Mermaids complete monster swim

FIVE swimmers from Henley swam the length of Loch Ness in Scotland.

The group comprised Fiona Print, Susan Barry and Joan Fennelly, of the Henley Mermaids, Mrs Barry’s son Alex and a friend of the women, Tammy Hirst.

They completed the 23-mile challenge in 18 hours over two days despite two interruptions.

They swam in a relay, with each one swimming for an hour at a time while the others waited on a pilot boat and kept warm.

When they neared the finish at Lochend at 3pm on Monday, they jumped into the water and swam the last 100m to shore together to be greeted by their husbands and partners who had come to support them.

Mrs Print said: “It definitely wasn’t easy but it was spectacularly beautiful. I feel exhilarated now — it was amazing.”

The swimmers were supposed to start from Fort Augustus on Sunday at 5am but the pilot of their boat had a car accident involving a stag and needed a replacement vehicle so they couldn’t start swimming until 10am. They kept going until midnight but then had to stop when the pilot boat broke down in the big waves. They were towed to Urquhart harbour and couldn’t restart until 11am on Monday when the boat had been fixed. They spent the night at a farmhouse near Lochend.

The group were swimming in aid of the Mermaids’ Swim 21 campaign, which is raising money for the Henley Community Hub and renovation of Trinity Hall into a community centre.

Mrs Print, a nurse who lives in St Mark’s Road, Henley, said the swim was harder than she had anticipated due to conditions.

She said: “It was windy and the water was very choppy and we didn’t quite expect it to be as cold as it was or the swim to be as difficult. We had done plenty of fast swimming in preparation. We trained mainly in the Thames and the river water was warmer than the water in the loch.

“As the day went on, it seemed even colder and when you reach the middle of the loch, the water is so deep that it is really cold.

“The loch was 14C and Monday was the coldest because of the wind. We didn’t wear wetsuits — only a swimming costume, caps and goggles.

“The most important thing was making sure we could swim fast for an hour at a time. Because we all had different conditions and some were more difficult than others, we weren’t measuring times or distances, we just had to swim for an hour.

“It was brackish freshwater and peaty coloured, so very brown and you couldn’t see much beneath you. But it was very clean and they are very proud of the fact that they keep it free from sewage and rubbish and so forth. We didn’t meet the monster, either.”

The swimmers were frustrated by the interruptions.

Mrs Print said: “The first swim was delayed because the pilot had a car accident on the way in, which meant we went from 10am and it got to midnight and we were still swimming. We had to stop overnight and start again the next morning because the boat had broken down at midnight while we were still swimming.

“We had to moor the boat and get it fixed and had our husbands, who were staying with us in the farmhouse, come and collect us.

“The pilot and the crew on board the boat were very good to us and they knew we really wanted to finish the swim. It was a great boat, which warmed us up in between swims quite easily.

“Our husbands drove us around and waited for us and cheered us on. At nighttime, they would flash the torches around so we could see them — they were the only people watching by that point.

“It was just us swimming and there weren’t many boats around, only one boat on Monday. There were some tourist boats and they would wave at us as they went by.

“It was amazing swimming as soon as it got dark, absolutely magical. By then the wind had fired down and there was a great atmosphere.”

Mrs Barry, a teacher who lives in Cromwell Road, said: “We had a headwind on Sunday and it was really hard because the waves kept coming at you and you were swimming into the wind. On Monday, there was a tailwind, which made it even harder.

“The loch was quite a few degrees colder than the Thames, which doesn’t sound like much, but you feel it in the water.

“The most challenging bit was when you’re swimming for an hour and you get the signal that there is 10 minutes left. You’re then waiting for the one minute signal and it feels like it is taking forever.

“On the day of the car accident, we were up at 3am and breakfasted by 3.30am, ready to leave and get down to Fort Augustus, which took about an hour, and we got the call about the accident.

“Completely psyched up to go, we had to go back to bed and try to sleep. You mentally charge yourself up to do this and we weren’t able to go back to sleep. We had a very supportive group of husbands and partners.”

Mrs Print added: “It was a personal challenge for all of us, although it came under the umbrella of the Mermaids.

“I don’t know what is next — there are 30,000 lochs in Scotland so we have got a lot to get through.”