Been speaking with the newest Santa Barbara Channel Swimming Association board member and have come up with an idea for an interesting swim sometime in my future. An inter-island swim, stringing together the four northern islands in the Santa Barbara channel.
The idea is to start on the eastern side of San Miguel island, enter the water and swim to Santa Rosa island. Board the boat, after touching dry land of course, and motor to the eastern side of Santa Rosa. I will swim up to the beach and then take off toward Santa Cruz island. There I will repeat the dry land-boat-dry land thing, taking off next toward Anacapa island, where my swim will finish when I touch the beach there.
The total will be around 14 miles. For a swim like that, I will have to prep myself for a swim of about 17-18 miles, using Steve Munatones' rule of training for an actual swim 30% farther than the planned swim. This is because of the route I'll actually swim after tides and other vagaries of OW swimming are taken into account. For this, I'll probably use Steve's 25K training plan in his book Open Water Swimming.
But that's just the swimming prep, which I can handle. The logistics needed on this will be another area I'll have to worry about. I'll have to "land" on a beach six times, then after each landing, swim back out to the boat, get in the boat and stay warm and loose for the next leg. Also, I'll have to figure out how to time this swim. Will the total time be just my swim legs, added together? Or will it be the total time from taking off at San Miguel to landing at Anacapa? That would make it interesting, logistically speaking. I'll have to work on getting into the boat and secured so the boat can start motoring to the next drop off, then I'll have to swim quickly unto the beach so I can start the next leg.
Not to mention finding volunteers for my crew...but I already have three!
Evan tells me he doesn't think anyone has done this sort of swim. So if I can get my butt in gear I might be the first. Of course, it all depends upon my next duty assignment, and for that I have to keep my fingers crossed.
I'd think you'd just time the swim legs - wouldn't want the boat to have to "race" you to the next starting spot. Then we'd enter your name on the "successes" list four times - 3 for each inter-island crossing and once for your cumulative "triple." Another logistical issue to consider is the locations of the safest spots for starting & finishing - it probably won't be the "closest" point on the map. Anacapa Island, for instance, is really just a bunch of rocks - no beach to speak of.
Posted by: Evan | 16 October 2011 at 21:23
This sounds pretty bad ass dude :)
and Evan's right, shortest and best probably won't be the same thing and you won't necessarily surface on each swim. The start to Anacapa is two hands against a sheer cliff face, the finish beach is nice and sandy and wonderful however
Posted by: Rob D | 17 October 2011 at 04:29
oh and I just thought of a bonus logistical consideration... daylight... you need to schedule it so that you can complete everything while the sun is up, Cpt Bob apparently doesn't like to have swimmers in the water when it's dark outside
Posted by: Rob D. | 17 October 2011 at 20:13
Good point Rob. Lots of logistics. Looks like I could use some friends on that side of the world to help scout out locations...hmmm...if only I knew someone. ;)
Posted by: IronMike | 18 October 2011 at 15:09