Original subtitles

My dad was a passionate guy, quite strong minded and determined.

I obviously saw that when he recovered

from a stroke in 2011, where he just went from being

in a hospital bed to grinding away at it,

getting his independence back.

Same as when I'm swimming, I suppose.

It'll just have to be a kilometre at a time until I get home.

It was just after Dad's stroke that I committed to try raise money

for the Irish Hearts Foundation stroke Awareness pain.

So I ran 35 marathons in 35 days.

I remember going for breakfast with dad to tell him about it

and he just laughed with surprise.

And then once he calmed down, he just asked how he could help

and he was always supportive like that.

My dad died of cancer.

It was just three weeks after being in hospital from getting diagnosed.

It was a rough time for my family, of course.

So I'm just trying to raise as much money

as I can for charity and just do his memory proud.

My name is Alan Corcoran and I'm going to swim the length of Ireland.

When I was doing the marathons, I sort of just threw caution

to the wind and didn't put too much thought into it.

Just having this relatively large concept

and just going for it, really.

Losing dad was obviously hard for us all

and I wanted to do something to get me out

of that sort of hard point in life

and give myself something to work towards.

I had a few pints with friends and talked about different options.

At the centre of it was being a fundraiser

event more difficult than the 35 marathons in 35 days.

We sort of all came to a conclusion together

that if I was to try swim the lap

of Ireland, the chances of success were sort of down.

The length of Ireland was hard enough,

but not so hard that we were going to make a total balls of it.

Which we ultimately did.

Myself, my mother and my wife and daughter,

went up to attempt one from the Giants Causeway

and were down at the start

and I was sort of excited for him because of all the work.

This is the culmination of all that months and months of training,

and I was pretty confident that he would

finish the first attempt because of the amount of training that he did put in.

Giants Causeway to Dunmore was the first challenge.

Very minimal sea training was maybe a bit overly confident,

but the second I jumped in off the Giants Causeway and felt that North Sea,

the seriousness of it sort of hit me in the face, as it were.

I remember swimming out to the guys who were maybe 400 meters offshore

and being absolutely knackered, just gasping for the air,

but not wanting to let them know because I didn't want to make

them sort of more nervous than

they already were on their first day.

Thinking, Jesus, has he done any preparation?!

I had two weeks of crew covered

and thought that if I'd got far enough

south that I'd get people up from the southeast,

from the Dublin sailing clubs.

We made great progress in the first week or so

and he was flying down and then just between the weather

and it was only a small rib as well,

so he couldn't go out in any sort of choppy weather at all.

Even though it was the summer light was falling,

conditions weren't great.

Concerns had been raised by a member of the public

about an overdue swimmer

and their support vessel and immediately I knew it was Alan.

Alan was located within half an hour just south of Newcastle,

so we got him on board and we towed the boat back to safety.

He said himself in the first attempt

that he was going to finish it in six weeks.

After a couple of weeks,

that became evident that that just wasn't possible at all.

Last year alone, we launched approximately

950 times across the island of Ireland.

Despite various attempts by Alan and his team

and also a couple of local people from the harbour,

some of the problems were starting to mount.

The nail in the coffin of the first challenge was the boat sinking.

When your boat is capsized,

you don't see that there's a way forward.

He tried for a couple of days,

but you're more reliant on other people.

I actually got onto a local fisherman's boat

and managed to actually get another swim in,

but even with that you're going, how far can I realistically get?

I was just sort of sat in a BnB on my own for a few days

and I just went... well, you don't have the boat,

you don't have the crew.

Just time to pack it in. So it was a bit of a...

bit of a lonely bus home

from Northern Ireland back down to Waterford.

He was just so disappointed and gutted, really.

He expected that he would finish it and he was he was very down after that.

But like, we were just trying to cheer him up a bit like,

that he still raised so much money for two worthy charities.

Straight away after the first attempt,

I just sort of drew a line under it and it ultimately wasn't to be.

I was sort of content at

that being a loss on the record and just gone back to normal life,

as it were.

I think I had maybe two weeks off or so

after the first attempt and then back to the desk job in London.

It's a bit surreal going back to an office

after doing a challenge like that.

You oddly get used to the chaos of it all

and being in a wetsuit to the point where

being in a shirt and trousers, it just feels a bit alien.

The catalyst for the second challenge was

an interview I did with local radio station.

