HELL AND HIGH WATER . by Sean Conway . ( Ebury Press £10.99 ) As usual with books about crazed adventures and daft derring-do , this one , about the author ’ s attempt to swim the length of the British coastline , begins with an account of the preparation involved . However , very unusually for such books and adventures , Sean Conway ’ s account is mainly about what he hasn ’ t thought of doing . Charity swimmer Sean Conway , 32 ( pictured ) , arriving at John O'Groats , in the north of Scotland , after being the first person to swim from Lands End to John O'Groats . Just weeks before he ’ s due to dive into the sea off Land ’ s End , he hasn ’ t done any training or sought any funding and has no ‘ plan ’ to speak of . Nor is this some long-held ambition of his . Indeed , it seems that he only thought of this ultra-long-distance swim up the British coast because his attempt to cycle around the world didn ’ t happen as he ’ d have wished — all was going well until he had a crash and , although he completed the pan-global bike ride , it couldn ’ t get him into the Guinness World Records . So , the swim is meant to fill that crucial gap in his CV . Somehow , he manages to acquire three people to act as his support crew and a cut-price yacht , leaving £110 in his budget for everything else — supplies , equipment , the lot . Not surprisingly , there are those who tell him he ’ s crazy and that he ’ d be best off spending his last £110 on the medication his GP would surely be only too happy to prescribe . But on our hero ploughs , somehow gaining a bit of sponsorship ( partly from Speedo , the trunks people ) and eventually managing to get his support crew to Land ’ s End to start his Big Swim . Only to discover two problems . First , there ’ s the temperature : ‘ I slowly walked into the water , ’ Conway recalls , ‘ and was surprised at how cold it was. ’ Right . . .Turns out the sea is not only cold , it apparently also has these things called tides . As he ’ s settling down to his first crawl , it begins to dawn on Conway that he ’ ll have to time his swims so that he ’ s going with the tide rather than against it — because even Michael Phelps at full tilt wouldn ’ t be a match for the current and would start to go backwards . Which is exactly what happens to Conway . Soon after , there ’ s another problem — seasickness , for Conway , as well as two of his support crew . There are lots and lots of other dangers ahead , almost all of them coming as a shock to our intrepid swimmer . Between Cornwall and the north coast of Scotland , there will be whirlpools , riptides , the mountainous seas off Cape Wrath , busy shipping lanes , a tornado warning and toxic jellyfish . Plus his scabby toe gets worse daily , his wetsuit doesn ’ t fit properly , he has to eat about 8,000 calories a day , often in mid-swim , and the protein shakes are giving him wind something dreadful . Conway ’ s original ‘ plan ’ was that he ’ d be swimming for two months . A thousand miles of coastline , call it 900 miles for luck , 15 miles a day , 60 days ’ swimming . Simples ! Well , not quite . His daily distance is initially so low that , by his new calculations , it will take him two years to reach John o ’ Groats . Then , amazingly , he starts to grind out the miles . More calamities lie in store — running out of money , losing members of his support crew — but Conway copes with them all . And , astonishingly , remarkably and record-breakingly , 135 days after he walked into the surprisingly cold sea off Land ’ s End , he swims into John o ’ Groat ’ s harbour . Wow !
Just weeks before the swim Sean ##gers had n't gotten any training . he faced plenty of obstacles on his swim , not least the icy waters . It took him three days to swim to the surface at John o ’ clock ’ clock .