A Plymouth man has become the first person to swim from the Eddystone Lighthouse to Plymouth Hoe for more than 30 years – and only the fourth in history.
Neil Brinkworth completed the 14 mile marathon swim on September 8 and wrote his name into the record books as the first person in the 21st century to achieve the feat.
Neil, who is the founder of Plymouth Open Water Swimmers, said:
“As a child I use to fantasise about the Eddystone Lighthouse, what it was like out there and my father used to tell me tales of him and his friends jumping off the stump of the old lighthouse into the sea when they use to go diving on the Eddystone reef.
“I loved to hear the stories about the old ship wrecks. My imagination would be captured and I would dream about swimming to and from the lighthouse. Fast forward about 40 years along with my passion for open water swimming, I realised that my childhood dream could come true with some planning.”
It required a lot of hard work and planning, overcoming many setbacks and disappointments, but Neil eventually managed to get the right people together to support his effort.
Neil started his swim just after 5am and eventually came on shore 11 hours and one minute later after being delayed twice by Naval shipping movements that added at least 1 hour 45 minutes to the swim.
He said:
“Climbing out of the water and up the steps raising my hands in the air was emotional and overwhelming. To be greeted my so many friends, family and a TV crew was unbelievable, I was overjoyed.
“The icing on the cake was being congratulated by Sharon Miller (Price) who was the last person to swim the Eddystone back in 1987, before me.
“The swim enabled me to showcase Plymouth as a future hub for long distance open water swimming.”