They were doing a documentary on sea swimming and I was asked,

what did you learn from the first attempt and would you do it again?

I didn't have a proper answer

for what I'd learned from the first attempt,

and I said I would do it again without any sort of thought.

After putting in so much time and effort into it,

I think it was a bit stupid not

to have sat down and thought about what went wrong

and if I could rectify it.

When I did take the time after that interview,

I didn't think it was down to my lack of swimming ability

or ability to sort of endure the condition.

It was just more down to tweaks in the planning.

I could feel that it was always unfinished in his head.

Going back to his run,

there was a lot of things not in place a week out,

but it all fell in place and you become a little bit,

I've managed to solve this, I'm a problem solver,

so I'll solve this next problem.

And I think he might have rested on that a little bit now.

Now it just sort of consumed my thoughts

to a point of just wanting to just commit to it.

Then once I've committed,

that's sort of that, just have to follow through with it.

I'm not quite sure what time I'd told Carolina I was going to do it.

She was looking to do a Niles course,

which is like an adventure course around the world.

It was sort of like a two week hike thing,

two week kayaking kind of thing.

Ultimately, she couldn't afford it,

and then a few months later, I sort of got the idea, well,

if you wanted to do a kayak adventure,

I've got the one for you.

So excited.

We're here at the Royal Docklands

in London and we're going to have our first attempt at swimming together as

a team, so hopefully we won't kill each other in the water.

We might support... a lovely support kayaker here.

If she said no, I would have had to get

another person that would have kayaked,

and I think it would have been fairly

impossible to get somebody that would stay the course of the challenge.

She sort of hopped on board straight away without too much thought.

First session down on water together went really well and no arguments.

Okay, one argument, but it'll be fine.

I had done enough training on the first challenge,

so I spent a lot of time trying to get sponsorship to try help

with the cost of all of it and looked into the courses involved to try up

the safety element and improve the logistics.

On the second attempt,

I was confident in the training plan

that I had from the first attempt, so the map was drawn,

I just had to follow and do what I was told on the piece of paper.

So that was just getting into the pool as often as I could really.

But there was also the aspect of the cold

which I had learned a hard lesson as a first challenge.

Swimming in the pool is a different kettle of fish

compared to swimming in the sea.

Hi Heather. Nice to meet you.

Hi, nice to meet you. ...support crew.

Come this way.

I've popped into Portsmouth University,

to get some expert advice there and get chucked into a cold tank.

I was extremely nervous because it was two years since being in a cold tank.

When you're initially immersed in cold water,

what happens is you get a big reduction in skin

temperature which stimulates an increase in heart rate,

an increase in breathing rate and also an increase in blood pressure.

And so what we need to do to ensure Alan is okay

is to make sure that he is well adapted to that cold shock response.

And he does that by repeatedly going into cold water

and dulling down that breathing hyperventilation

and by that way he should be able to get in

and out of the water more easily.

I was expected to swim for 45 odd minutes

and I just about got up to that sort of time in a pool.

That was a panic sort of stations moment

flashbacks of the first challenge of having the air just taken from you

and the panic of it and trying to deal with that

in your head and trying to relax

and trying to just sort of say you've been through this before.

If you try and swim while you're experiencing the cold shock response,

you're likely to fatigue very rapidly.

If you're swimming you need a controlled

breathing pattern which cold shock response doesn't provide.

And so Alan needs to make sure that he spends a couple of minutes

getting rid of that elevated heart rate and breathing

pattern so that he can control his breathing before starting to swim.

Subsequent from that then I was ending up getting

into the Serpentine Lake in London,

just trying to get rid of the cold shock response.

The pain is beginning to kick in now in the hands,

so once a week I have to do this, twice if I can,

to try make those first few weeks of the swim

a bit easier on the system and a bit more comfortable.

Portsmouth was maybe set at around 10, 12 degrees,

the Serpentine was maybe four or five degrees,

so that was certainly a shock to the system.

Once you'd survived that,

you felt that bit stronger then getting into the Irish Sea

during the summer.

You look like you're lobster.

The main lesson obviously from the first attempt was getting the support boat,

so I knew I had to get something bigger and that came with a big bill.

So that sort of got the ball rolling on trying for a sponsor.

Ultimately they all said no, which left me with the only option

if I wanted to do this and if I was serious about this,

was to go for a bank loan.

