Eascape From Spike – ‘Thank You To All’ from organiser Niall O Crualaoich

Thanks for coming and swimming despite the challenging conditions. The times reflect the difficulty you all encountered crossing the harbour and please do not compare them to any previous times you may have done or get disheartened that it was slower than you expected. Quite a number of people didn’t make shore without ‘encourgement’ and the times are the times we clocked you arriving on shore, if they incorrect please let me know.

I would also like to thank the rescue and remind you that 4 boats and 11 kayakers made this swim safe and that is not counting the presence of the Coast guard and RNLI who along with the Port of Cork were also on hand to assist. Onboard your safety were two EMT’s a number of First responders and a full medical rib with spinal equipment as well as a defibulator on standby. For this reason, anyone who brings a boat for safety gets automatic entry, even over the waiting list. Thanks to Ger for volunteering his daughter for the tea service, I know a number of people were grateful for it. If you are not swimming next year you might consider joining the safety team.

While I am trying to keep this event as ‘green’ as possible, thanks to the large number of swimmers who took public transport and who took their rubbish home with them. I have managed to recycle about 70% of the one bag of rubbish we created and I hope next year we can do better. It will be hard to top as one swimmer handed me a swim hat mid swim that he had found floating in the harbour. I don’t expect you to dive in the harbour for lost property.

I will know later this week how much we rasied for the Lions club but I can tell you it is up on last year already. If you raised money please do send it in or contact me for the Lions club details. A special thanks to a swimmer who again this year handed in a large donation at race registration this year, it all helps local charities!

Some of our sponsors this year are
Cork Lions Club http://www.corklionsclub.ie
Great Island Motors http://greatislandmotors.com/
The Quay’s Bar http://www.thequays.ie/
Cork Civil Defence http://www.corkcityfirebrigade.ie/civildefence/
Marine Transport Services http://www.mts.ie/
The Commodore Hotel Cobh http://www.commodorehotel.ie/
Halo Security
Cakes From The Goddess https://www.facebook.com/CakesFromTheGoddess
Cuppa Cafe, Union Quay, Cork city.
The Cobh Edition www.cobhedition.com