Swimming – Lamlash Splash – 2025

Lamlash, Arran, Scotland.

September 2025

This was my 8th Splash and would turn out to be one of my most challenging. (For some reason there is no blog for my 2016 swim, where my guide swimmer was the marvelous Mike Mellor.)
The water was super flat as we arrived at Lamlash, but by the time local swimmer Eric was guiding me to our ferry, he told me that he could see some wind over at the Holy Isle, and his local knowledge told him that this was just the beginning. He wasn’t wrong.
As with all of my previous Splashes, the organisers had verykindly given me my very own safety kayaker, and I was chuffed to nuts to see that it would be the wonderful Andrew Binnie, who had been my guide during the 2024 Holy Isle Challenge.
He asked me what assistance I would need, and I confidently told him that I should be fine for most of the 2.1km swim, but would need some help over the last few hundred metres when swimming between the moored boats. I told him that I would be using my super duper Marlin open water swimming device, which I had used on my last Splash in 2023, and it had been brilliant!! (Misplaced confidence?)
The Marlin is a small device made up of 2 parts. The battery/GPS pack is worn at the back of my head, and a speaker is worn just in front of my right ear. Not only does it guide me by use of the clockface, but it also gives me pace/speed updates.
By the time the swim started, Eric’s prediction was spot on. The water was lumpy and the wind was blowing, but I was still feeling confident.
20 seconds into the swim my confidence started to wobble, as Marlin told me I was swimming at over 3 times my normal pace. This was then followed by “off course, change to 1 o’clock” being screamed into my ear, shortly followed by “4 o’clock”, then 7, and so it went on. For the next 40+ minutes Marlin never shut up, even talking over itself.
The solution would have been just to turn the blooming thing off, but my concern was that whilst trying to fiddle with it in these conditions, I could well end up losing it. So I just had to put up with it.
Andrew did a sterling job, trying to shout directions to me, but over the sound of Marlin, the wind and the waves, it was really hard to hear him. (The poor guy must have been hoarse for a week after that!)
I believe the phrase begins with “The Lord giveth”. Not far from the end of the swim I touched what I believe to be a seal’s head with my left hand. It was solid, but covered in soft short hair. Aww!
Feeling really blessed by this encounter, as my right hand entered the water and reached forward, “the Lord tooketh away” as I drove my hand into the middle of a large jellyfish, and the jellyfish did what jellyfish do. Ouch! (As mentioned earlier, this was my 8th Splash, and although at most of these swims, people had spotted jellyfish in the water, I had never come across any. 8th time lucky!!)
As always, the Lamlash Splash was an absolute blast, thanks to the wonderful people who swim it, the supporters on the pier, but most of all to those amazing volunteers who make it happen. Thank you!!!!