Mike and Mackenzie Miller are going to swim to France.

The father-daughter duo from Kailua will endure cold water, strong tides and unpredictable weather when they attempt to swim across the English Channel in two weeks to raise money for two local nonprofits.

"The only fear I have about the swim is not finishing," Mackenzie, 18, said by phone last week from Gresham, Ore., where she was competing in the 2008 Western Zone Swimming Championships.

The biggest challenge, she said, will be keeping warm for up to 14 hours in water temperatures in the low 60s.

That's why the goal is to finish as quickly as possible, she said.

The Millers are in Dover, England, this week, spending hours in the water each day to let their bodies adjust to the cold.

Their plan is to start their swim, cross the busy channel and walk out onto France to warm blankets, food and the open arms of Mackenzie's mom and grandparents sometime between Aug. 23 and 31, depending on the tides. That means they could start at 2 p.m. or 2 a.m. They will likely swim at least part of the channel at night.

During the swim, an escort boat will glide alongside them, but they will not be allowed to touch it. In accordance with rules governing the official recognition of channel crossings, they are only permitted to wear swim caps, earplugs, goggles and swimsuits — not wet suits — and will take 15-second swigs of energy drinks laced with carbohydrate powder thrown from the boat.

'EVEREST OF SWIMMING'

More than a thousand people have swum the English Channel, which separates England from northern France and connects the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Most have crossed at the shortest section, called the Dover Strait, one of the busiest international seaways in the world.

"In the swimming community, the English Channel, while not the longest channel to cross, is still considered kind of the Everest of swimming," Mike Miller, 54, said last week.

Reached by e-mail last week, officials from the English Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation, which tracks and verifies channel swims, said they had not heard of anyone from Hawai'i completing the channel.

They said, however, that swimmers have historically been listed by country of origin — not states — so it was difficult to know for sure.

Officials also said they could not personally recall any father-daughter swims.

For six months, the Millers swam 35,000 meters, about 22 miles, every week, sometimes in seven-hour stretches, off Kailua Beach, and in San Francisco Bay where water temperatures hovered between 50 and 60 degrees.

Jumping in the chilly bay was a physical shock for Mackenzie, a senior at Le Jardin Academy who grew up on the windward side of O'ahu, a half-mile from the beach.

"The first time you get in, it's like needle-sharp pain all throughout your skin," she said. "My arms kind of felt like they were on fire."

The Millers have set up a Web site to raise money and awareness for two nonprofit organizations: the Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund, which aims to build a new memorial museum and visitor center at Pearl Harbor, and Xterra Foundation, which helps underprivileged and at-risk youth through quality education and sports.

They hope to touch the lives of people from 5 to 95 years old, Mike Miller said.

They haven't set a monetary goal, but "if you give us a buck a mile, it's 20 bucks," he said. "So dig deep."

NEARING TRIPLE CROWN

Mackenzie joined the windward Aulea Swim Club at the age of 9 and has competed multiple times in the 2.5-mile Waikiki Rough Water Swim and O'ahu's North Shore Swim Series.

She also swam the 9.5-mile Maui Channel in 2004 and competed in the state swimming championships with her high school's swim team, the Bulldogs.

For her dad, who has swum the 26-mile Moloka'i and Maui channels and in 25-kilometer races in Georgia and North Carolina, crossing the English Channel will mean completing the triple crown in open water racing, which also includes the 28.5-mile Manhattan Island Marathon Swim and the 22-mile Catalina Channel Swim off California.

Despite a lifetime of swimming experience and the past six months of intense training, "we never go in thinking it's a done deal," Mike Miller said.

For Mackenzie, finishing that last stroke, stepping on dry land and being wrapped in a warm towel would mean "a huge weight" off her shoulders.

"I would probably start crying," she said. "It would mean everything to finish and walk out on France.

"It would be so cool."