16/02/2025
*** COOK STRAIT SWIM REPORT - EXTENDED VERSION FROM QUESTIONS ASKED ***
(WARNING : It is now even longer so if you get bored just look at the photos)
With great pride I had the opportunity together with all my dream support team Tik Thanaporm Jeff Gamble Jennifer Martin and Sarah Gamble and my reliable pilot boat operator Grant Orchard to add my name to the Guiness honour roll for successful Cook Strait crossing swimmers at the Picton Irish Bar (as well as earn honoury free ferry travel between the islands) yesterday afternoon.
We also had the opportunity to sit down together over an Irish ale and debrief Fridays mind blowing day in Cook Strait where a full moon strength tidal shift at the worst possible time dragged us backwards and into the insane eddy currents or whirlpools on the east side of the Brothers Islands just under 8 hours into my swim (refer attached tracking map for the swim). What this meant in the space of around 15 minutes, my swim which was tracking nicely and a huge chance of a successful double crossing became a brutal fight to get a single crossing.
For a couple of minutes but seemed longer in these anti clockwise rotating whirlpools I was going around in circles with high force and at one stage was pulled under the water like a plughole effect.
After fighting to get clear of the powerful eddy currents by swimming back towards the north island, the only possible course to get to the south island was assessed by the quick thinking experienced brains trust of boat operators and observors aboard Katana to be a 10km route into the teeth of the wind and rip towards Perona Head. That was a 4 hour swim speed surging punishing battle with Jeff thankfully jumping in to swim alongside me for the last 30 minutes onto the rocky shoreline.
11 hours 50 minutes after touching a rock at Ohau Point near Wellington in darkness (except for the full moon) I reached my first resting point at Perona Head.
Despite the red light flashing empty on my personal fuel gauge I was determined to swim back towards the north island to maintain my hope for a successful double crossing and see if I could recharge while swimming. The conditions at the start of the return leg were definitely the best I had been in all day and I started to believe. After 70 minutes I had made 4.1 km of the return leg when suddenly my ribs tightened into my lungs and my arms siezed up and I had no choice but to stop swimming. I then needed a lot of assistance to get back into the boat.
The cooler than expected water temperature ranged from 13.5 to 15 degrees following a run of southerly winds leading into Friday and much stronger SE winds than forecast greeted us very early which together with a solid swell created tough swimming conditions the whole way.
My much modified nutrition plan from what I used in Tasmania thanks to the creative work of Alicia Edge at Compeat Performance worked really well but on numerous occasions including a jam sandwich ended up with plenty of salt water added from the waves crashing off the boat before it made it into my mouth.
The marine life was interesting with three blue bottle stings (of the moderate pain nature) and countless jellyfish of 3 varieties which based off appearance I will call mushrooms, corrugated iron and see through with some huge floating seaweed on the north island side. I didn't encounter any of the local Cook Strait dolphins but was constantly watched and dive bombed a number of times by the big albatrosses who reside in Cook Strait. The sight and shadow of their huge wingspan within a few metres above me made me initially think it was a small plane!!
Cook Straits well earnt title of The Beast showed me plenty of it's teeth on Friday but I leave with pride of not letting it prevent me getting all the way across.
A couple of fun facts from this swim :
1. Grant Orchard has piloted a total of 40 successful swimmers across Cook Strait over the past 6 years and this single crossing of 46.4 km is the longest distance he has recorded.
2. At the age of 60 years 5 months 9 days, I have become the 2nd oldest person to successfully swim aross Cook Strait amongst the 180 swimmers over a 63 year period before me. The oldest is a 63 year old Turkish man who successfully completed his crossing with Grant last year.
My sincere appreciation goes out to the many people who have helped, supported, donated and cheered for me along this marathon swimming journey inclusive of the Newcastle based mainstream media. This form of swimming for me has now come to a pre-planned end after a 9 year focussed period which was all about my English Channel dream but had an extension much longer than expected due to COVID (Coals to Newcastle - Catho to Nobbys Swim) and then a crazy idea about how to celebrate turning 60. The many great friends I have made and experiences I have had from this addictive form of swimming has been both personally rewarding and character building. I will be sure to thank you all personally.
My new direction involves offering my personal knowledge and experience back to my passion for ocean and pool swimming in the form of coaching on a part time basis and spending more time out of the water with my beautiful patient and supportive partner Tik.
The attached series of photos start from the Irish Pub (as you should) then a couple of shots of the incredible whirlpools which gobbled us up at Brothers Islands and finally attached series of great photos captured by my support team on the boat during the swim that haven't as yet been posted.
And finally if you are not already an organ donor please do yourself a favour of always having that great feeling of knowing you may save another person's life after you pass by registering at www.donatelife.gov.au
Thank you for reading this far down the post and your awesome support.
