There’s an adage that has kept me sailing safely for 10 years. It’s simple: “Keep the people in and the water out”. So when Jasmine Harrison asked me to skipper her Bavaria 38 Crews Control while she swam alongside it, the idea immediately went against all my usual sailing instincts.
In 2020, 21-year-old Jasmine broke the record for the youngest woman to row solo across the Atlantic, competing in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Now she was planning to be the first woman to swim the length of the UK, from Land’s End to John O’Groats. I was to skipper her support yacht for the first two weeks.
If all went to plan, she’d be done in around 90 days. But, as with all pioneering adventures, a lot about this challenge was only vaguely understood.
Previous successful attempts, both by men, had proved far from easy. Sean Conway completed the swim in 2015, covering the 900 miles in four and a half months, while Ross Edgley swam entirely around the UK in 157 days, but only after a significant chunk of his tongue had fallen off – an affliction endurance swimmers call ‘salt mouth’.
When we met at Noss on Dart marina, there was a palpable sense of expectation. None of us volunteer crew had met before, and we were drawn to this adventure for different reasons. Anthony, who’d later be taking over from me as skipper, hoped to build his sailing experience in new waters, while James
