Good wishes to all

Well hello all! Christmas has come and gone and we are about to head into a New Year! TOTM wishes everybody a fantastic 2009-reach for your dreams!

The story appeared in Dolly magazine for January and it has been great to hear from a lot of their readers.

Team TOTM.

Talkin it up for TOTM.

Hey,

TODAY i had an interview with Chloe from Dolly Magazine.

She had lots of great questions which i stumbled to answer.

Although my public speaking has improved greatly over this experience! :)

The article will probably be in Januarys edition of Dolly.

Make sure you all buy it! haha



http://dolly.ninemsn.com.au/





I would just like to add that our great friend that we met in England Chris Pountney attempted the Channel yesterday. After 14hours 40mins he had to stop just three miles from the french coast! :(
Bad luck Chris!
If he hadn't had a bad shoulder and an unfavourable tide he would've made it. After swimming with him in Dover harbour i know he will be back and he won't give up until he's CONQUERED THE CHANNEL!!!!! he will do it and we all have faith in him!

Swimming the Channel was the first challenge in his ULTIMATE TRIATHLON! he is actually going to

• Swim the English Channel


• Ride the tour de France course and


• Run the Marathon Des Sables!

hey Chris is doesn't matter if the triathlon isn't in the right order because you'll still do it all!

All of us back in Australia have the BIGGEST faith in you...

You are an inspiration to us all!

I cant even do a real triathlon what you are doing is just so amazing! I can't believe i didnt even know he was doing this when i first met him!!!!

I suggest you all go on his website and get inspired to achieve your goals!

if your really touched maybe even make a donation!

the website is: http://www.ultimatetriathlon.co.uk/

Make sure you go down to the bottom of the page and read one of the many realistic quotes that is on each page!

xxxx Chloe
p.s. WE LOVE YOU CHRIS! U'LL MAKE IT NEXT TIME!!!!!




REMEMBER

• http://dolly.ninemsn.com.au/


• http://ultimatetriathlon.co.uk/

The day after....and the Legend of The Six Channel Dwarves!

Having slept and eaten well, the 6 successful swimmers ventured out and visited the White Horse and spent some time reading the various signatures of other successful English Channel swimmers-both solo & relays. They had fun finding those of people they know...and wish they did!

After a small presentation each it was time for our girls to add their own piece of history! Each of our TOTM members had earned herself a new nickname on the boat, so that was signed as well! In swim order we had: Chloe (Squeekie), Chantelle (Rocky), Tasmin (Blondie), Amelia (Sleepy), Alice (Nobby) and Bianca (Queenie)-and so begins the Legend of The Six Channel Dwarves!

TOTM-Why every team should know some dance moves.....

Team TOTM as they start their English Channel crossing!

In the early hours of this morning (August 7th 2008), 6 very tired girls and their 3 support staff arrived back in Dover Harbour after a successful crossing of the ENGLISH CHANNEL!

They set off from Shakespeare Beach near Dover at 10-52am, with Chloe swimming the lead leg. She set a cracking pace and apart from raising her head once to ask:" How long has that been?", swam well in the near perfect conditions.

Next in was Chantelle and she also quickly got on with the job. Those on the boat had quickly started on the food supplies..and we started to hope for a quick finish so that we didn't run out of food!

Tasmin was third swimmer in and entertained us with her cheeky waves and facial expressions! At some point the other swimmers and coaches on the boat had decided that to cheer on those in the water, a rendition of the "YMCA" was in order! This became a tradition which continued at the midpoint of each swim leg until we reached France!

Along the way various renditions of "Nutbush, Macarena, Time Warp and Greased Lightning" were also performed-it got to the point where the CS&PF observer (Bob) was letting us know that it was 2 minutes till "YMCATime"!

Amelia was our 4th swimmer in the water and once she settled into her rythym swam beautifully-she sighted a couple of jellyfish but wasn't stung.

When Amelia had finished her 1st swim Alice entered the water and proceeded with a very "business like" swim! She has already successfully swum around Jersey Island and is booked to swim Jersey to France-and the way that she swam should have no problems! Conditions continued to be perfect and the coaches (knowing the capabilities of their swimmers) were thinking that a sub 11hour swim was possible.

Bianca hit the water.....and the weed! Her entire 60mins consisted of strong swimming and weed eating!!!! She also had to contend with the choppy water at the sand bar near the Varne lightship-and did so admirably! Bianca is attempting a round Jersey solo in September and showed the fortitude to do so!

This means that our first rotation was completed and Chloe was back in the water...and we quickly discovered that she did NOT like the variety of seaweed in the English Channel! Still swimming fast, she was guided by Sally around most of the green carpet until she hit clear water 30niutes later).

