In a speech on Friday, former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson said the government was currently in "politically choppy water" but Mr Blair would not duck the real challenges because of adversity.

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Never mind that her route lay across more than six kilometres of choppy tidal water and Ms Sherr had not swum more than a kilometre in decades.

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But that was soon under three feet of water as he waded ashore, a weary soldier still smelling his own vomit from a night in a close boat on a choppy sea, and whose kilt in the freezing water was floating prettily round him like a ballerina's skirt.

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For some races, the combination of water flowing west and wind blowing east creates a series of choppy five-foot waves.

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