I had luckily, and thankfully got New Ross

and Wexford County Council to sponsor a mooring, which left me

with the challenge of how the feck, not being a sailor,

Do I get this sailboat From Bristol in the UK,

across the Irish Sea? It didn't go to plan.

It got fairly choppy out there, up to 15 foot wave,

so it was an experience for a first sailing trip, to say the least.

35 hours.

And we had to bail and abort and pull into Wales.

And then that left me with having to hire somebody to take it across to New Ross.

An expensive and steep learning curve with owning a sailboat. (chuckles)

Leaving the office was the start of the adventure, the challenge.

It was grand living with Mam.

I think she was always happy to have me company back home

and she was happy to give me the car to go train and doing everything

she could and making sure that I had what I needed to have in place.

Obviously she has that fear,

but she's going to support me in the end.

It was sort of full time, then, swimming four weeks off before

the challenge, so that was sort of squeaky bum time.

I certainly felt more confident having done the courses, the safety courses,

and knowing what things were this time around.

It had made me appreciate maybe more the risks that were involved in the first

attempt and the lack of safety preparation that I really had.

About a month or two out, Alan decided,

right, well, I better get in the water at night.

So I said, Grand, I have a kayak, I'll come with you.

It was my first time on the water in pitch dark, and what was a little

unnerving about that is as a trawler roared out of the harbour.

Well, you're like, if I can't see anything, they can't see me.

It was maybe a little bit easier for him,

being oblivious to what was going on above the water.

How was it?

Cold and dark?

# (music)

That's the kayak fucked. (laughs) Yeah.

Custom flag for the boat?

Up the Deise.

After getting all the pieces of equipment home

and seeing it all laid out and you're going, Jesus,

I didn't really have any of this on the first challenge.

And then it was just a matter of, yeah, just get it on the boat.

Loading up the kayak today, getting it

on the sailboat, and I have three sailors

coming down now to sail it up to Ballycastle.

Wasn't without the struggle.

She got stuck in the muck,

so we had to give her a bit of a push, but finally gone.

It's my last full day at home today before

making my two day transport up to Ballycastle.

I haven't even started yet and I'm already

putting the steps in place to invite people to swim the last day with me.

If anything, it's probably going to give me a big incentive

to want to get home that bit more and have this big event

because it's going to raise around 4,000 euro for the Irish Heart Foundation

and the Solas Cancer Support Centre

if everyone signs up into the 300 places.

# (music)

So we arrived last night to the boat.

We had our first night's sleep, which was shite,

but that was the point in coming up to the boat a week

beforehand that we can try get used to the confined space,

get used to the noises on the boat and the movement of it at night.

Third or fourth day on the boat after arriving to Ireland

and I'm not feeling too well, feeling actually pretty shit.

Am I allowed to say shit?

I feel like I've got a flu, my joints are aching so much.

You'll be ready for the start of the swim in two days, three days.

I don't think I'll be ready,

but I got to do it, so I don't really have a choice.

My parents always encouraged me into sport.

I was swimming between maybe five and 10, and athletics,

and when I was around six dad took me out

to Tramore Football Club where I played for ten years.

So training and sports has been a major part of my life.

I was an attempted sprinter but didn't

make the cut sort of as I progressed into junior and senior level.

But I was always good,

I felt at just trying and pushing myself,

keeping up and I was always good at showing

up and putting in the work, just didn't make the grade,

speed wise.

A challenge like this, speed isn't essential,

it's just being bit gritty and determined and stubborn.

It started with me... my dad dying, so it's, em...just been...

something to focus and work towards since then and... (clears throat)

it's just been, it's been positive focus for me last sort of two, three years.

So it's, yeah, be, it'd be a huge thing

if I can finish it and do what I said I would do and hopefully raise

a lot of money for the Solas Centre and the Irish Heart Foundation.

My dad had the stroke,

which was the catalyst for doing the marathons and then obviously

with cancer so being able to fundraise for those charities, it means a lot.

It means a lot more than just doing the swim.

Swim is starting tomorrow.

In my head I just want to jump in.

It means a lot for me considering it's his second attempt

and I really wanted to do my best to help him achieve it because

I know it it means a lot to him for many different reasons.

# (music)

I sort of made a note to myself to enjoy it as much as I could.

I think it was a lot more emotionally fueled the first time around.

It was a lot more raw and there was a lot more fear.

