Where in the World is St. Lucia? - St. Lucia Channel Swim Part I

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.