POULSBO — A downed boiler cost North Kitsap Pool users more than a month’s time of swimming as the water temperature dove well below 60 degrees.

But for Poulsbo resident Rose Rice, the pool’s chilly waters were a blessing in disguise.

Her ideal time to swim was actually when the water hovered around 60 degrees Fahrenheit — right about the temperature of one of the world’s most famous waterways, the English Channel. She plans to swim it this August.

“You can get the body acclimatized to any water temperature if you train properly,” Rice commented. “We’re picking up the pace a bit, (swimming) a couple hours a day.”

The only person allowed permission to swim in the pool’s brisk waters when the boiler was down, Rice is preparing to take a crack at a life-long dream.

“Ever since I was a little kid, I always wanted to swim the English Channel,” Rice said. “I’m figuring it’s about time I retire from the sport and I need to get this done.”

Rice began competitive swimming when she was 8 years old. Competing in high school and at West Point during her college years, she realized her calling for the sport early on. Her best times came in events like the mile swim, 500 freestyle and the 400 individual medley.

“The events that no one else wants to swim,” Rice joked.

She said her ability in the longer distances just came naturally, at a young age.

“I’m just good at (the longer swims),” she said. “I could train all my life but I’d never be a good sprinter.”

The channel swim will bring to fruition all of her goals as a swimmer, she said.

“It just seems the be-all-end-all of the sport,” Rice said. “It’s just you and nature.”

Swimmers who attempt the feat travel from Dover, England to Calais, France — and can have no supportive gear to assist during the swim.

“You’re only allowed to have a bathing suit, goggles and a cap,” Rice said.

Rice is permitted to do the swim, through the Channel’s swimming association, during the week of Aug. 24.

“But it will go quickly,” she admitted.

Her start will depend on when Mother Nature will be the easiest on Rice as she makes the crossing.

“You can be the world’s greatest swimmer and not finish the swim just based on the elements,” Rice said. “Fifty percent of the people who try it never finish it.”

And completing it would place her in some pretty exclusive company — about 500 swimmers have ever made the crossing between 1875 and 1997. Numbers are not available for more recent years.

Rice will begin her trek in the middle of the night — around 3 a.m. — a prospect which makes the accomplished swimmer a bit uneasy.

“I freak out in the dark,” she admitted. “But the quicker I get in, the quicker I get out.”

Rice will swim alongside an escort boat, carrying her husband, who also serves as her trainer. The boat will be able to lower her food to eat and liquids to drink. She is wary of taking too many breaks, she said.

“You can take (a break) but every second that you stop you’ve got a current working against you,” she said. “If I stop, I’ll be losing ground and getting cold.”

One obstacle that she’ll also have to work with is the fact the Channel is an international shipping lane. She may have to wait for boats — even super tankers — to pass her path.

“You could be on a world record pace but if a tanker’s coming through, you have to wait for it,” she explained.

Rice expects to complete the crossing and do so in under 10 hours. But ultimately, completion is all that matters, she said.

“So much could go wrong — who knows what could happen,” she said. “ I just want to get to the other side.”

Swimming the channel would allow her to move on in life, Rice added.

“It’s a bit of a closing and we want to start a family,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine being a swimmer all my life and not having done it.”