If you follow us on Instagram you will have already seen us post this image, the story behind the image speaks far more than the image itself and for this reason, this weeks image I have named “Inspiration”. It was captured earlier this week out at sea as the sun rose behind Neil Brinkworth on his marathon swim from the Eddystone Lighthouse to Plymouth Hoe. Neil was the forth person ever to complete the 14 mile swim. The route was first swum by Jabez Wolffee in 1914, followed by Christine Sifleet in 1977 and Sharon Price in 1987.
The team departed Mountbatten Yacht Haven aboard In Deep Dive Centres catamaran Panther very early on Tuesday morning, arriving at Eddystone Lighthouse just after 5am. Shortly after arrival, Neils friend Gavin entered the water in his sea kayak to offer close boat support, then Neil entered the water and swam into the darkness to the lighthouse, at 05:18 Neil touched the lighthouse rocks, starting the timer and the huge journey ahead of him. For the next 11 hours Neil swam front crawl at around 50 strokes per minute. Unfortunately Neil was ordered to hold just outside Plymouth Breakwater to allow 2 warships to swap some crew, Neil was forced to swim in circles for around 45 mins while this happened. When permission was granted to continue, Neil had to swim into the fast ebbing tide. With the finish line in sight, a second order to hold was given to allow for HMS Albion to cross. Once Albion had passed, Neils crew Andrew & Sian – who had been on the boat for the duration giving encouragement and preparing meals for him to have in the water – donned their swimming costumes and accompanied their friend to the finish line. Neil exited the water at 16:19 with a time of 11 hours 1 minute 58 seconds.
3dMB provided full media coverage for the event with in-water, aerial and hand held images and video. We used our Canon EOS 5d mk iv for the on-boat photography with both our Canon 14mm f2.8L rectilinear lens & Canon 24-105mm f4 L IS lens, both our DJI Inspire 2 & DJI Phantom 4 Pro v2 drones for aerial footage and Canon EOS 5d mk iv with Canon EF 8-15mm f4 L fisheye lens in Nauticam housing mounted on Dive Xtras CUDA 400 for in-water footage. With editing done on the boat and a 4g connection we were able to send media to BBC Spotlight & news agencies before the boat had even docked back at Yacht Haven.
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