Swimming through the night in cold jellyfish-infested water is not everyone’s idea of top entertainment, but for open water swimmer Carole Laporte, it was a dream come true.

Carole, whose day job is teaching French to pupils at St Ninian’s High School, was part of a six-strong relay team that swam from the Isle of Man to Ireland at the weekend.

’I’m feeling good, but also really tired and stiff,’ she said, speaking after the trip.

Taking turns to swim an hour each, the swimmers covered the distance of around 45 miles in 18 hours and eight minutes, setting off from Fenella Beach in Peel just before 6pm on Saturday and reaching Ardglass in Northern Ireland just after midday on Sunday.

’I’ve been training all through the winter, so the swimming was not a problem, it’s just the mental preparation,’ she said.

’Swimming in the sea at 3am surrounded by jellyfish is not the best experience.’

Fortunately she had a winning strategy to deal with this: ’Vaseline. Just smear it on and it protects the body from the stings.

’And it seemed to work because I didn’t get stung once. It worked brilliantly!’

She said: ’I was back in the water again at 9am and that was beautiful - and no jellyfish, they were all in the Isle of Man.’

The group was accompanied by a RIB that stayed close to each swimmer and a larger boat where the ’off duty’ swimmers ate, drank and huddled all five together in one sleeping compartment for warmth.

’We swim without using wetsuits,’ she said.

’If you use a wetsuit it doesn’t count. This was something on my bucket list and it was amazing to have made it. I think every swimmer felt the same.’

In fact, Carole’s team, consisting also of one Swedish, one Finnish, two Irish and one British swimmer, scored a first with the swim. The only previous successful attempt went the other way, from Ireland to the Isle of Man, using a 12-man relay in 1979.

’I was on a high for the whole trip. There was not a single point where I thought ’’Oh no, I’ve got to get in the water again.’’, it was just part of the deal,’ she said.

Carole is a member of the Isle of Man open water swimmers’ group and previously has swum in a relay from Point of Ayre to the Sound.

Her next venture is a nine-mile (five, then three, then one mile) swim in one day, that takes place in Waterford in southern Ireland in July.