BUDE Sea Pool swimmers, Nik Barnes and Maretta Robinson, are due to embark on the 22 mile Channel swim from August 9 – 15, as a half of a four-person relay team named ‘JellyBabes’.

A standard relay team usually includes six people, so swimming in a four-person team will enhance the challenge ahead of them. Nik and Maretta, with their team mates Pauline and Kareena, will swim for an hour at a time in strict rotation until they reach the coast of France.

The swim is likely to take them up to 20 hours to complete, or possibly even longer. They’ll dodge jellyfish while swimming across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and may have to contend with sea sickness while they wait on the boat to swim.

Friends of Bude Sea Pool can track the swim live on the CSA website, at www.channelswimmingassociation.com/tracking

Nik and Maretta have been training in Bude Sea Pool all year round for a number of years, and now they feel it’s time to give something back to the pool by raising money to help keep it maintained.

Bude Sea Pool is a semi-natural amenity that has provided a haven for free and safe bathing and other water-based activities since the 1930s.

Access to Bude Sea Pool is unrestricted and free of any admission charge, although it costs more than £30,000 every year to keep it open and safe.

It is managed by the Friends of Bude Sea Pool (FoBSP), a local charity which aims to preserve, improve and enhance Bude Sea Pool as a free amenity for the benefit of the community and the thousands of people who visit the town every year. The FoBSP receives no public funding.

For those wanting to find out more information about Channel swimming, visit the Channel Swimming Association’s website.