It was literally up until being on the Giant's Causeway

that you could nearly.... just take a breath,

The logistics is done and you can actually

just sort of take a moment to take it all in.

Before jumping in.

# (music)

It was amazing swimming out to Carolina,

we just sort of took a moment and waved

back to everyone and just sort of had that moment between us of just sort

of smiling and saying, we're actually doing this now.

So she hadn't much sea experience prior to that either.

She'd done all her prep in the docklands in London,

so we got her onto the sea a little bit the week before,

but sure, she had that excitement, too,

of saying, Christ, we're actually out into deep water now

and this is what we're going to be at for the next few weeks.

# (music)

It was fine for the first hour. It felt really great

and then sort of panicked a little bit with the coldness.

But again, I was just sort of put my mind at ease

and telling myself I'd been there before and I'd survived.

So it was just sort of get on with it.

It wasn't until I looked at the tracker

that I was like, Shit, what happened there?

I had in my mind that everything on this attempt

was to be better than the first attempt,

but we had made a third of the distance that I'd made on day one

of the first attempt, but I'd swam for an extra hour.

We had just timed the tides wrong.

There's no point swimming against the tide

up here so strong you're going to go nowhere.

And that's sort of what happened.

We're all a bit frustrated,

but I'm hopeful for the lessons learned.

Just seeing Chris and Noel working

to figure out how do we correct this, I really felt I was in capable hands.

# (music)

Forecasters coming on.

So day two, Chris and Noel asked me up to the deck

and sort of looked out at the waves and sort of looked back at me

and said, have you ever swam in anything like this?

I was like, Nope.

And he said, Are you going to give it a go?

We've come this far, so, yeah, let's go first.

The wind is due to come up much later to a not nice situation.

Okay.

Because day one had sort of not gone to plan,

we felt we sort of had to give it a go somewhat on day two.

We didn't have Carolina on the water.

The conditions didn't allow for it,

wasn't sensible to put her onto a kayak.

How far do you think you could see us?

With the waves topping up?

I probably won't have much visibility on you.

I'll probably be able to see that.

Lovely Waterford flag up there.

Yeah, the best thing to do is if you go

too far ahead and you're not comfortable, just put your hand.

Ah no, I'll be comfortable.

I'll be grand.

Heading off here then, yeah?

Okay guys, see ya later. See you in a while. Best of luck.

Carolina, you're the spotter right now. Okay?

So you're the one watching him for a few minutes

and then we'll all take turns then.

# (music)

Most of the bulk of my training was done in a pool.

So then when you're getting clobbered

by waves, it is that greatly more demanding on the body and it's just

something you can't really prepare for until you're in it.

Talk about sort of being present in the moment.

You can't really sort of focus on much else than just getting your breath

and following that boat and making sure that you're not getting lost.

How are you feeling?

Waves are coming right in his face.

Alan!

Just for a talk.

Yeah, we've gone too far out.

You've come nearly as far as you did the whole 4 hours yesterday.

But just we have to go that way from now.

It's not too dangerous. It's perfect.

You're covering lots of miles.

I'd taken the tow but he's determined. Fair play to him.

We're doing some amount of knots,

I tell you,

even if it is in the wrong route.

We've big winds now. Now that's the gale that they said.

The only thing is he's really getting

a lot of miles, so there is a case to be made for keeping them going.

Look at that swallow, he's flying up.

Yeah.

(chatter continues)

There was really ominous clouds and sort of a storm coming in.

We were sort of getting the warnings across on the radio,

so we had to swim short and bail off to Rathlin Island.

I'm going to make the call and I'm going to take him in out of the water.

That was a surprise to me, I think, as it was to everyone else.

It just would have been too dangerous,

really to get across back to Ballycastle

where we had intended to pull into.

You're some man for going out in that, I tell you.

But that was a wild, wild experience,

swimming through the Rathlin Sound out in those conditions.

And it was oddly enjoyable because you're sort of going,

when else is anyone else really going to be swimming in this?

If you're swimming a channel swim,

you're not going to get into conditions like this.

You wouldn't start it because it would scupper your attempt.

So it was quite a unique sort of thing to be in those wild waves

that probably a sensible person shouldn't be swimming in,

but having the confidence in the crew

to get you out of things that go wrong.

(chatter)

It's just going to get bouncy for a second while I come around.

# (music)

Yeah, it's pretty wild today.

