"Water dissolving, water removing. There is water at the bottom of the ocean".......

Not only at the bottom of the oceanbut plenty in the northern skies as John set off up Skiddaw. With much of the country basking in glorious sunshine the weather gods assiduously continued to fail to send anything resembling dryness, sunshine or stillness our way. So his assault on the 3000 ft peaks in England began wet and windy; became mistier, wetter and windier before finally brightening up right at the end. Funny how that works. Inevitably, some time was lost early on and given John's role as mobile cameraman he would not get the chance to claw any back before handing over to me for a sprint to the lake, where Joanne would begin her epic! We'd always planned an evening swim but with John now not expected off Helvellyn until after 7:30 we would be looking at a late finish. The wind had swung round to the North West so we decided to put in at Ambleside and hopefully hit Bowness before total darkness set in. The water temperature was variable but Joanne soon settled into a rhythm and was moving smoothly southbound. Marjorie and Roger were in early support until Roger turned back to collect the van and film the finish. As darkness began to wrap itself around us we waited at Bowness for sight of the orange kayak, which duly hove into view at about 11 O'Clock. Not too cold but by the time we got back to the B and B we only had time for a bowl of porridge and 4 hrs sleep before getting up for a bowl of porridge and re-immersion.