We have dubbed Bianca the "SEAWEED QUEEN" and Chloe the "SEAWEED SCREAM"!

When Chantelle hit the water for the second time, we managed some great photo opportunities with a number of ships & ferries sailing past.

During the second rotation all of the girls swam even better than their first legs. Tasmin & Amelia were our last two swimmers to hit the water in the daylight and both swimming comfortably-Tassie at one point raised her head and asked for the "YMCA"!

Alice entered the water with lights firmly attached (she now has the new nickname of Nobby-be sure to ask her why!)-by this time we could all see lightning in he distance and we began to wonder whether or not we would have to abort the attempt. Alice continued her great form until Bianca took over.

Bee also took to the night swim with pleasure-and proceeded to kick strongly for the entire hour!

She handed over to Chloe-who immediately hit a clump of weed! She must have a seaweed magnet! However, she called out "seaweed" put her head down and again proceeded to swim fast.

When Chantelle entered the water at 11-52pm, we were hoping that she would be able to make it to France. With thunderstorms all around and lighning cracking we were concerned that we might have to call it off so close to the finish....luckily she had a mighty swim and escorted at the end by Coach Sally, touched France amongst the boulders at Cap Gris Nes.

After 18months of planning and 13hours and 47mins of swimming Team TOTM had succesfully crossed the English Channel!

Congratulations to all of the girls and thankyou to Dave Whyte & crew on board Ocean Breeze, Bob our observer and "Mum" Michelle who has taken care of us all!

All Together now!

WOW! we finally got to meet the Jersey girls!!

we all got on well together straight away,,

it may just be because we're all so loud and bubbly lol.

We all went for a 15min swim this afternoon!

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!

haha,, we met Dave, our pilot, aswell!

hes really nice and we may be swimming tomorrow morning.

Chantelle and Amelia are so much alike in personality (and size).
Tasmyn is really nice and funny!

Bianca is really tanned (we're all jealous) and bubbly.

Alice is the quietest one,, if that means anything for us!!

WERE ALL SO EXCITED!!

Its great to be swimming with such lovely girls.

It should be a great adventure with lots of laughs, (and pink bathers) lol....

so long,,

Chloe xoxo

PS-At this point we start tomorrow (Wednesday 6th August) at 10am Dover time!

What a "Wicked" Day!

Wow-what a day! We dawdled around Leicester Square for a while before managing to get cheap tickets to see "Wicked" that night. After visting the National Portrait Gallery for a while and lunching at Mr Wu, we wandered over to Covent Garden. We had a great time enjoying the street performers and doing some shopping.

After oing back to our rooms to get ready, we travelled back to Picadilly Circus to the theatre(The Apollo-which was the only theatre on the map we had with the word "Apollo" in it's name-our show was listed as appearing at The Apollo, Victoria).

A few of us lined up for free hugs from a young man handing them out at the Statue of Eros (BTW-he gave good hugs!) and journeyed around the corner to the Theatre-only to realise it was the wrong one!

We asked a number of people where the Apollo Victoria was before one gentleman gave us directions and we jumpd on the bus he indicated! It was now 7-05pm and with the show listed as starting at 7-30pm we were getting pressed for time...so when the bus unexpectedly terminated at a stop well short of where we wanted to go, we got a bit nervous!

The next bus saw us quickly pile on-exiting at Wilton Street as listed on the ticket. Yet another issue-the theatre is in Wilton Road (not Street as listed on ticket!) Off we go again, high heels clicking, the girls trying to maintain modesty whilst holding down the skirts of their dresses! A lovely lady helped us again with directions and we managed to sit down with seconds to spare!

The show was wonderful and all three girls enjoyed their first live performance (a West End show if you don't mind!).

Larking around London!

Ok, day two in London and more sightseeing! The morning was spent at the Tower of London and included a tour with one of the Beefeaters (Bob). The girls were touched by the story of the two princes and horrified by the graphic details of various beheadings-especially those of Margaret Pole & Annne Boleyn!

After a bite of lunch, we travelled on the Underground to Knightsbridge and visited Harrods-every teenage girls dream! After a few hours visting various departments (including the food halls & toy section), we headed towards the Underground...which took some time! There are many interesting stores along the way and the girls tried on lots of clothes and made some purchases!

Left: Every girl needs a mini Hummer!

Today will see us travelling in to see if we can get cheap tickets for a show and maybe visting a museum.

Tomorrow we head to Dover!

TOTM Touch Down!

