I lay in bed last night listening to the rain and the surf pounding the sea front. Between snatches of sleep I thought, please don't make me swim in this. And sure enough, this morning the organisers contacted us to say the swim's been postponed until tomorrow morning.
Last night I went out with some of the organisers and met Gary the Channel swimmer. They told me how they'd recently gone to Australia to swim between Perth and Rottnest Island - a 21km annual swim competition. The race was called off because of bad weather and high seas, but they snuck past security and swam it anyway. I'm beginning to see that a maverick approach to problems is a bit of South African characteristic. After dinner we all stood on the sea front watching huges waves crash into the sea wall. "It's nothing - just a bit of chop!" they said and I thought, oh my god, am I in the company of mad people?
But luckily my boatwoman Mariza seems sensible. She rang me this morning to say she wouldn't take me out in this weather, whatever the organisers said. I like that. She makes me feel calm and protected. She doesn't seem like the sort of woman who likes taking risks.
The sea will still be choppy tomorrow - the weather report is predicting three metre swells - but we'll probably swim anyway. I feel more mentally prepared having gone through the dry run of getting ready this morning. And one aspect of training is going extremely well. My chocolate consumption is at maximum performance. I'm beginning to resemble a seal.
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