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Thursday 21, August-2003

Chris Gibbs celebrating at the end of his record swim across the English Channel yesterday.

HE’S DONE IT!

And it was neither too deep nor too blue for former Barbados champion swimmer, Chris Gibbs, who’s also a bass player with The Merrymen and former Foundation Schoolboy.

After a lifetime of mental preparation and about a year of hard training, Gibbs swam his way into the history books in under 12 hours yesterday, becoming the first man from Barbados and the Caribbean to swim the English Channel.

He joined close to 700 people from more than 30 countries who have completed the swim. The first was Englishman Matthew Webb in 1875 who completed the journey in 21.45 hours.

Tired and aching, but proud to have accomplished a dream at 59 years, Gibbs shared the experience via telephone from Dover, England: “I feel fantastic. I am aching a bit in my right shoulder and my arms, but I am not worried about that. It is the greatest feeling. The support I got from Barbados has been unbelievable and my phone has not stopped ringing,” he said.

The party left at 5 a.m. England time (midnight local time) as scheduled, and the weather co-operated for most of the trip, although it was cold and dark when they started.

“It was very cold which was to be expected, but the weather was kind. The wind dropped in so we left at 5 o’clock in the morning. The waves were normal, but as we got into the shipping lane, the traffic there was very heavy with some big ships and it had me worried. I thought they were going to run us down, but the pilot knows his business,” Gibbs said.

His son, Barnie, who was watching from the boat, said the water soon calmed and his father got into a groove which lasted for most of the trip, and he was ahead of the other swimmers.

“It was fine until I got close to France. There is a point called Cap Gris Nez – that’s the closest point to France and England – and I was about 300 metres away from the shore in ten hours 15 minutes when a very strong tide like a river pulled me down, so I had to swim for another hour. I ended up at 11.5 hours. The most difficult part was the last hour and my right shoulder was acting up, but I took some Ibuprofen and that eased it a bit,” Gibbs said.

Barnie kept pace with his father and fed him every hour when he took breaks for Plus, water and fruit. He also accompanied him when they reached land on the leeward side of Cap Gris Nez.

An observer from the Channel Crossing Association will submit a report and plot of the course before it is ready for ratification. Gibbs will then receive an official letter.

“There were French people there and they saw me come in covered in grease. They all ran up and congratulated me. I took two rocks from the beach and headed out to the boat,” Gibbs said.

After close to 12 hours in the water, he spent only five minutes on French soil since he did not have a visa. He returned to Dover to be greeted by his wife Lawrie, daughter Rebecca and their hosts.

The media were not there to capture the moment. But that did not bother Gibbs, who thanked Roger Clarke, of the advertising agency RCA, for helping with sponsorship, and his friend, Winston Brooker.

“Winston was the most important person that I had to help me go across there, because he spent hours and hours of every weekend in a boat going along the West Coast with me. I did up to ten hours’ swimming and he really, really helped me a lot. Without him and his wife, Cathy, I don’t know if I could have done it.”

Now that it is all over, it’s holiday time!

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