Insane but done before

https://swimswam.com/sylvain-estadieu-swims-across-the-english-channel/

But great effort by your friend, impressive

Butterfly? That's amazing for one hour... But 14 in open water?? Totally impressive feat.

If he has stopped it's normally because of the Tide. if you don't quite manage to hold the required pace you get caught in the tide as you approach france and end up basically treading water for hours and hours making zero headway towards the coast.

That’s pretty much what happened. He said his nutrition plan late in the swim broke down and he had gastric issues & started throwing up. The captain told him he’s about 30 minutes out and if he pushed hard, he’ll beat the tides. Otherwise, the captain will have to pull him as they’d be entering busy shipping lanes.
He gave it his all for 30 more minutes, but it wasn’t working and he exhausted himself. It was determined he would need another hour now to finish. He had nothing left and called it.

---

Proud member of FISHTWITCH: doing a bit more than fish exercise now.