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February 2021 February 2021

placed into another bag, tied securely and put aside for at least 72 hours before We were then invited to walk along the pathway and deposit our clothes and
being put in your usual external household waste bin or authorised blue sack. personal belongings in our swim number marked bin bag over the wall into the
baggage area.
Other kinds of household waste can be disposed of as normal. To dispose of any
face coverings or PPE you or members of your household use when self- isolating, On the beach, the order was then given to enter the water, all 283 of us, 269 in the
you should, double bag them, store them for 72 hours before putting them in a 4.6 mile full distance and 14 in the half distance. But where was Emile? I scanned
‘black bag’ waste bin and under no circumstances put them in a recycling bin. the milling throng of swimmers for his green hat and he eventually swam over
You may also wish to clean the handles on your bins before and after they have towards me and we wished each other a last minute good luck for the race.
been emptied.
On the sound of the klaxon we
Household recycling centres (HRCs, or ‘the tip’) will remain open for waste that were off, arms flailing, legs kicking
cannot be collected at the kerbside, including garden waste. We encourage furiously. I am told it is an amazing
residents to continue to store waste at home, if you can and where possible, to sight but it is even more of an
reduce pressures on these services. If you or anyone in your household is unwell, experience in the water. With over
has been in contact with someone with COVID-19 symptoms and/or self-isolating, 280 swimmers trying to find a little
you should not make a trip to a HRC. space to swim in at the start, the
answer is often to ease back a little

and maybe swim on the outer
Covid Contact Tracing System edge of the mass.

Dorset Council, in partnership with Public
Health England, is launching a locally
supported contact tracing system for the
Dorset Council area. From Friday 8 January
Dorset Council’s customer services team will After a couple of hundred
be working to help trace residents who have metres we rounded the quay
been in contact with someone who has and made our way along by the
tested positive for COVID-19. stone wall for a while. We then
turned left to be faced with the
If the national NHS Test and Trace system is long expanse of the island
not able to contact a local resident after before us. Many swimmers tend
two days, their details will be passed on to to follow the curvature of the
the council to help find additional contact details. The local contact tracing island consequently swimming
team will then try to get in touch with the resident by phone, text, or email over
into all the inlets and in my
the following 72 hours. opinion swimming much further than they need whilst not catching the best of the
tide. I tend to take a line straight up the long stretch of the island and just inside the
safety cover.
Battle Lab at Winfrith Innovation Centre
The sun was now beginning to peep through a shadowy sky casting shafts of light
The new initiative will see the MOD invest £3.1 million into the Defence Innovation on the turbulent water. The choppy sea was to ease in the later stages of the race
Centre, along with a further £2.6 million from Dorset Council & Dorset Local
Enterprise Partnership. The Defence Innovation Centre will be built at the Dorset but added to the challenge.
Innovation Park, the county’s Enterprise Zone. The construction works will be After a while I began to settle into a steady rhythm and enjoy my swim. Around
starting on site in January 2021 and aims to be completed in the Autumn. The halfway up the island, I thought I had spotted Emile swimming beside me and
Army BattleLab as the Innovation Centre is being termed will provide 1100m2 new gave the swimmer a friendly tap on the head. He didn’t respond and I suddenly
office space and 450m2 new workshop space for MOD innovation, and realised that it wasn’t him. Silly old fool!
associated conference and collaboration space. The Army BattleLab will feature
an engineering workshop, as well as joint working and conference areas for use Pottery Pier is the halfway point of the swim where the half distance swimmers finish

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