A Saturday at Sea

After months of training, the 7th May finally came. Stacey, our very excited and brave swimmer was ready for the Robben Island to Big Bay challenge. This annual extreme swim sees swimmers plunging into cold water (13*C that day) to swim the 7.5km distance from the island to the mainland. Our early morning started when we dropped Stacey off at the Nelson Mandela gateway where lots of swimmers were already gathered to register.Stacey getting her swim number written on her arm..

A familiar face at the registration desk - Bonisile!

and getting interviewed.. she shared about her dream to swim that she's had for years

Jade, myself and Keith ( Stacey's dad) then dashed off to Three Anchor Bay where we boarded her support boat, the Morning Glory with Liam and Alvin, our 2 skippers. We sped off to Robben Island and anchored close to shore to wait for the start of the race.

While we waited...
The birds showed us where the fish were...

Keith got really seasick...Boats waited... A boat with a team of relay swimmers drifted into us and someone shouted that they had lost steering control. Liam jumped to the rescue...

so here he is fixing...

and attempting to fix pretty much just about every other boat that vaguely looked like it was in trouble. (here he's giving advice on how to get rid of seaweed) Spot the penguin. In the meantime, the swim was delayed by half an hour so the swimmers were waiting around on Robben Island. The wind however was picking up and the waves getting bigger as the day wore on so it wasn't too long before the whole swim was called off! A ferryload of disappointed swimmers returned from Robben Island. We made our way back to Three Anchor Bay. At this point I had to put my camera away and hold on with both hands. We travelled back through 4-5m swells screaming and holding on tight as we went.They were so big I could still see them later that night when I lay down to sleep. We would fly over a wave, be in mid-air and then crash back onto the water. This was the day that I learnt that boats can fly.

Later that evening we heard that the Robben Island to Big Bay swim had been called off and a contingency swim at Big Bay arranged for the next day. The swim was called off due to rough seas, strong wind as well as a shortage of boats. (Some of them sank - seriously hectic stuff to watch!) Despite the disappointment, I'm glad to report that our swimmer is by no means deterred and will attempt to swim from the island on another day. Go Stacey!