For the second year running Swim the Wight took place on Saturday 5th September 2009.

16 swimmers met at 7.30a.m. in Newport to ‘swim’ across the Isle of Wight visiting 5 pools and 3 beaches on the way. The swimmers were from Isle of Wight Marlins Swimclub and friends.

Although this is billed as a day out and just for fun, two members of the group decided to set themselves targets for the day. Gordon Osborne swam 6k over the day, the equivalent of swimming across the Solent - and Lindsey Shenton swam 10k+, the equivalent of swimming across the Solent and BACK.

The day started at West Wight Pool, progressing to an early and chilly swim at Totland Bay with a warm up in the Pier Café afterwards.

Then on to Gurnard Pines where the group swam both indoors and in the outside pool.

On to Ryde Waterside pool and Ryde beach, followed by a picnic lunch on the beach.

To our surprise Ryde beach was even colder than Totland. Back onto the bus to The Heights and Sandown Bay where we had the best sea swim of the day. Then back to Newport for a last swim at Medina Leisure Centre.

We all agreed that it was a very enjoyable day out with friends as well as an opportunity to swim in places where we don’t usually swim. The day finished with a meal at Medina Quay with friends and family as well as those who had taken part in the day out.

All the swimmers were presented with a certificate by Bob Cooper who had been Safety Officer for the day.

I would like to say Thank you to all the pools who let us disrupt their public swimming sessions, Thank you to all the people who came and swam or travelled with us on the bus.

Thank you to Gill who sorted out the Tshirts and fended queries while I was away on holiday.

A very big Thank you to Bob Cooper who was our Safety officer for the day and took over all the checking of who was where, when – this made my job so much easier and I was able to enjoy the swimming.

Last but not least, Thank you to Freshwater Inshore lifeboat who came round to Totland and met us on the beach.

Alison Harding