After an indecent amount of travel time, TOTM has touched down in London! We were in the air for a total of 25 hrs travelling via Sydney, Brisbane, Brunei (3hr stopover)and Dubai. Dubai was a short and intense experience-we arrived at midnight, left the plane in 34c heat, were herded onto a bus, hurried through a magnificent terminal (try dragging teenage girls through a luxurious and vibrant shopping complex full of bright and shiny objects and not letting them stop!) and loaded back onto the bus back to the plane!

Arriving at Heathrow at 6-25 am we were all desperate for a shower! Transferring to Terminal 4 we lined up and 30 minutes later felt much more human (at least, as human as you can be suffering from severe sleep deprivation!). We would like to say THANKYOU to a woman we got chatting to while waiting to shower (Elizabeth) who after asking what it was we were doing, promptly handed the girls a 10GBP donation!

Onto the Underground, we travelled into our hotels and spent the remainder of the day walking around the Tower of London and across the Tower Bridge. The girls had amused themselves during all of the travel by inventing a game called "Hotto Spotto"...and continued it in London!

Managing to keep them awake long enough to eat a meal at the Minories Pub, we fell exhausted into bed around 8pm-having had a maximum of 4 hours sleep in the past 36hrs...

Today we are continuing to see the sights-watch out London, here we come!

Dee (Team Manager)

TOTM takes off!

TOTM is on the way to the UK! "Bunny hopping" up theEast coast of Australia we landed in Sydney yesterday, where we met 'murph' (Michael Renford) and Gabby Hollows (The Fred Hollows Foundation), for a quick chat and a couple of photos.

Not only did we spend a couple of hours talking and having photos but we also got to swim with 'murph' at Coogee beach.Sydney turned on a storm-torrential rain and good size swell."Murph" took us home to meetJess (his gorgeous wife)and Lilli (his beautiful baby girl!) We then flew to Brisbane,where we collected travelling pal Yvette and made our way to Brunei- currently being 34 degrees is a massive change from our chilling 11degrees at home! We arrived in Brunei at 4:30 rugged up in our warm matching marshmellow pink jackets- Amelia, Chloe, Dee and Michelle walked off the plane only to find it extremly hard to breath- sweating and wasting away we made our way into the Brunei airport .

Next stop Dubai-then London here we come!

Dee does it!

Pictured above: A number of the South West swimmers heading to Dover to attempt crossings (and their support "crew")!
The past few weeks have seen a number of exciting events as the TOTM countdown continues. In Australia, Amelia has spent a few days in Warrnambool to complete her final training swim in the ocean. On Saturday July 12th, South West swimmers attempting their relay double crossings in July were joined by Amelia and a number of well wishers for their final "hitout"! The water was 10c and conditions were wonderful-large breaking swell to swim out through and then rolling nicely once you were in the bay.Considering the fact that "Meals"hadn't been in the ocean for 3 months, her 30 minute swim was outstanding- as was the nice wave that she bodysurfed in to the beach on! Chloe was playing netball and couldn't make this session-although after hitting the aspalt netball court and taking off a bit of skin, she probably would have prferred the swim!

Meanwhile, in the UK the most exciting news of all! Jersey coach Dee Richards has finally attempted her solo crossing of the Channel. After twice before been disappointed by inclement weather stopping her attempts, this time she entered the "Ditch". Showing true guts and determination, she swam for 22hours and 6 minutes to land east of the Calais harbour. The stories to be told....Well done Dee- you are now a Channel swimmer!

TOTM on parade.....

The Jersey girls resplendent in their TOTM hoodies and pink swimwear-you won't miss these girls on the beach! This photo was taken when the local media were organising a story on the efforts of Team TOTM. The countdown continues....

Counting down...

With only 6 weeks until Chloe & Amelia leave for the UK, excitement is mounting! Alice, Bianca, Chantelle & Tasmin will finally get to meet them face to face!

As the water temperature in the Channel starts to climb, in Warrnambool it has definitely dropped! This weekend saw a number of swimmers participate in a demanding training regime.

At 10pm on Friday June 13th, 13 swimmers (including Chloe) entered the sub 10c waters of the Hopkins River. 1 hour later they emerged shivering to look forward to a couple of hours rest until 2am-when they re-entered the dark & murky depths! At 10am on the Saturday the session was in the ocean, with a much anticipated luncheon afterwards! With weather conditions being cold, drizzly and blustery it took until Saturday evening for our body temperatures to get anywhere near normal again- a strong reminder of keeping hypothermia in mind at all times when training in cold water!

Amelia has been training with a swimming club in Ballarat and the girls in Jersey are spending a lot of time in the water over there.

Let the countdown begin!

