Sunday in Kent

Liz here....
We woke up this morning to some drizzling rain. After breakfast Duncan and Jeanette kindly picked us up and gave us a lift down to the harbour. Gino plopped himself in the water and swam for about 1 hour and 45 minutes. At this point you would think he had just stepped out of a relaxing bath after swimming that long. He never seems to shiver anymore and always emerges with a big grin on his face. There were a number of other swimmers down there this morning... some relay teams, some single crossers and even an 18 year old girl who is gearing up for a double crossing... WOW.
We rented a car later this afternoon and drove up to another seaside town called Deal for lunch. Again, Gino did an excellent job of adapting to the very narrow English roads and that whole driving on the "wrong" side of the road thing. Deal was a very cute little town and we look forward to more afternoon adventures while we wait out the weather.
Mike Coyle arrived this afternoon and he'll be here with us through the week to help out on the boat and to help keep Gino's spirits high. Mike is great and its fun to have another person along for the journey.
We headed into town for dinner this evening at a great little Italian place called "Dino's". As we were leaving, Allison Streeter, the Queen of the Channel was arriving for dinner. Gino looked how I must have looked when I met Pete Townsend... I think he was a little starstruck and Mike did a good job of breaking the ice and introducing them.
As for the swim... Capt. Eric tells us tomorrow is a no go so we'll head down to the harbour for a morning swim then likely head out on another afternoon adventure.
Keep sending us good weather wishes :-)