At 2 a.m. on June 12, Jake Dolce secured his swim cap, goggles, and ear plugs, tucked a pair of rosary beads into the side of his Speedo, and slipped into the murky 57-degree water.
Darkness obscured the white Cliffs of Dover hovering above him, but his sole focus was on the shores of Calais, France, some 21 miles across The English Channel as he began his long-planned swim across the famed and challenging waterway.
He was surprised the chilly water didn’t feel as cold as he had expected, and credited the thousands of hours he had spent training in the wintry Long Island Sound, as well as the several days he had spent swimming off Dover during the previous week.
While the temperature was manageable, the sea off the coast of England was rough. He reminded himself to stay calm and, counting his pace of 46 strokes per minute, he was cautious not to expend too much energy. He recalled the foundational long-distance swimming advice: “If you think you’re going slow, go slower.”
At the first hour mark, Dolce’s crew administered his first “feed” — a powder energy mix, which they alternated with water every half hour. Using a whiteboard, the crew — his brothers Luke and Jared; his 19-year-old son Coakley, and Fred and Harry Mardle, a British father-son team who skippered his guide boat, The Masterpiece — scrawled messages: “Stay Hard” and “You Got This,” encouragement that buoyed Dolce. At 4:40 a.m. he was heartened to see the sun rise over the water.
According to the Channel Swim Association, the English Channel is considered by many to be “the ultimate long-distance challenge, not only for its distance, 21 miles, but more the variable conditions which can vary from mirror-like to force 6 winds and wave heights in excess of 2 meters. The water is cold and there’s a good chance of meeting jellyfish, seaweed, and the occasional plank of wood. It is also one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world with 600 tankers passing through and 200 ferries and other vessels going across daily.”
Dolce, 51, is older than the average channel swimmer, who is 36. Fully aware of the “unfriendly variables” of a channel swim, he also knows well that life is short. Having lost his father, Jed, to brain cancer at 53, and his brother Hank to diabetes at 52, he feels motivated to live in the moment.
A member of the Westchester Masters Swim Club, Dolce often swims in local long-distance events. For the last 30 years, he has participated in Swim Across America, which supports cancer research.
And as reported in The Record last fall, on Oct. 14, 2023, Dolce completed the Twenty Bridge Swim around Manhattan Island in 7 hours, 54 minutes, raising more than $25,000 for POTS, a Bronx soup kitchen.
While some might have considered that a crowning accomplishment, Dolce couldn’t help but turn his sights to distant waters and the even greater challenge across the pond. He said he wanted to “set the bar as high as possible and conquer one of the most difficult swims in the world.”
A devoted father and husband, he was also mindful not to let his training detract from his family. Dolce and his wife, Siobhan, have four children ages 12 to 19. The bulk of his training took place in the early morning hours; he logged between 35,000 to 45,000 yards per week in the frigid Long Island Sound.
“The beauty of this type of swimming is that most of your time in the water is done at first light,” he said, noting the many sunrises he has seen over the Sound. On his one “off” day, Dolce, who works in software sales for One Trust from a downtown Rye office, focused on cardio and strength training.
Channel swimmers typically register two years before their targeted swim date, and then are required to complete a certified six-hour swim in sub 60-degree water to ensure they can handle not only the distance, but also the cold.
In October 2022, Dolce secured his spot, and then he spent the next 18 months working with coach Dave Samuelsohn of Westchester Masters and swimming alongside a tight circle of friends, whom he credits with helping him achieve his goal. Dolce also regularly consulted with a cardiologist throughout his training.
Dolce arrived in Dover on June 5 to acclimate alongside the town’s vibrant swim community. He met swimmers not only from the U.K. but also India, Ireland, and Kazakhstan. In the nearby fishing village of Folkstone, he connected with the Mardles, who skippered his guide boat. The Channel Swim Association provides participants with a guide boat, an observer who certifies the swim, and a supportive community throughout the grueling days of training.
It was those supporters, the ones back home, and the ones on the guide boat that Dolce thought of as he moved methodically across the channel.
The voices of his “boys on the boat” guided and sustained him. He thought of his father, his first swim coach with whom he shared not only an affinity for cold water swimming but also a rock-solid faith.
And he thought of those whom he never met, but who nearly 80 years ago had stormed the shores of France in a very different manner.
“I couldn’t help but think I was swimming over a graveyard, that these were hallowed waters,” he said. “I couldn’t help but think of them, be inspired, and say a prayer.”
While he swam, his crew shared a running log of his progress with a WhatsApp circle of 250 friends, family, and supporters back home. While Dolce’s Channel Swim was not a fundraising effort for any particular charity, Jerry McGuire of Jerry’s Post Road Market spearheaded a 50-50 closest-guess-to-finish-time raffle, donating the proceeds of close to $1,500 to POTS.
Citing his “faith, family and friends” as inspiration, he kept his loved ones and a pair of rosary beads close at hand throughout the arduous passage.
Channel swim times can vary greatly depending on the winds and the tides, so the crew is reluctant to ever indicate that the end is near, even when land is in sight. Instead, Dolce found hope when he saw one of the crew loosening the small inflatable boat that would be used to retrieve him once he had reached land.
“Once I saw them go for the Zodiac,” he said, “I knew we were almost home.”
Fourteen hours and 46 minutes after he had begun, Dolce arrived on the shores of Calais, physically and emotionally drained but filled with an overriding sense of gratitude.
“Without my coach, friends and family members who were always on hand to join me for an early swim in the Sound and offer consistent support, I never could have achieved this goal,” he said.
Once the crew had retrieved him, Dolce and company moved quickly back across the Channel to Dover. They flew out of Heathrow the next morning — exhausted, elated, but most of all thankful that the stars and tides had aligned for him to attend his daughter’s eighth grade graduation from Resurrection on June 14.
Since the first recorded Channel Swim in the later part of the 19th Century, there have been a total of 4,133 Channel Swims with 1,881 swimmers completing 2,428 solo swims. In 2023 there were 127 successful crossings, 76 solo and 51 relay. To date, Jake Dolce, is one of 20 successful swims this year.