Rick Seirer is a quiet, contemplative voice on the telephone from the coast of England.
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Having just achieved a feat that may not be matched again - the oldest person to swim across the English Channel and return - Seirer says he feels remarkably good, with just a little soreness.
That soreness will increase, he knows, having just put his body through 30 non-stop hours of swimming.
Thirty hours non-stop, against tides and currents, jellyfish swarms and his own tired, aching, agonised body.
"I focused on people's names towards the end," Seirer says.
"I thought about the Avoca Mens' Shed, who have supported me all the way through; we had their banner up on the boat. I thought, 'well the next 1000 strokes are for them, and that's what I did. I thought I could count to 1000, so that kept me going.
"I kept thinking of different people I knew, and I'd swim for them."
Seirer set out on Tuesday night Australian time, after a frustrating two week delay to his record attempt. Defeated by bad weather, when the opportunity opened this week, he knew he would go.
His swim on the first leg, crossing from Dover to Cap Gris Ney, was made in just under 12 hours. Seirer's coach and mentor Chloe McCardel says it was a 'fast warm up' for the harrowing effort of the return.
McCardel has made 30 English Channel crossings, including three non-stop double crossings. She is the only Australian to have achieved a non-stop triple crossing, and was on the boat crewing and supporting Seirer.
"It's hard to convey how difficult this swim is; to be in the water for that length of time," McCardel says.
"The conditions were good, the air temperature was warmer, it was a neap tide, but he was going to turn around and swim into the night, and he was already exhausted from that very fast swim to France.
"He struggled the whole time. It's black in the night; there are lights on the boat but they are directed at him, he can't see. He began to drift away from the support boat, getting from three to four metres to six to seven metres away; he had hypothermia setting in; he was vomiting, beginning to ask strange questions, getting disoriented and getting into a bad rhythm."
There was discussion on the boat about pulling Seirer from his attempt as he swam through the currents and tides which threatened to send him backwards, washing him to and fro.
"If someone is not swimming hard enough to progress, those tides will sweep them at angles and exhaust them,"McCardel says.
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The crew on the boat yelled encouragement to him as he pushed on, telling him to raise his stroke rate and to keep kicking his legs.
"It was inspirational," says McCardel, who dived into the cold channel to swim alongside Seirer for the last two miles back to England, as she had on his arrival in France.
"I wouldn't have coached him if I didn't think he was this tough, if I didn't think he had the mind to push himself through this."
Seirer's swim back was a gruelling 17:48 crawl, arriving at the English coast in daylight.
He says he knew he was in trouble on the return, and didn't want the boat crew to see his distress.
"I kept my head underwater tho throw up," he says.
"For the last 10 hours I didn't have any food, so I'm glad for the condition I had built up before I left. It was so bloody cold; I was shivering the entire time I swam."
Seirer says he's looking forward to some slow recovery swim and few pints of Guinness ale before returning to Craigie next week. He wants to thank each person who supported him in his successful swim, especially his family and Chloe McCardel, and the boat crew.