Planning the Swim
The idea for swimming the St.
Lucia Channel began in early 2017. Some friends of ours had vacationed in St.
Lucia and shared stories and photos from their trip. I wasn’t exactly sure
where St. Lucia was located in the Caribbean, so we literally looked at a globe
to see that it was in the southern sweep of Caribbean islands. I noticed
Martinique just above St. Lucia and wondered how far away it was … because
swimmers ALWAYS wonder how far it might be to swim. I looked it up on Google
maps and discovered it was 22 miles apart, about the same distance as the
English Channel. And, Martinique is a French province, making it even more
similar to the English Channel. The one difference was much warmer water. More
Googling revealed that average temperatures in the St. Lucia Channel are around
80 to 82 degrees year-round.
I assumed there must have been several
channel crossings that I just hadn’t heard about. More Googling. I found
records of two male swimmers who had successfully completed the channel swim:
Jacques Siqot https://www.stlucianewsonline.com/press-release-jacques-sicot-completes-swim-around-st-lucia/ and Yann Richard, https://www.allatsea.net/richard-the-lionheart-crosses-from-st-lucia-to-martinique-the-hard-way/.
I wondered why this channel
hadn’t been swum by known marathon swimmers. Were there sharks? Box jellies?
Government regulations preventing it? Pirates? More Googling. By now, I was
getting hooked on the idea and started ramping up my training… just in case.
The thought of being the first woman to swim the St. Lucia Channel was
strangely intriguing – how funny if could be me, a 52-year old woman from
Lincoln, Nebraska. Well, why not?!
By summer 2017, I’d found my boat
pilot – Bruce Hackshaw with Captain Mike’s Charters. He is one of the best
known and respected chartered boat captains in St. Lucia with several trophies
for sport fishing contests. He also provides whale and dolphin cruises and has
sailed all over the Caribbean. I talked to him on the phone and he was excited
about my idea to swim the channel, offering to provide support services at
cost.
The planning brought back my
enthusiasm for open water swimming. I’d been disappointed in my English Channel
DNF (did not finish) in 2014. I did the best I could that day, but I knew I had not come
anywhere near my physical limit for swimming. Nausea got the best of me and
combined with the cold water, it did me in. I thought even if I got sick
swimming to Martinique, at least with warm water, I could probably continue
swimming. Plus, St. Lucia would be a beautiful place to visit. Planning and
training for the swim became a pleasant obsession, although I didn’t share my plans
beyond my family for a long time. I wasn’t sure if I’d even be able to get the
swim off the ground, much less completed.
In fall 2017, I sent an email to David
Peterkin, one of the names that kept popping up in St. Lucia swimming articles.
I didn’t hear anything for a few weeks, then got a reply email from Sue Dyson,
one of the board members of the St. Lucia Amateur Swimming Association who had
received the forwarded email. Sue and another swimmer, Nathaniel Waring, were
planning a swimming event for the St. Lucia Channel in July 2018. Sue
understood I wanted to do a solo crossing earlier in 2018 and was a wonderful
support, helping me with the necessary approvals from the St. Lucia and
Martinique authorities. She also found a great kayaker and other volunteer crew
members. In a world where we are all so busy, it’s amazing that Sue took the
time to say “yes” to helping me plan this swim. All great adventures begin with
a YES in spite of the many obstacles and arguments that would prevent them from
ever happening.
We were all new at this and used
the resources of the Marathon Swimming Federation website and advice from
experienced marathon swimmer friends to prepare for the swim and ensure we
complied with MSF rules. Both Sue and I watched the online videos from a
swimmer observation workshop and we discussed plans – everything from starting
points, to crew roles and responsibilities, to “what-if” scenarios and observer
log notes.
We set our swimming window for
the week of May 14, 2018 – most likely May 15, 16 or 17. Bruce said the trade winds
normally died down a bit from March and April. Paul and I bought our plane
tickets and made hotel reservations at a charming little hotel near the Rodney
Bay Marina, where our support boat was docked.
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