We're now rattling around Rathlin Island

with the wind blowin' the gale out there literally.

Day three then we were spot on the money with our start time.

We got spat out of Rathlin Sound.

Didn't have the big choppy over falls that we got the first time around.

So I thought we were in the clear.

And I just stopped to tell Carolina or say to Carolina

that this is actually quite great now, like we're heading south.

And then no sooner had I said that,

I got clobbered overhead with the crest

of a wave, which I sort of thought was quite unusual in open water.

So I popped the head up quickly and looked for Carolina

and then I just saw a wave take her,

just go like, "Pfffft." Like 5, 10 metres away,

just high waves all around us.

We were just stuck in a section of over fall

so I could just see Chris, going south, south.

So Carolina started paddling.

So I was like, right, that's the sign, goggles on.

And we just went, gave it welly for ten minutes there,

thereabouts and got out of it.

It was the craziest conditions I've ever

swam in and hopefully we won't get that again.

But a massive day as well.

30 plus kilometres.

# (music)

We are doing zero knots through the water

but we're doing 4.7 knots over the ground

because that's the speed the tide's going at.

It's absolutely screaming along and it's really helping them get flying.

So yes, Bob, that's a sun crack.

Last week I just felt like I was drowning somewhat gracefully

amongst the waves and then today just felt like swimming.

Carolina was loving it as well.

The sun was shining into Donaghadee to finish off a good week.

# (music)

Today's swim is being aborted.

bumpy conditions and we're not feeling the sharpest to say the least.

We're getting a few waves over the top.

Hopefully we'll be in support of Ogie soon.

(Bleep) ..highs and loads of this shit.

The crew tells me in the morning it's

going to be really sunny and nice and you're going to love it today.

2 hours in, it just gets really windy and suddenly

you're just getting blown away and you're hating your life

and questioning your choices that you made in the past.

Aim to the end, aim to the furthest point of land you can see. Okay.

The fatigue of everything was sort of building up.

Bit of a falling out with Carolina and just in terms

of who should be following who and what happens if we get split up,

it got frustrating and it's not a place

to be having a discussion or an argument.

Once you stop, you're freezing.

My sort of mindset nearly switched from being like boyfriend-girlfriend.

But then once we started I was sort of I

need to focus on swimming and recovery and publicising the event,

documenting the event, which I think she sort of found that dynamic hard,

that maybe I was a bit cold because I had just all that going on.

It gets miserable, especially when it's really rainy and windy

and it's just like looking after Alan,

who's sometimes fairly annoyed and tired and hungry.

It was difficult certainly,

to try balance up being romantic partners

and then being nearly business partners

in the challenge that we had.

And then there was only two.

We're on our own, waiting for sailors, hopefully.

Currently walking to the start point

of our swim to try and make up for the lack of volunteers.

So we've gone off the land and back onto land.

We've just finished the two hour swim without sailboat.

This feels more dangerous than the swimming.

People swinging bloody balls left, right,

centre, and I'm just strolling across the course.

Has there been a stranger sight on the golf course?

The wetsuit man.

Find me way off this shagging golf course.

Been on for the last 20 minutes or so.

Trying to get home, trying to get back to the boat.

Me and Carolina got 7 km done on our own

yesterday without a sailboat, but it's not sustainable.

You just can't do it with cliff sections and across big bays.

Welcome back. Good to have you back on board.

We're not meant to be here.

So the guys stepped in on short notice, giving up more of their time.

Salvaging, week three.

Absolutely delighted they came and progress,

we're swimming 4 hours,

so it's good to get that back on the board and back moving again.

Whoo!

Loads of cause for celebration today.

I've managed to surpass my 2017 attempt,

so which is a huge moment for myself.

And even more proud of Carolina,

who's after getting her exam results

for her final year first class degree in neuroscience.

So enjoy the highs after we've got through

some of the lows.

Still here in Ardglass.

We had a lovely night up in the Mourne Mountains last night, thanks to Chris.

Didn't all go to plan.

I was unfortunate enough to fall down a feckin' stairs like an eejit.

Not even an ounce of alcohol to take the credit for it.

Just me being tired and half asleep in the middle of the night.

Coming out one of those ceiling sort of ladders.

Missed my footing and cracked my shin

and cut my finger and shin open a bit.

Extremely painful.

Hopefully the wounds will heal up a bit,

but probably not the best environment in the wetsuit for open cuts,

especially with peeing in it.

