9/22/08 Monday: YouTube Special

Before I start about swimming stuff...a HUGE shout out to my cousin Marc Turnesa who played an excellent 4 rounds of PGA Golf at the Viking Classic this weekend. He played in an nail biting (no joke) 2-hole playoff and finished his highest yet this season...tied for second!!! Talk about a pressure cooker...holy cow!!! Great job Marc, we are all SOOOOO proud of you!!!

Back to swimming...

Some of the reports about the swim are starting to surface. My AMAZING Channel Observer, Mike Phillips, put this together and placed it on YouTube (THANK YOU MIKE!!! It's great!!!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32u59DMNPVQ

The Rye Record also did an excellent article about the swim (very well written):

http://www.ryerecord.com/html%20pages/hometobey.htm

Note: When he references Force 3 in the article, he really means Force 4.

Many people have commented about my Mother's email out to everyone after the swim. They said it really put the swim into perspective. So I thought I would post it up here in case you weren't on the email list:

I would like to thank everyone for their support. Tobey is an extraordinary soul and it is so nice to see how wonderful her friends are. She fought a great battle. Everything that we were told to expect went right out the window. It was horrid! I apologize to anyone who called and did not get an answer I was hanging on for dear life since each time a wave hit the boat Tobey could see the entire deck and us sideways holding on. I could not move my hands and arms very well after the swim because I spent the last 9 hours hanging from the ropes to stay in the boat.. The ropes took some skin away with them. Tobey never complained. Whatever she was thinking she did not let us know. She is remarkable to say the least. Her sisters were unbelievable as crew. It was very dangerous conditions for them to be moving around the deck. There were times that the water crashed over us from the right side. I would watch that side and call out to hold on. We would get a little on edge when we had the biggest waves (12 foot swells) and lost Tobey under water for a few seconds. The observer thought that I crazy glued the video camera to my hand but there was no time to put it down because I could not get to the bags. I did not know that 52 tons of steel could be tossed around like it was. I kissed the ground when I got on it....it was just difficult because it kept moving on me. Thanks again for being special people.

My last thought.....swimmers are nuts!

Thanks Mom!!!

I know, I know...where is the full update on the swim?? It's coming!! I have been sucked into a Tornado since I got back.

Till next time!

9/4/08 Thursday: Channel swim recap

I have taken some time to get all the details down on paper. I will do a complete write up on the blog this weekend.

I also want to thank you all for the support. It has taken me all week to get through all the emails and I haven't had the opportunity to reply to all of them yet. But I do want to thank everyone for their continual support through the entire journey!

9/3/08 Wednesday: Pre-Swim Photos

This is Deni and I (before my swim) copying George and Suzanne's photo from before George and Suzanne left for their swim.











Deni, Jaime...this was the dress rehearsal with the costume! Yes, everyone does a dress rehearsal :)












LOL!!! This was my beached whale impression I did every day at the end of my swim for my crew. I followed it up by practicing CRAWLING out of the water. My goal was to CRAWL instead of standing when I arrived in France so I wouldn't pass out before clearing the water!!

Poor Jaime is freezing her butt off while I swim. It's definitely no ride in the park to be crew for a Channel swimmer. A ton of sacrifice and freezing!!!










George, Bill, Audrey, Deni, Jaime, Suzanne, Mom and Tobey. The Motley Crew celebrating at the White Horse. You can see all the successful Solo and Relay signatures on the walls around us. So cool!

We miss you Bill and Audrey!!!







George signing the White Horse!!! Congrats George!! How cool.


I'm hoping someday to make it back and get to sign the White Horse. Unfortunately we only had 4 hours to head to the airport after the swim and the White Horse was closed.












We decided to go into London for a day. We need to do something other than WAIT!!!

YES THEY DID!!! The girls were so excited to take this photo!!!














We all came down to say goodbye and good luck.













George and Suzanne as they leave to go swim across the English Channel!














Tobey, Alison Streeter (Queen of the English Channel...swam 43 times) and George.












Suzanne, Deni and George chatting it up before we swim.












Dover Harbour...this is where we trained every morning.

Conditions on the first day I was there. I thought this was bad?? Hahahahaha....












Meeting Freda Streeter (the Channel General) on my first morning.













Tobey, George and Liz in front of the Victoria House.

9/3/08 Wednesday: Channel Photos

Mom, Tobey, Deni and Jaime right before the swim. On the left of my Mother is the white railing to the ladder we have to climb down to get on the boat. Good times.

Tobey on the Viking Princess, ready to make the jump!

Jumping off the boat. I'll swim into the beach, clear the water and wait for the boat horn to start the swim. no waiting around here...as soon as we arrive it's go, go, go!!

Thank god for that added 20 pounds of fat. Little did we know the conditions forced up the colder water and I was about to swim around 13 hours in 60 degree water! It was FREEZING!!!

No time to think...clear the water, turn around and go! You have a Channel to swim across!!!

Swim Forrest, Swim!!! This is just off the shore of Dover where the water was pretty flat. It didn't last long!

There were some swells here that were pretty tough, you just can't see them in the photos.

Tobey feeding with the White Cliffs of Dover in the background. This was the beginning of the swim where the conditions were swimable.

Seriously...where the hell is France???

Tobey and her ship. There were VERY FEW ships in the shipping lanes. I think I saw a total of 2 boats during the entire swim. From what I have heard that is really rare. Definitely made the swim harder because I didn't have any visual cues showing me I was making progress. Just water...and more water...everywhere...nothing but water!

Conditions are starting to pick up a bit.

Uhhhh...where's Tobey???

Conditions about to explode! Not many photos after this as everyone was holding on for dear life.

You can't see me, but I'm on the left hand side of Ray and the dingy (or under it...LITERALLY, but I didn't care much at that point).

It's time to land on France. About 100m to land.

Yes, this looks like a pitch black photo but it's not. I wanted to give everyone an idea of what we saw from the boat (what I saw from the water). We were in, what felt like, the middle of the Ocean. Yet all of a sudden they put a flashlight up and the White Cliffs of France appeared.

Look closely, the white spec in the middle/left is my arm coming out of the water. The round white mark is the huge flashlight on the cliff. NO JOKE...this is exactly what we saw. It was VERY eerie!!!

FINALLY DONE!!! WOOOHOOO, WE SWAM TO FRANCE!!!

GET ME ON LAND, STAT!!!

THRILLED TO BE DONE AND IN CLOTHES...I WAS FREEZING!!!!