Shark Shield, Sedna, Pilot Whales and Blanco in the Strait of Gibraltar

Bill Goding, Hawaii with a Shark Shield device.

It was a frustrating start when our attempt at the Gibraltar Strait for 2010 was ended due to fog less than two hours into our swim. Both Chris and I were swimming well, Chris was in the middle of the shipping lanes and I was already on the Moroccan side in under the woman’s record pace.

The following day we were up early again, still surrounded by fog but given the chance to try again and to see how things go.

During the previous 24 hours I, Chris and Dan had been trying to persuade swim organiser Rafael to let me try for a double crossing. When we booked our Gibraltar Strait swims we had planned on a fun swim together with our NY friend Dan Boyle. However since then Dan had herniated a disc in his back and my long Hawaii Channel swim had been cut short. Dan was unable to swim and I was frustrated by my swims this year to date and was looking for a bigger challenge. Our swim the previous day had taken some shine out of our muscles but Rafael now knew that I was strong enough to attempt the double and he agreed that I could give it a try.

I was across the strait in a woman’s record time of 3 hours and 3 minutes and then turned around into the wind and current and headed back towards Spain. Around half an hour into the return leg we passed Chris and I knew he was on pace for a good time. Chris finished in just under 4 hours then headed back to Spain on his support boat with Brooke and his crew.

On our return leg we were surrounded by pilot whales, which to me more like big dolphins than whales. They swam around us for a long time coming and going, the boat crew could see them when they came to the surface and I could see them both on the surface and beneath me. I always love to swim with dolphins, though today their noises were different. Usually they are chatting and singing as they come to visit this strange creature in their world but today their cries sounded stressed. I wondered why, perhaps they were different from the smaller dolphins I was used to? Mostly I was mesmerised by them around me, but I do remember wondering why they sounded stressed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0awiCjnJOI Penny Palfrey Gibraltar Swim 2010 - Pilot Whales

Many years ago my friend Justine had told me about Sedan the goddess of the sea, Sedna looks after all the sea creatures. Justine told me to talk to Sedna each time I swam and she would keep me safe.

http://www.rahoorkhuit.net/goddess/goddess_quest/sedna.html

Several days after my Hawaii swim this year Chris, Forrest and I went to visit some Hawaiian remains were the people used to go to worship the gods before they were converted to Christianity. It was there that I realised that with so much going on before my Hawaii swim I hadn’t spoken with Sedna and told Forrest about the goddess of the sea. I was sure to speak with Sedna before my Gibraltar swim after the Man-of-War jellyfish stings that still showed on my arms and legs had halted my Hawaii crossing in May.

Since I was only planning on doing a single Gibraltar Strait crossing I’d only bought one Shark Shield with me on this swim, the batteries are expected to last about six hours depending on the water temperature before needing to be recharged and I knew a double crossing would take longer than that so we decided to have the Shark Shield in the water off the back of the boat and have it turned on during dawn and if there appeared to be any sharks around later in the crossing.

My swim was going well as I battled my way through the head wind, current and the busy shipping lanes. The pilot whales were my companions but their cries were still stressed, it was then that my crew saw the shark. Dan was in the inflatable boat beside me with the Spanish boat driver who drew a cross over his chest for me and said “Blanco”. Dan turned on the shark shield and I saw “Blanco” swim underneath me, his large grey shape disappeared into the depths below. Soon after the dolphins were gone, their job of looking out for the strange visitor was done.

The remaining challenges were the wind, currents and white caps which made the finish of my swim very challenging and even though I was very close to land I wasn’t sure I would make it in, I seemed to be swimming in one place for what felt like an eternity, though Dan says I was always making good progress. My finishing time was 8 hours and 27 minutes for the double crossing which had only been completed once before by a woman twenty years ago in 1990 in a time of 10 hours and 58 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dcyft7dLTj4 Penny Palfrey Gibraltar Swim 2010 - White caps

Chris is writing a full report on our swims and Gibraltar Strait adventure which will be posted here soon.

http://www.acneg.com/  Gibraltar Strait swim website.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 19th, 2010 at 10:58 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.