Pulford Publicity's cause of the year: Clean Jurassic Coast

Threading the Needles

By Roy Beal

Clean Jurassic Coast recently held a fun fundraising day, largely thanks to the 'queen' of the English Channel, Chloë McCardel.

Chloë, who holds the record for the most English Channel swims (44), very kindly donated her time and boat Channel Queen and, along with myself and CJC team members Louis and Lee, we took 10 experienced open water swimmers to The Needles for a bit of a dip.

Splitting the swimmers into two groups, they had a brilliant time swimming between the iconic chalk stacks at high tide, enjoying some fast tide flows and the awe-inspiring views.

I was the kayak safety support, Lee and Louis were in the CJC RHIB Sea-Rex providing further safety and taking photos and video, and Chloë coordinated the swimmers from Channel Queen, anchored at nearby Alum Bay, staying in radio contact with the safety team.

With everyone bringing food and drink to share, there was a veritable feast of wonderful grub, including some rather delicious homemade flapjacks, for everyone.

The sun was shining, the air was warm and it felt like summer was still with us. The initially choppy conditions settled as the day went on and we skippered Channel Queen around the famous lighthouse and some of the swimmers jumped in the water for another splash.

It was a remarkable day with fantastic company, lots of laughter and £700 raised in this, our new annual fundraising event in collaboration with the Channel Queen.

The money raised will be going towards some children’s life jackets as CJC plans to educate all ages in a safe marine environment. More on that another time – cliffhanger!

© Lee Cooper Photography