Karah had a good day in the water. It has been the warmest day to date for us, though I don’t have a clue how warm it is. I’d guess it’s around 75. The season for English Channel swimming has just begun and Karah will be one of the first in the water for an official 2008 swim. Swimmers from around the world are showing up and they’re a tight-knit group. Karah knows many of the swimmers, having met them in organized swim events in San Francisco, Hawaii, Nevada, other cities in California, etc. We met a girl from Guatemala today and if she completes the Channel swim, she will be the first to do so from Central America, we were told. The same goes for a relay group and solo swimmer from Iceland. And, as far as we know, if Karah completes the swim, she’ll be the first from Tennessee.

My husband Hank and I decided to make a record of our own today. We swam in the English Channel. Not for long, though. We just wanted to be able to say we did it...and we did. My legs were numb when I got out of the water. I don’t know how Karah can do it for so long.

We also met today Allison Streeter, the “Queen” of the English Channel. Ali is actually the all-time champion of the Channel — having swam it an unbelievable 43 times (the next on the record in the “King of the Channel,” Kevin Murphy, who has crossed it 34 times). Ali, who lives in Dover and is now piloting swimmers across the Channel, has also swam the Channel back-and-forth three times. Once, she swam it three ways. She is an amazing swimmer and a legend among long-distance swimmers, and a celebrity in Dover. We are fortunate to have talked with her.

And when it comes to amazing swimmers, we talked to the team from Iceland at length. These guys (and at least one girl) swim around icebergs. When they came out of the Channel today, they didn’t wrap in towels, shake and turn blue like most of the other swimmers. Instead, they chatted with us while still in their bathing suits. One guy let me touch his arm because I wanted to see if he was cold. His skin, just after exiting the Channel, was warm. Crazy.

Karah Nazor

After leaving the harbor today, we played tourists and toured the Canterbury Cathedral. We’re using our wireless computers at the Starbucks outside the Cathedral. We’re still having a heck of a time finding wireless places. If you travel this summer and you’re not staying at a wireless hotel, check into getting the wireless card that will allow you access anywhere. We wish we had known it was going to be this difficult.

Until tomorrow...

(Karen Nazor Hill is a features department writer for the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Her daughter Karah Nazor, a former Chattanoogan who is a post-doctorate scholar at the University of California San Francisco, is planning to swim the English Channel. Karah is a longtime swimming enthusiast who swam with the East Ridge Youth Foundation, Greater Chattanooga Aquatic Club, Scenic City Aquatic Club, University of Miami and James Madison University. She won the first 3.5-mile Swim Around the Rock event around Alcatraz in San Francisco.)

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