Swimmers set to tackle toughest test
Fresh out of the water at Baltimore yesterday evening, team member Nuala Moore was looking forward to two days of rest before turning the last corner and heading north along the west coast.
After passing the halfway point at Kinsale two days ago, the team had to fight big swells yesterday.
The say their bodies are holding up well. Nuala said: “Strangely enough we feel fine, there are natural symptoms of fatigue but we are proud of the fact that it is nothing that we were not expecting at this stage.
“The water temperature is up around 17 degrees and if you got that in Lanzarote you would be jumping up and down.”
On Sunday, the six-person relay team will pass around Mizen Head, Ireland’s most southerly point, only 21 days after they fought the high seas and tipped around Malin Head.
They still have their eyes set on the 1,300-kilometre record attempt — they are eight days behind schedule but are on course to become the first people to circumnavigate Ireland by swimming.
Nuala says the west coast represents the biggest challenge of the trip but she is looking forward to taking every stroke as it comes and passing her home on Dingle Bay next week.
She said: “Obviously on the west coast you have inlets pulling you in all up along it and you are fighting into westerly winds so there is a lot more difficulty.
“It is important to remember that the cumulative affects of this haven’t been looked at so we have to keep an eye on that.”
It has taken 15 months of training and a support team of more than 20 people to get the swimmers this far.
That has helped them to prepare for big swells and running the gauntlet across one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, the Irish Sea.
Over the next month the team plans to complete 11 more legs that will take in Valentia, Doolin, Inís Mór, Erris Head and Aran Mór island.
The clock will stop when they arrive back at Carrickfinn Blue Flag beach but Nuala says the team is realistically looking at getting to Donegal in three or four weeks.
