When you’re waiting to swim the English Channel and you’ve spent four years preparing, you can never really be prepared for the feeling you get when the pilot calls and says, “We’re on tomorrow!”

We started at 3am in pitch black. Swimming in the dark is cool; swimming in choppy waters, trying to work out how to swim next to a fishing boat that has a bunch of big ‘daymaker’ halogen lights on it was weird. This first 2 hours were horrible.

I knew I’d be encouraged by the sunrise and I was not disappointed, it was amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed the next 8 hours, and probably had the best swim of my life. Being in the middle of a large body of water at first light is vaguely ethereal and I felt blessed to be there and have the opportunity to swim.

After about 11 hours I was 500 metres from France and the tide turned, pushing me away from where I needed to go at about 6 knots. There’s a fixed buoy off the Cap Gris Nez (the ideal spot for landing in France) and the water goes white around it like rapids. It’s hectic and impossible to swim against. I figured I’d already been going for more than 15 hours and I panicked. I stopped, called a big ‘time out’, made sure everyone was listening and then announced, “I am done!” I swam towards the boat, fully intending to be pulled out…

About five metres from the boat I heard a terrifying yell from Alex (my handler), who bellowed some sensible words which stopped me in my tracks. I started swimming again, saying to myself the very simple mantra of “You can do this” over and over again. Just goes to show how important a good crew who cares can be.

Ninety minutes after the tide change and dummy spit, I landed on French soil with a time of 13 hours 17 minutes. I was very pleased!

Overall, we raised more than $50,000 for Opportunity which is great. I did all my swims to prove that anything is possible for anyone, regardless of the struggle and the odds of success. The opportunity to provide families in need a hand up is one thing, but the epic struggle for those pulling themselves out of poverty has my greatest respect and support.

Ben Hutt
Opportunity Ambassador

Ben Hutt is an inspirational Ambassador for Opportunity International Australia who recently swum the English Channel to raise much-needed funds for families living in poverty. Our sincerest thanks to Ben for his incredible passion to help transform the lives of families in need through small loans.