the way from seals, dolphins and of course my favourite…Seagulls!!!
And when times got tough I looked up at my flags and remembered all the amazing quotes people gave me to drive me on.
Every feed was filled with positivity and encouragement both from my team and the infinity team.
We did it 14hrs 54mins later we arrived into a very historic Orlock Point such a proud moment and to see my husband and dad there just sealed it.
There are so many people to thank and so many people that have influenced me…. My family, my team, Kevin that has been their through all my long hours counting my strokes and making sure I didn’t slacken off, my swim buddies, don’t even know where to start with the swimming community from all my swim buddies in Fenit who have encouraged me all the way, to CDW where I’ve met and tried to soak up every little bit of knowledge and expert advice from my idols.
As for infinity Channel Swimming their communication from day one, their trust, support, encouragement and their will to get me across was priceless, I can’t thank them enough for making my dream come true.
I can honestly say this was my toughest swim ever, and stands to it’s reputation but I really really enjoyed it, and that was down to having 100% faith in my team and Infinity.
And I’ll never forget the feeling bringing my flags home, super proud
