Day 248 - Wednesday 11th May 2011

42nd Birthday today and actually feeling most of them years unfortunately.

A very interesting and certainly !one off” day today. The day started at 6.30am when I was in the sea in my wetsuit for the first time ever. Big Bob was with me and we headed out around the Pier anticlockwise into the tide, then headed out past the pier to the first buoy and then the second buoy and then back to the pier, under it and to our beach (the buoys are at last back in town – the yellow round variety of course). The swim was very odd to start with as the wetsuit not only shields you from the cold, but also lifts you way into the air; I literally felt like I was floating right on the top of the water. The wind and the tides were blowing to the West and we were swimming to the East, but to start with I felt that I was being skimmed across the water to the West and bit by bit away from Bob and the Pier. When I looked up I was way over to the West; it was a weird feeling. As soon as I realised where I was I put my foot down and swam hard to the Pier and very quickly was back on track and heading around. The other thing about the wetsuit is the extra speed you have by being so buoyant. I was always at least 25 metres ahead of Bob and at each Buoy was waiting for him. He remarked that it must be good for my confidence to be so fast now, but the truth is that in my mind I cannot kid myself that it’s the suit and not me and to think anything otherwise would be false economy.

My first wetsuit swim over, I was showered, dressed and waiting by the sealife centre for Micala and the Trust team. By 8.45am, Micala and I were at Juice Radio station for my live on air interview about the pending Swim with Sharks and the general story about the Starr Trust and the Channel swim. Apparently the interview went really well (I’ve no idea what I said of course) and by 9.00am Micala and I, along with Ryan from Juice and the boys with the cameras, were heading back to the Sealife centre for my next radio interview on Sussex Radio and then my swim.

Arriving at the Sealife Centre I was astonished to see over 70 people there; friends, businesses and media; all waiting to see if I lose a limb!! The atmosphere was tremendous and everyone really seemed to be enjoying being in the sea life centre and getting the chance to look around without hordes of school kids and holiday makers – it truly is a wondrous place when it’s quiet. After my interview I was whisked away to the offices, passed yet another wetsuit and invited to the tank. Funny thing was that when I left the beach this morning I put all my swimming stuff in the boot of my car and left it there; it didn’t even occur to me to bring swimming shorts or towel! As such I ended up having to go commando in the wetsuit (for which I am sorry to whosever wetsuit it was!!) and afterwards I ended up having to dry of using toilet paper – charming! Anyhow back to the swim; with everyone either sitting up top in the seats or down in the tunnel I was ready to face my public! The sealife centre lady simply stood at the side in her wetsuit, having advised me not to put my hands near the sharks mouths or the turtles beaks, and instructed me to get in by the tunnel and swim around it, making sure to breaststroke to avoid splashing – apparently it spooks the sharks!! So in I went to loud applause from above and thumbs up from the tunnel. Within seconds a rather large shark came heading straight at my face; at this point my pulse raised, my heart beat raised and I started to wonder on the madness of it all; do I swim to the side, do I put out my hand or do I go for the penalty kick right on it’s nose! At the very last second it looked at me, seemed to shrug indifference and then swam around. At this point I realised he had no interest in me and that was perfect; it seems we would have a wonderful relationship. The rest of the swim was with a lovely calmness and I was swimming with about 10 sharkes of various sizes, two of the most wondrous and huge Turtles (they were about 85 years old) who followed me everywhere, a massive stingray who was probably twice my size and then numerous other fish I couldn’t even name. I swam for about half an hour in total and apart from faces peering at me through the tunnel and camera flashlights going off every couple of minutes, it was really peaceful and quite magical. After half an hour, whilst I would have loved to have stayed in, I figured it wasn’t fair to everyone else watching so I headed back to the side and pulled myself out to be be faced head on with a TV camera from Meridian firing questions at me. From peace and quiet to paparazzi in seconds. Actually the guy was super nice and the publicity for the Trust was so appreciated by us that it was a pleasure to talk to him. The interview was shown on TV twice yesterday - http://www.itv.com/meridian-west/fullprogramme/

After the swim we headed to the Terraces restaurant above the Centre and had a lovely meeting with everyone. The Terraces put on a fantastic cooked breakfast, coffee and cakes and apart from me thanking everyone, both Micala and Local Councillor Vanessa Brown also gave lovely speeches. The feeling in the restaurant was really amazing, with everyone seemingly wanting to hear more about the swim and the 21 charities we are supporting and really showing me great support. I truly can’t think of a better way to start my birthday.

Afterwards, when everyone had gone back to their day, my lovely wife took me out for a birthday lunch and then we picked up Asher from school and took him to Falmer for his swimming lesson – it seems all us Starr’s are swimming at the moment. The day then ended with dinner and presents at my sisters.

I feel utterly spoiled by everyone.