St Kilda swim

A team of charity fundraisers are planning record-setting bid to complete a 60 mile relay swim to St Kilda this month.

Swimmers hope to set off from Huisinish from Friday next week, July 10th, taking 45-minute turns in relay formation.

With a safety boat chartered for eight days, the nine adventurers are keeping their fingers crossed for calm weather as adverse conditions foiled previous bids to tackle the tidal streams between Harris and the remote island archipelago out in the Atlantic Ocean.

Forecasts of unseasonable gales and rough waves forced the challenge’s postponement in May.

Even in July - despite balmy weather on dry land - gales and rough seas affect the open ocean off St Kilda.

They first attempted the feat - which has never been completed before - last year but were fabandoned the course after reaching about a third of the way when heavy swells were too hazardous for their support kayakers.

Organiser Colin Macleod admits the challenge “will not be easy.”

He said: “This will be the team's second go at St Kilda, managing to swim about 22 miles until the weather got the better of us.”

The group have set up a fundraising webpage at www.stkildaswim.co.uk for four good causes - Yorkhill Children’s Charity, the Leanne Fund, The Fishermen’s Mission and the Aberlour Child Care Trust.

A support team of three kayakers will paddle alongside the swimmers plus a cabin cruiser - the MV Cuma - acting as a mother safety boat and sleeping accommodation are set to go.

Support boat skipper, Murdanie Macdonald, is giving the group these dates at no extra cost.

The group have continued to train over the summer, swimming in Broadbay in Lewis two or three times a week.

In 2012, the group swam the Minch in relay formation between Ullapool and Stornoway, fending off whales and dolphins to average a speed of 1.5 knots.

It took the Big Minch Swim Team 34 hours and they raised almost £23,500 for RNLI lifeboats.

Last year's bid was abandoned due to bad sea conditions

Nine adventurers plan long distance swim to St Kilda

1 July 2015