It's not cold at all!!

The TOTM Team members from Jersey Island (Alice, Bianca, Chantelle and Tasmin-pictured ) are enjoying their training in the ocean...now that it's starting to warm up a little!

It's not easy trying to balance training, school,jobs & fundraising and all 6 girls have been doing a great job! 6 teenage girls-living on opposite sides of the World, working together to achieve a common goal that not many would even attempt....imagine what these girls will be like as adults!

The countdown is on until Amelia & Chloe leave Australia and the 6 girls finally meet face to face!

How Is THIS Fun?

Today myself and 9 other swimmers from Warrnambool took part in a English Channel mini swim.....
... We swam for 45minutes in the 13c water of the warrnambool breakwater.
We then went on a fishing charter trip to test our sea sickness tablets/lollipops. It seemed to be fun for the male varieties and Lisa Logan but others of us werent so enthused...
The highlight of the 3 hour trip (other then baiting the rods :P) was my saying rather loudly in front of the fisherman, How is THIS fun? as well as THIS IS SOOOO BORIN!!
when we finally arrived back to land with legs of jelly we had to go out for another 45min swim. I though was able to be water safety on the rescue board.. as im a board paddler also... All in All it was an okay day with the only person getting seasick being Sir Dee... lol...
Au revoir(PRACTICING MY FRENCH),
Chloe J

Not so Shivery Swim!

A beautiful autumn day saw Chloe, Amelia and 12 new friends take to the calm waters of Port Philip Bay for a 1200m fundraising swim on April 20th.

By 11am all were in the water, with participants including well known open water swimmer John Van Wisse. Visiting jelly fish (some on the large side...) failed to dampen the spirits of all involved! Despite the promised media coverage prior to the event not eventuating, feedback from various groups has indicated future support should the "Shiver Swim" become an annual event.

The girls from T.O.T.M. wholeheartedly thank all swimmers involved and St Kilda Surf Lifesaving Club for hosting the swim and providing the water safety.

More photos can be viewed on T.O.T.M.'s myspace page: www.myspace.com/totmsea2see

Shiver & Swim?

It's only nine days until the scheduled start of the Sea 2 See "Shiver Swim"-but will it go ahead? We are still trying desperately to get publicity in the media-much has been promised but little delivered! There has been a post on MySpace, emails to various swimming bodies and faxes galore! Here's hoping that it all comes together on the day.....

Another worry at the moment is the fact that the airline our flights to England are booked through (Royal Brunei) is no longer flying that route! We are waiting to be advised as to which carrier they are sending us on.....

Que sera, sera....

Serious swims for serious causes!

Woohoo, only four months to go! Until Amelia & Chloe leave Australia that is! All the TOTM girls have been busy over the past few weeks, with training and fundraising a focus. The Jersey girls, ,Chantelle, Bianca, Tasmin and Alice swam over 2000 laps of their local pool on Easter Saturday to simulate an English Channel "Crossing". Actually, they were closer to swimming the equivilent of a triple crossing!

On Good Friday Chloe (in Australia), was involved in a Charity Swim to raise money for the local hospital to use for Kids with Cancer. Swimming a relay format over a 1200m course each team of 4 swam for 6 hours.

Amelia & Chloe are in the process of finalising details for the "Shiver Swim" on April 20th, organising a photo in one of the main papers and a couple of radio celebrities to be involved-should be fun!

Thankyou,Thankyou,Thankyou!

TOTM is incredibly excited to have received payment of the $10,000 grant from The Foundation For Young Australians! This grant from the Foundation's opportunity bank has allowed for the payment of airfares, pilot boat deposit, accommodation deposit, uniform purchases and the medicals required by the CS &PF (at a non Medicare supported $77 each, these were an unexpected cost!).

A "Sea 2 See" Supporters Swim has been arranged in conjunction with St Kilda Surf Lifesaving Club to be held on April 20th, at St Kilda Beach. More details as they are finalised!

Chloe and Amelia at the Lorne Pier to Pub swim in January- nearly 5000 swimmers took part!

The Foundation For Young Australians moves T.O.T.M.

All of the girls on both sides of the World have had a busy few weeks. There has been planning for fundraisers, schoolwork, training and uniforms to get organised! To say nothing of Channel Swimmers & Pilot Federation memberships & medicals and then Pilot contracts to get organised-all of which is nearly completed!

The Aussie girls received some excedllent news on Friday- a submision to The Foundation For Young Australians has been successful! The Opportunity Bank is providing $10,000 to cover the travel costs of getting to the Channel. This grant is an integeral part of the whole process and will allow T.O.T.M. to continue with it's aims!