Swimming pensioner makes a splash after discovering stretch of English Channel that stays warm all year round

By
Tara Brady

Last updated at 1:45 AM on 30th January 2012

Pensioner John Kapp swims in the English Channel every day after finding his own heated part of the sea where the water is up to 20C.

He says the hot water pumped out of Shoreham power station on the Sussex coast warms up a stretch the size of a football pitch.

Onlookers have been amazed to watch him wade out into what should be icy waters wearing only his trunks all year round, then spending up to 45 minutes in the surf.

Making a splash: John Kapp, 76, has found a piece of the Caribbean just off the Sussex Coast

Making a splash: John Kapp, 76, has found a piece of the Caribbean just off the Sussex Coast

Warm waters: The stretch of sea can reach temperatures as high as 20C and is about the size of a football pitch

Warm waters: The stretch of sea can reach temperatures as high as 20C and is about the size of a football pitch

Mr Kapp, from Hove, has dubbed his tropical bathing area Shoreham Lido.

He
said: ‘Even in the summer I never usually spend more than around 15
minutes in the water but I can now stay in the water for up to three
quarters of an hour.

‘The sea is normally never more than about 17C, even in the summer, but my lido water is about 20C.

‘The warm water only extends about a foot beneath the surface but if you float you can stay in it.

‘Locals know about it. Fishermen say it’s where you can get the best catch because the fish grow better there.’

The water is heated by a man-made hot spring which pumps seven tons of sea water per second through the condensers of the power station.

Mr Kapp is among members of the Hove Civic Society campaigning for the hot water to be pumped into the heating systems of 150,000 homes in the area to put the wasted energy to good use.

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