British swimmer sets new record in Majorca

Anna's swim was also the first ratified non-wetsuit crossing and the earliest ever crossing of the Cabrera Channel.
She swam under English Channel rules which means just a cap, goggles and regular swimsuit and no contact with the support boat or anyone during the swim, so she was fed from a net. “It was a great experience, and great preparation for swimming round the remaining three islands in my Five Island Swim Challenge,” she told the Bulletin yesterday. “The water was a beautiful indigo and reminded me of my swim across the Gibraltar Strait in 2010, but at 15km that was considerably shorter than Saturday's swim. “It was a tough swim as I had to swim through some huge shoals of jellyfish and have got some nasty cigarette burn like stings as a result. “We also got caught by a counter current on our approach to Sa Rapita which made the final hours of the swim really challenging as I felt like I was swimming on the spot for around three hours. “But, my support team of Kaeti Bailie from California, Rory Gillard, a Briton who lives in Palma, and Galileo Giudice from Argentina and pilot, Pau Martinez, were great and made sure I felt safe every stroke of the way. “We've worked out that I did around 41'000 strokes to get across, and my shoulders were definitely feeling the burn on Sunday, but after a good rub-down from the legendary German sports massage therapist Sven in Colonia Sant Jordi I felt ready to go again. “I also managed to carry out my final coached session with Pat Blake in the pool at the BEST Centre in Colonia on Sunday afternoon to swim down after, and although I was still feeling a bit stiff it was good to have a stretch out before I got on the plane back to the UK yesterday morning where I'll be training in the Solent, which has yet to make it into double digits at just 9.5 degrees. “I've swam over 200kms over the last four weeks in Majorca and I'm definitely going to miss the Mediterranean and training with the sun on my back. “I'd love to swim the Minorca Channel at some point in the future because we didn't have time to organise the logistics on this trip, but maybe that's one for next year as Majorca is a great place to be based for training with the great early season sea temperature and the excellent facilities and coaches at the BEST Centre,” Anna said.

At the end of June she will swim 41 miles around Jersey, followed by 30 miles around Tiree in the Inner Hebrides in August and finally 60 miles around the Isle of Wight in September. She is raising funds for the Samaritans, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust and Sail Africa through my Five Island Swim Challenge, and to date has raised around £40'000 through her swimming challenges. More info at www.annawardley.com