St Ninian’s High School teacher Carole Laporte has never been one for spending her holiday time sitting around relaxing.

After her record-breaking swim round the Isle of Man in the summer of 2020 she was soon looking for a new challenge to set herself.

So, when her friend and kayaker, Steve Watt, came up with the idea of a swim around the Isle of Arran in southwest Scotland, she was immediately hooked.

Originally Carole had thought that the swim would be about 60 kilometres but later discovered that she had misheard and that the distance would be approximately 60 miles!

At the end of July Carole, along with husband-and-wife team of Steve and Julie Watt, embarked upon their adventure, with Carole swimming, Steve kayaking and Julie driving between each entry and exit point.

The swim started in the southeast of the island from where she headed round the southernmost point and continued anti-clockwise up the east coast.

The first day was hard as these were unfamiliar waters and Carole didn’t know what the sea temperature would be or how many jellyfish she could expect to encounter.

The temperature turned out to be fairly similar to Manx waters, but the jellyfish were more of a problem.

Steve could see some lion’s mane jellyfish from the kayak (also known as the giant jellyfish), and Carole could see many huge ones below the surface.

Lion’s mane species, also fairly common in Manx waters, can give a nasty sting and their tentacles can be tens of metres long, making them impossible to avoid. Sensibly, Carole had covered herself in Vaseline which, although not a pleasant thing to do, seemed to help reduce the severity of the stings.

Despite this problem, Carole managed to cover seven kilometres (appx 4.4 miles) on the first leg in a little over two hours.

Day two brought rough seas and the swim was very hard work. It took all of Carole’s effort to swim and follow Steve’s kayak, so she didn’t have much chance to be on the lookout for jellyfish. When passing Holy Isle, she said a little prayer and wished for the best.

Nevertheless, she was able to enjoy the sight of lots of starfish and little crabs at the start of the leg. The prayer must have worked as much calmer conditions followed, and she had the company of a young seal for the final 3km of the next leg.

Unfortunately, the good conditions didn’t last, and the change of weather brought a flooded tent and Force 5 seas to swim in. Amazingly, Carole managed to continue and team spirits remained high.

The team were joined by John and Jan Speakman for the second week, which also meant that they had the luxury of two kayakers in the water, allowing one to go on ahead to look for the hazard of rocks beneath the surface.

Finally, after 13 consecutive days of swimming, in a little more than 27 hours swim time, Carole arrived back at her starting point having covered an amazing 89.94km.

She even had enough energy to do a handstand in the water at the finishing point.

Carole, who recently picked up an award for outstanding achievement at the 2020 Isle of Man Sports Awards presentations, would like to say a massive thank you to Steve and Julie Watt, without whom the swim would not have been possible.

Also, to John and Jan Speakman and to all those who sent messages of encouragement. Although she jokes that her next hobby will be knitting, I have the feeling that another challenge won’t be too far away.

l Arran is the largest island in the Firth of Clyde and the seventh largest Scottish island, at 432 square kilometres. Its population is a touch over 5,000.