Gav and Tim arrived there Monday night,

cracked straight into work up in Ardglass marina.

Had the charts out on the table.

We're into this area of slack water,

so the tide is moving down from the south

at the same time as the tide is moving up from the north,

which creates this slack area of water

where there's no tide pushing me in either which direction.

So it's really donkey work where I have to just

work my balls off for every mile.

On the first day out with the guys

yesterday, we moved from Ardglass Marina into Carlingford Lough.

It was quite evasive on the first challenge,

so to make it here eventually, it's just fantastic.

South Carlingford Lough, south of Dundalk.

Off the coast of the Republic of Ireland now,

so absolutely delighted with that.

Cheese. To the Republic.

Day 28 is aborted.

It's just not safe enough to get that kayak on and off

due to 3 metres swell and as well,

it's just too windy for the guys to keep

any sort of course and it'd be miserable

for them to bob around in this for 4 hours.

They'd have to keep circling, keep circling to try stick with me.

They couldn't go near me because this could

easily get bashed in on top of me.

It looks properly scary. Yeah.

Probably not the best kayaking condition really.

Ready, ready. Pull, pull, pull.

For me, the main real danger with the boat

in those wavy, stormy conditions, I still have to get onto a boat.

You're a man overboard and if it comes down on you, you're in trouble.

You don't want to get hit by a boat in the head like that's game over.

Seeing the cries for volunteers and just

having an absolute love for the water jumped at the opportunity.

Done my power boat license so I could help him.

It's very important that you look after everything you can for him.

He needs to just get up, swim, eat,

go to bed even when he comes in out of the water.

There's nearly a full day's work to be done for the crew.

You're looking for people to give up their free time

and they have to have a particular set of skills.

Swim number 29 just on there now.

Another 4 hours clocked up on the board

and we're just in line at the south point of Dundalk Bay.

Beautiful, flat calm conditions today.

Nicest conditions we've had so far, I think.

Stark, stark contrast to the waves we had yesterday,

which are probably the biggest waves we've had so far.

We're aiming for here.

If we're going to get our westerly,

we're going to be aiming kind of towards

shore so we can drift the whole way down like, you know?

We're just south of Dundalk Bay now

and the plan is to get down to Dublin.

We have Kieran and Jonathan coming to help for the week.

Going to put the head down and just take

advantage of being back into tides and moving.

Today, we also had loads of lion's mane jellyfish,

some other funky looking dangerous jellyfish with a big stinger,

some purple looking jellyfish

and then those sort of more common Casper ghost

sort of looking ones that I've swam straight into loads of times.

I think I maybe hit seven jellyfish today or more,

but I don't like anything touching me in the water.

# (music)

It's just a quite night here in Clogherhead. (laughter)

# (music)

Getting to Dublin was monumental.

I'd always felt, even on the first challenge,

if I got to Dublin and then more so on the second challenge,

that once I got there, I'm definitely getting home.

Break some records.

You're how many hundreds kilometres away from home,

but to me, you're on the homeward stretch.

Get around...

Felt a big jellyfish on the arm when I was stroking down.

I think I got a little bit, but...

It's grand. Not as bad as falling down the stairs. (laughs)

Howth Marina, Howth Marina, Howth Marina. This is Unsinkable Two.

Unsinkable Two...

Week five!

(cheering)

We're just been held up here in Dublin Bay.

We've got the Dublin pilot boat out behind us there.

We had a close call with a ferry.

I hadn't necessarily rang Dublin port to inform them

I was swimming across the bay.

There was a worry for me when I saw the pilot boat out there

that they might have told me just to get

out of the water or, you're not allowed to go across here.

Luckily, they were very accommodating.

I just sort of stayed put and watched this thing just steamroll by.

It came from being a dot to being a very

big boat in the space of around two minutes.

There was no getting out of the way of that if you were anywhere near it.

It was a mad scenario, a bit of a surreal one.

Remember just laughing at Carolina.

Sort of like, what the we after getting ourselves into here?

We're out of Dublin now.

Another county ticked off and we're well on our way through Wicklow.

Time to push things on now and get this challenge done.

We're edging closer to Waterford.

I'm running out of days to make sure I make it to the finale,

which I had announced the week earlier.

There's people registering to swim, so the pressure is on.

Something goes wrong, we might not make it.

