Help with sea currents around Britain

Sean,

When I first read your post I thought you were mad for wanting to swim the length of the UK.

Reading your website and in particular climbing Kilimanjaro dressed as a penguin I think confirmed that.

However to also cycle round the world that quick and for the most part with a fractured spine shows you have tenacity.

B***er the nay-sayers on this site, pick up some charts, and some tidal atlases (admiralty NP252 & 251), sit down in front of the fire this winter and get planning and do it!

I look forward to reading about your exploits.

Oh, to get you started I have in front of me np252 which is the tidal atlas from Scarbrough to Orkney which is not being used. PM me your address and I will happily post this to you for nowt to get you started.

Bon Chance!
 
Hi, fair play to you that's one hell of a challenge.
I've got an app on my iPhone called tidesplanner. It costs about £10 if you add on all the extras and it gives you tide data and tidal atlas and all kinds of other useful info of the whole uk and right up to 2014. Well worth a look.
Good luck

Karl
 
I think South to North would be better for several reasons, not least of which prevailing SW wind. Then you'd need to check the tidal times & directions for where you are planning to swim. As a (simplified) example, say you wanted to swim in the English Channel, which fills from east to west twice a day & empties west to east twice a day. So you'd start your swim at low tide if you were swimming east, swimming with the tide as it fills the channel and stop roughly 6 hours later when the tide changes & the channel starts emptying from east to west & vice versa. The speed of the tidal flow will enable you to estimate how much ground you're likely to cover. Not that complicated once you've got your head round it, but also factor in (obviously) wind, weather & associated factors like wind against tide producing shorter, choppier seas...

Welcome to the forums & good luck with it...:)
 
What you need to study is the Admiralty Tidal Stream Atlases. They display, in diagrammatic form, the major tidal streams for selected waters of north-western Europe (the UK in your case), including direction and rate at hourly intervals. Graded arrows illustrate Mean, Neap and Spring tidal rates in tenths of a knot.
There is also a diagram to help you calculate the tidal stream rate for a given date.

Welcome and good luck.
 
MartynG said:
Look at Sean Conway's website, which shows the route.

http://www.seanconway.com/swimming-britain.html



.
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When you see this you realise that all this stuff about tides is largely irrelevant for the proposed route. Most of it is rivers and canals with road in between.

The complexities of planning this and getting permission to swim in the waterways makes worrying about tides pale into insignificance! - never mind the risks associated with swimming in some of these waterways.
 
davidej said:
Why the h**l is he asking about sea currents?
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The Bristol Channel has some as does the North Sea.

There were several deaths near the Corpach Basin when I was a child, including two Police divers, I hope he does not plan to swim throught the locks.
 
Impressive stuff Sean!

Lands End to River Avon...nasty Tides
Liverpool Bay to North Channel...some Nasty Tides
Inland Canals..some Nasty Water
Loch Ness...big Monster!

Some intresting challenges will be following!
 
Thanks

Hi Guys

Sorry. Very new to this and SPAM got the emailed referring your replies. Will read through them all later.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Sean
 
Gulf Stream?

alahol2 said:
I don't really have any empirical data, just a feeling in the water, that a clockwise course round the UK would be easier (tidewise) than the other way.
For example, doesn't the Gulf stream flow round the top of Scotland?
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Cheers. This is good. I need to look into that don't I?

Sean
 
Good tips

Niander said:
as if you can swim the channel[distance]with out rests every day its ridiculous sorry
would you not need days of rest inbetween doing sections?
what about bad weather?
what if the winds blowing in the wrong direction?
you need to do much more reserch and it will take more like 6 months! i m o

how long can it take a yacht to do it with the wind and engines doing all the work and favourable conditions ? 1 month?...2 months?

welcome btw :)
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Yeah. I do still have a lot to look into. My calculations are as follows.

1000miles over 60 days is 17 miles per day divided by 1.5 miles per hour (with fins which os quite slow) equals only 11 hours a day in the water. Doable I reckon. Hopefully!
 
Support Crew

onesea said:
You could do with some good chart/ tidal software to calculate how it is best to go.

Off the top of my head, I would say South to North, certainly along the south coast long short drift is West to East I would suggest that the Gulf stream type thing means that generally the best set is South to North.

Not saying you cannot go the other way but that you MIGHT get more time with a favorable tide if you went that way...

OK I am guessing here but I would think , your main questions will be east coast or west coast? Which is going to be shorter miles? Not just straight lines but between 25 mile day "hops". Where do you cross the Severn or Thames? Or the Humber The Wash? Etc etc

Also what sort of support craft will you have? You might find it cannot stay with you all the time needing a small one & big one?

If you sit down with the charts (maps might do) and work out your hops I think quiet quickly the best way will answer itself.. My guess is start at lands end, then go up the west coast (there are more distilleries) :D.

Good luck
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Cheers

My support crew will consist of 3 Kayaks and possibly a small motor boat but I want this to be a Carbon Neutral Challenge!
 
Route

Niander said:
If he spends a lot of time in pubs and cafes he wont do it in 2 months will he...:)

I also think its more than 1000 miles where did you get that figure from?

also are you going over the top ? or taking the cheat[sorry shortcut] that is the caledonian canal?
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I am cheating a bit. My actual challenge is swimming LEJOG. I do some coast and some waterways. Details on www.SwimmingBritain.co.uk

Cheers
 
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