The rescheduled Galley Head charity swim was the victim of poor weather again last Saturday as high winds and a Met Eireann small craft warning forced the event to be cancelled for the second time this summer.
Tony Rafferty from the organising committee said: ‘We were incredibly disappointed to cancel the swim again but the safety of swimmers and support boats is paramount. Our thanks to everyone for your understanding. We’ve now asked everyone to complete their planned swim distances ‘remotely’ and it was great to see so many down in Lough Hyne on Saturday capturing the spirit of the Galley Head Swim. It turned out to be a very enjoyable morning and I know many others have done their swims elsewhere or are planning to do so. We also really appreciate everyone’s phenomenal fundraising for our four chosen charities - Marymount, Cancer Connect, CoAction and the Samaritans. We are expecting to hit around €80k this year which is incredible.’
Since its first year the 10km open water sea swim event around the iconic Galley Head lighthouse will have raised over half a million euro in seven years for a range of locally based charities and organisations.
The swim starts at Red Strand, heads out past Galley Head and finishes on Warren Strand, Rosscarbery. Participants can swim the whole distance as solo swimmers or as a relay team of 2, 3 or 4 people and every swimmer and team has to be accompanied by their own dedicated safety boat and skipper.
The Galley Head Swim committee which includes Pat Mulcahy, Tony Rafferty, Justin Crowley, Paul Melody, Geoff Wycherley, Steve Clery and Margaret Deegan, thanked their sponsors and supporters including Secon, The Lagoon Activity Centre, A Cut Above, Smugglers Cove, The Celtic Ross Hotel, Clonakilty Distillery, Warren Sauna, Dave Scully - Scully’s Butchers, Clonakilty Rugby Club, Carbery Group, Isopartner Insulation Solutions, South of Ireland Petroleum, West Cork Civil Defence and everyone who was planning to help out over the weekend.
The idonate pages will remain open until September 15th, www.idonate.ie/event/galleyheadswim25.