And then there's all the craic around the insurance and people coming out

for the event and I don't want to disappoint them.

Alan was anchored off a small harbour just

down from Rosslare Europort,

so the only way to get to him was by sea.

So I paddled out to him about 6 a.m.

We got the boat filled with diesel and headed off for the day.

Gavin came in that day and allowed

us to get far enough south to give Carolina a point

that she can get access to the sea off a safe entry point.

We're down on Carne beach in Wexford.

We're just about to get into the water

and go around Carnsore Point to become the first ever Czech lady.

Well, we think we don't know. I assume so.

To kayak the length of Ireland and I'll finally

swim the length of Ireland and then we start heading west.

Just because I'm a bit of a romantic wanting to swim home.

So the challenge isn't done at the length of Ireland.

I have another three or four swims to get home to Tramore,

where I'm hoping we'll have a good turnout for the finale.

Carnsore Point behind us, we got Carolina,

some woman for one woman up over the first Czech person,

we think, to kayak the length of Ireland

and Alan Corcoran, the first person to swim the length of Ireland.

Up ya boyyo, ya.

Baby, we did it.

Pretty epic moment to share with Carolina.

I'm so proud of you.

We took a few minutes, took it in, enjoyed it,

celebrated and then it was like, right, we have to get to Tramore

for next Sunday.

And we are now on the way

to nearest vehicular access point.

Try to meet my mam.

We're going to take the kayak down to Kilmore Quay

where the boat is at the moment.

Hello!

# (music)

A large part of the problem on the final week

was that we didn't have a specified two member crew,

so it was just trying to piece people in as we went.

Once you get involved in these challenges,

you nearly feel responsible.

I've got them this far, let's get them home.

I had work commitments,

managed to get out of them again by the Wednesday,

so we were pushing for home,

maybe out in conditions that were a little bit rough.

Shit got really serious, really quick on that one.

I just got into the water, just starting to the trackers going

and saw the islands and Carolina was on the kayak.

Then I looked back and she got flipped over somehow,

so she was in the water.

The waves were just humongous and took nearly,

I'd say, 15 minutes to fish me out

of the water because it was just really tough,

both for the sailors and for me because

I was just having my first cold water shock,

so that was interesting.

Today is Wednesday,

I'm supposed to be in Tramore for

Sunday, so I guess it's these deadline that I set

myself that possibly put ourselves into that situation.

I was pissed off that we didn't get that swim in

and you're going, well, now we're not going to make it.

Like, we needed that swim to get completed,

but then you're going like,

that could have been that could have been fatal, really.

So you just have to bring it back to that.

There's more important things than finishing

the challenge and that's always

finishing the challenge alive, essentially.

The fear was sort of subsiding a bit

and Gavin was just gung-ho as ever to say, what can I do to help?

He paddled out of the marina,

I climbed down the marina wall and we went from there.

We still managed to rescue a few hours of swimming that day,

although we were getting absolutely hammered along the beach.

It was risky, it was unpleasant, it was wild,

probably stupid, but we just wanted to make the finish line.

For that last week,

there were so many moments where we felt the challenge is gone.

We were just getting more and more errors

and more and more scary situations

as we got closer.

I'd say the final week is probably

the most difficult one for me because as the end

of the swim is approaching there's quite a lot of pressure both on Alan

and me to sort of support him as much as I can.

We've got gusts of 30 knots forecast for Friday.

I've got the same then gusts of up to 30 knots on Sunday.

It's looking like the swim could be called off if it's 30 knot winds

They're coming from the south,

which means it's blowing directly into Tramore Bay.

There was no point thrown in the towel at that stage

though because we felt we were doing

just enough that we might actually get away with this.

That's sort of what it was at there, that, yeah,

it was coming down to kilometres or

to minutes nearly just that the finish line was getting that close.

We were on the way to Hookhead,

which is the start point and we're trying to still make Tramore

and then possibly another few hours then at p.m.

to try and keep going to the finish line.

Just looking forward to getting finished now.

Absolutely exhausted last night of this shitty boat.

I think I would have really panicked on the first challenge getting

into the water at time, but I felt hardened from the whole

challenge and from how far I had made it at that point.

So it nearly didn't affect me getting into the dark and the cold.

It was just like, I need to do this.

We got to the final day, the boat had made it to Dunmore.

Alan was just around the corner.

Final bit of swimming.

