Rob Burrows 30 year old crew member of Sharpness Lifeboat Station, completed a spectacular feat as part of the open day at Sharpness Lifeboat Station.

Rob swam the River Severn from Beachley Lifeboat Station, to Sharpness Lifeboat Station, a distance of some 9 miles, in a  treacherous stretch of water. Rob completed the swim in 2 hours and 10 minutes.

At that start of the day, the attempt was in serious doubt due to the wind direction (NNE) which resulted in a wind over tide situation, causing very disturbed sea conditions. Rob was keen to attempt the swim. Accompanied by two Lifeboats, one carrying a Paramedic with full oxygen and First Aid equipment, Rob set off from Beachley slipway at 1030.

The first 2 miles went quite well with Rob maintaining a good speed, he then encountered severe conditions caused by the wind blowing against the Spring tide. Large seas, spray and very turbulent water did not stop Rob in his attempt. He finally arrived off Sharpness Lifeboat Station slipway at 1230, this was his most difficult part of the swim and Rob was quite visibly struggling as he attempted to make the Sharpness Keystone Slipway with the surging tide pushing him offshore and past the slipway.

With encouragement of the lifeboat crews and the crowd on the quay wall, Rob struggled on finally making the slipway at 1240. A monumental feat accomplished.

If you would like to congratulate Rob by donating please click here

Tags: Rob Burrows

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 8:40 am by Geoff Dawe and is filed under Fundraising, Sharpness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.