Catalina Strait
The official Big Swim season ends, at least in the Western Hemisphere, around early October when water temperatures drop below comfortable levels. I take advantage of July to swim around Manhattan ( 29 miles in 8 hours, 30 minutes) and September for the Catalina Strait (22 miles in 10 hours, 49 minutes). With the English Channel, I am the 394th person to complete the so-called "Triple Crown" of big water swimming.
The Catalina swim notable for its 11pm start-time to avoid the windy afternoon swells along the Southern California coastline. The darkness disturbing but, even more so, the unlucky British swimmer, also swimming the straight, nipped by a great white shark the night before my jump. The poor fellow pulled from the water after two hours, bandaged and greeted by the coast guard, then ambulance and fire engine at the Long Beach docks, and raced to the emergency for a few stitches to his leg and hand, all reported dutifully by the local news channels and hitting the BBC and Times just in time for Sonnet to worry. A truism I accept : The only strategy for sharks is to not think about sharks.