The original plan was to have 100 swimmers

or more swim back in with Alan for the last 400 metres.

They were going to go out, meet him at a buoy,

everyone swim in together.

Just en route to the finale now.

Unfortunately, Carolina couldn't stay

on the boat because he's going to be up to, I think, a force 8.

She's gone by land to join the other safety kayakers from the pier in Tramore.

And I'll have to swim the last little leg to Tramore on my own.

And just hoping, hoping, hoping nothing goes tits up.

We had just about made it.

So I taught by the skin of my teeth,

just about got that progress.

Where the finish line was within reach.

Made it all of five minutes out of Dunmore East Harbour towards the last mile.

2 miles, maybe an hour's worth of swimming and sailors called it off.

There was a lifeboat towing in another

sailboat and big waves and a few sailors didn't like the look of it.

That's just the way it is.

The only big question mark on whether even

tonight's 100 swimmers can get in the water.

If I'm not getting in the water, em...

but bit of a disaster, I don't know what's going to happen.

At that point,

then it was sort of damage control, damage limitation.

The insurance was paid off, the guys were out.

After having people signed up,

registered, the day was going ahead. At that point,

then, it was just, what can we salvage from the day?

We're just on the way to the finale swim, not the way we want it to be.

We're driving, as you can see, which means I have to go back and do

the last mile or two or whatever I've left to do someday later in the week.

we went out to Tramore, had a look down at the beach.

The red flag was up and it was just all

sort of unraveling as the day went on and we were running out of time.

With red flags gusting 32 knots,

nobody wants to take responsibility for that, which is fair enough.

So no safety kayakers or support boats at this stage.

And obviously the red flag means lifeguards

don't want anyone in the water either,

so I just have to cancel the swim.

The public aspect of it. I told people I'd be there for 6 o'clock,

so I'm just heading in on my own now

from the pier over to the lifeguard hut.

See you. See you.

See ya, Gavin.

What time is it now?

17:25. What?

5:25. 5:25.

All right, tell them if I'm not

there in 20... 35 minutes, just wait longer.

Alan's just headed off,

so we're going to go watch him from top of Galway Hill for the last kilometre.

Carolina and Gavin were on the cliff

trying to keep an eye on me, but it was impossible.

Tramore's a surfing beach, so it was just breaking wave,

breaking wave over the head.

Couldn't see the finish line and I couldn't see anyone on the beach.

This isn't sort of the finish line planned.

Kept on swimming closer until the pink hats came visible.

The guys who'd signed up to join

in the swim with me actually had come down and stood on the shoreline.

Since they couldn't come into the water.

That definitely was an emotional moment, seeing that.

That moment where he came to that waist

deep water, the electricity was just amazing.

No matter what he had felt earlier that day

about how the weather might have ruined it,

I think that was just completely washed away by the enormous

support that just almost makes

the hairs in the back of your neck stand.

Absolute roller coaster.

I don't think I've experienced so many emotions in one day from the start

of the day, thinking everything's perfect

and we've made it to the red flag going up

and the safety kayakers pulling out,

finally seeing your family and embracing

them and having that joyous moment on the end of the beach.

As soon as he got in the water at the start,

I was confident that he was going to finish it.

It was just such an achievement and we're so proud of him.

Not only did Alan swim the length of Ireland,

but Carolina paddled the length of Ireland.

If you can spend six weeks at sea

together, I think you can just about get through anything.

I think it would have been fairly impossible to get somebody,

especially somebody that would stay the course

of the challenge and somebody

that would be able to support me as much as she did.

I think you have to just appreciate the enormity of the challenge

he's undertaking, and to be a part of that is incredible.

Spending that amount of time in those

close quarters definitely bring it closer together.

And that's part of the reason you want to go back and help him so much,

help him with his last and his next mad adventure as they come along.

I think that last week at a challenge and the final day really

epitomised it all. Just cancer killing dad and the relentless

stormy sea of emotions just battering you day after day.

At times it was a battle finding a way

forward through the waves, too.

Just the fact that everything went so wrong

on that first attempt and then just getting those challenges

right up to the finish line on the second attempt,

it just made it more meaningful to overcome.

Just a truer testimonial to the man

that my dad was and even the man that he raised me to be.

I think he would have been proud.

(laughs) Pat wants it over and done with quick.

# (music)

I'm done! Officially done now.

Thanks very much.