Davis Lee
Poised to Become an English Channel Elite
By Kathleen Downey
Davis Lee
Fittingly, Davis Lee joins me at Plum Island Coffee Roasters after his morning swim off of Plum Island. He doesn’t appear to be waterlogged; in fact, he’s looking crisp in his striped summer shirt and light-colored trousers. Then Lee tells me, as if fessing-up, that although he typically swims for three hours, he swam for only two this morning. That’s two hours, propelling his body through the ocean, an exercise that he began shortly after 5:00 a.m. (I wonder how a short-changed hour could possibly lessen this feat.) Though he’s a driven guy, Lee is humble. The wellspring for his humility may lie in a little swim that he has planned for this September: the English Channel.
A life-long swimmer, Lee says that he’s dreamed of swimming the channel since he was fourteen. “I thought, if other people could do this ‘crazy’ open-water swim, maybe I could, too.” Lee tells me that in the last 135 years, less than one thousand swimmers have successfully completed the grueling 21-mile swim between England and France, even though thousands more have attempted. Lee plans to join the English Channel elite.
The first person who successfully swam the channel, Lee says, was Captain Matthew Webb of the British Royal Navy. Webb completed the swim in 1875 in 21 hours and 45 minutes, unassisted—save his rumored sustenance of brandy. Lee won’t be packing a brandy snifter, but food and water will be delivered to him via a pole from the pilot of an escort boat. Food is a necessity, Lee informs me, because swimmers become depleted of caloric energy after two hours of strenuous swimming in cold water. The boat is a safety requirement of the sanctioned swim, there in case a swimmer becomes fatigued and needs rescuing. Though Lee won’t be allowed to touch or rest upon the boat (hence, the pole) during this test of endurance, he will receive moral support from his brother, who plans to be onboard.
Davis Lee
Lee hopes to best Captain Webb’s performance. “I’d like to do a 10-hour swim, but I’d be happy with a time under 12 hours,” Lee says. He is keenly aware that the channel’s current and changing tides (which can add to the distance, forcing a swimmer beyond the 21 miles), water temperature, and the weather will have a collective impact upon his time. Despite these conspiring variables, Lee is committed to fulfilling this personal challenge. “I owe my best effort to all those who have supported me, especially my wife who has encouraged me to pursue my dream,” he says. And, Lee adds, “I’d like to be a role model for my son.” Lee’s son is two, who at present, Lee smiles as he tells me, calls his daddy “silly” for all the time he spends in the water.
Lee has also received enormous support from the Newburyport YWCA, where he trains when not swimming at Plum Island. He says that the other masters-level swimmers there, along with Andrew, the swim coach—who Lee says coached another channel swimmer, have helped him to stay focused during his intense year-long training.
A personal philosophy, built on a foundation of “supreme stubbornness,” has also helped Lee to stay focused. “People fail in achieving their dreams when they lose focus and give up mentally. But our dreams require that we find a way to make them happen.” He adds that fear of failure motivates him, and his stubbornness demands that he succeed.
Completing the English Channel Swim will be the realization of Lee’s dream. “The swim will be more than just putting a checkmark in the box,” he says. How much more, I ask him. He thinks about the question, weighing the enormity of what this huge accomplishment will mean to him, and decides that he can’t articulately answer until he’s completed this feat. But he’s a scientist. And he’s told me that he is naturally curious about and loves to discover “how things work and what they are made of.” When Lee fulfills his lifelong goal of swimming the English Channel, his most significant scientific discovery just might be himself.
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Kathleen Downey is a contributing writer to Newburyport-Today if you are a “Townie” and would like to be interviewed by Kathleen, please let us know!
