Across the Channel

Successful crossings by the hour in which the swimmer landed. Watch the time-lapse: the first swimmers reach France while most are still in mid-Channel.

Hourly weather from the Sandettie lightvessel in the middle of the Strait, averaged over the hours of each swim, with crossings grouped by how long they took. Every crossing together is the yardstick.

The tracks come from the pilot boats' GPS (AIS) logs, recorded every few minutes, and from Observer Reports where the GPS is missing, matched to every England-to-France solo swim ratified by the Channel Swimming Association or the Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation since 2014. The boat stays within a few metres of the swimmer, so its path is the swim's path.

Each track runs from the recorded start time to the recorded finish, which removes the boat's run out from Dover and its journey home. The boat cannot follow the swimmer onto the beach, so each end is extended from the last fixes to the shore, following the swimmer's drift; the red dot is that landing point. For two-way and longer swims only the first crossing, England to France, is shown.