Dál Riata Channel: First all-female relay team swim ‘perilous’ waterwayon June 20, 2021 at 5:05 pm

A group of open water swimmers from County Down have become the first all-female relay team to swim a treacherous stretch of water between Northern Ireland and Scotland.

The Dál Riata Channel – between the Mull of Kintyre and the County Antrim coastline – covers a distance of 17km.

However, due to strong currents, the actual swimming distance was 35.3km.

Jane Reilly, Grace McLaughlin, Gillian Segasby and Nuala Glynn completed the swim in just over eight hours.

The relay team made a first attempt in the early hours of Saturday, but dangerously strong currents resulted in the plans being abandoned at the last minute.

“When we got to the Mull of Kintyre, the tides were just too strong,” Jane Reilly told BBC News NI.

“We were up all night waiting to start the swim and then it was so disappointing when it had to be called off.

“We went back to Ballycastle and, thankfully, the night manager at the Marine Hotel allowed us to lie down on their sofas for a couple of hours. Then at 6am we left and headed back over to Scotland to start again.”

Jane, who has previously swum the North Channel between Donaghadee and Portpatrick, explained that Dál Riata was more of a challenge as it has stronger tides and colder water.

“It’s 17km in a straight line, but because of the currents, you have to swim in a curve so it was actually just over 35km. It can be treacherous,” she said.

The swim began shortly after 10:00 BST, when the tides were safer and the water temperature was 11°C.

“That’s classed as cold, but maybe because we’d been swimming through the winter, it didn’t feel too bad,” said Jane.

“Grace was the first in the water. It was just beautiful pulling away from Scotland, seeing the cliffs, looking up at the isle of Jura, seals going in and out of the water, gannets, at one point there was a whale breaching.

“It was actually quite emotional.”

Each team member swam twice over eight hours and seven minutes, hitting up to 70 strokes per minute at top speed.

The relay team was guided by pilots and cheered on by crew and family on the boat, but in the last quarter of the swim, doubts began to emerge over whether or not they would reach land.

“If you don’t make it within seven or eight hours, you won’t make it at all because then the tide turns. So it was a nervous last leg and so amazing to see Grace finally touch land just north of Cushendun.

“She took over from me for the final eight minutes and even as she got in the tide was turning and those were a difficult eight minutes for her.”

Professional swimmer Mercedes Gleitze made a failed attempt to cross the Dál Riata Channel in 1928.

The first successful attempt was by South African Wayne Soutter in 2012 – he completed the swim in 12 hours, 11 minutes.

The relay team who completed it on Saturday have been training in open water off the Bangor coastline for more than a year, but former water polo player Jane is the only member who had crossed a channel before.

“We were in Bangor Swimming Club before that, Gillian was in Ards Swimming Club, but then lockdown happened and we couldn’t go to the pool so we started swimming in the sea,” said Jane.

“And all through the winter, we pushed ourselves to do longer and longer swims.

“It’s good for your mental health as well as the physical health, that bond you develop is great.”

Jacqueline McClelland of Infinity Channel Swimming, which orchestrated the swim, described it as “a huge achievement”.

“Their endurance was quite amazing given all the resistance they had from the huge tidal swells,” she said.

“There was exhaustion, there was hypothermia, but they just kept on going, there was such a strength of spirit there and each one just swam their hearts out.

“There have been numerous failed attempts to cross this perilous stretch of water, so to watch Grace touching land was a fantastic moment.”