Politician swims to France

Monday 18 July 2016

St Brelade Constable Steve Pallett has become the first politician to swim from Jersey to France.

It took the 57-year-old 9 hours 37 minutes to make the 18-mile crossing.

He left the beach just north of St Catherine’s at 10.30 on Sunday morning and landed on the Normandy coast just after 8pm Jersey time.

Speaking about the swim this morning Constable Pallett said: “On the whole I feel really good, but my eyes have swelled up. I think maybe sunscreen got into them and for a big part of yesterday’s crossing I wasn’t able to see out of one of them.”

Constable Pallett was escorted by Neil Faudemer: “It was a tough swim. It may have looked nice but the weather picked up towards the end and Steve had to battle a force five. It was blowing from the north and pushing him down the coast, and then, just when it looked as if we were going to get ashore, the tide changed and we were pushed back up the coast. He really had to battle to beat the elements. He’s a tough guy. It wasn’t easy, especially when it started getting dark.”

Also aboard the escort vessel, Corbiere Star, were Constable Pallett’s wife, Ann, son, Ryan, and Dave Le Clercq.

The first person to achieve the now classic crossing was 16-year-old Denize Le Pennec in 1966 in a time of 9 hours and 25 minutes. She did it breaststroke and without goggles. Miss Le Pennec later went on to become the first Channel Islander to swim the English Channel.

The current record holder of the Jersey-France swim is Englishman, Mark Faure-Walker, in a time of 6 hours 38 minutes back in 2013.

Last year Constable Pallett became the oldest Jerseyman to swim around the Island. It took him 11 hours 8 minutes to complete the 40-mile circumnavigation. And, whilst he’s not ruling out an English Channel attempt one day, he says at the moment that’s not on the cards. What he would like to do though, is a Sark to Jersey swim.