Catalina – The Family Affair Channel Swim

Catalina Channel is a 32.5km nighttime swim from Catalina Island to Los Angeles, one of the Oceans 7 and also one of three swims that make up the Triple Crown (English Channel, Catalina Channel and Around Manhattan). It is unique in that it is not tide dependent, so you book an actual date and the vast majority of swims happen on this date. This means no waiting around on the weather, little to no uncertainty, ability to plan travel and train to a date. Amazing!

I decided that if I could get a date for the swim in the July school holidays, all the family could come with me. Whilst some of the family, have been on some of the swims to date – Ivan on the Cook Strait in 2001 and Koru on North Channel, Molokai, Fastnet and Foveaux we have never all been on board the boat on the same swim.

The Catalina Channel Swimming Federation website is full of very useful information.  I emailed three pilots and Captain David from Pacific Star got back to me immediately and gave me some options for the school holidays. I picked the earlier date offered of 6^th/7^th July, a week into the New Zealand school holidays.

Flights and accommodation were booked (in November 2022) and all was settled. Training was going well, then there were a few bumps. First our accommodation was randomly cancelled, then there was a problem with the hire car, the travel card for US dollars ordered didn’t turn up and neither did the three new swimsuits I ordered 6 weeks out!

We found new accommodation and I thought I can get some new swimsuits in the USA plus I’d brought some back-ups. It was a very busy few weeks before we left, as it was end of term, Ivan was busy teaching and marking, kids had assignments and Orla (my eldest) had uni exams. We got on the plane on the 29^th June to LA pretty exhausted but had a nice flight.  On landing I got a text saying our accommodation wasn’t available so there was some stressful phone calling and wifi searching as we sat in LA Airport, but we found something else. A really nice three-bedroom house in Culver City, LA. P.S. Never book anything with booking.com and don’t expect them to help when they randomly cancel.

However onto better news…For Catalina not only is there a boat, you are also accompanied by two kayakers. I had asked the skipper for some recommendations, and he had suggested Patricio who I called and had a great chat with a few months ago.

When we arrived in Los Angeles Patricio offered to catch up with us and tell us about the swim. The whole family and I met him and drove to a car park near the finish. We then trekked down to the finish beach where Patricio gave us all a detailed swim briefing, answering all our questions, drawing pictures and maps in the sand -probably the best swim briefing I have ever had. My other kayaker Barb had also been in touch as had my two observers so I felt very well supported and informed even before I arrived at the Pacific Star.

Family with Patricio at the finish post probably the best swim briefing ever

The Pacific Star is amazing! It is THE most palatial boat I have ever been on for a swim – 2 toilets, 24 bunks, snacks supplied, nice swim step….and apparently a yummy hot breakfast too! Maybe the best place to be was on the boat, not in the water!

As we headed out to the start of the swim around 8pm on the evening of 6^th July I lay down on one of the 24 bunks and had a nap. When we arrived, Koru applied my grease and Barb and I headed off in the dark to the start. One of the rules of the swim is that you touch the “wall” of land so I walked up the beach in the dark. I am not very good at walking on stones so I slowly and inelegantly made my way to the wall. There were a couple of people who were watching above the beach but I was so focused on not falling over that that I didn’t even day hello (very unlike me). I walked down the beach (again inelegantly) into the water at 10.33pm.

Starting the swim

I swam through the kelp and under the rope that marks off the beach. It was quite bumpy and I found it hard to get orientated to the right distance between the kayak and the boat. The kayak had some green glow sticks and it was on my right, the boat however was lit up like a Christmas tree so when I breathed left I felt somewhat overwhelmed as this large illuminated craft loomed over me.  The first hour was the most exciting as I could hear dolphins chatting even though I couldn’t see them. The following three hours continued to be bumpy and all my concentration went on trying not to crash into the kayak as the waves continued to chop around me.

At four hours there was changeover of kayaker and Patricio took over. Not only did the kayaker change so did the weather and the wind died down.  The night was overcast and there was no moon or stars. I could see the glow of the LA lights in the distance from time to time. The next four hours were relatively uneventful – I fed well and fast and reported in on my peeing (a very important part of open water swimming as it indicates some key parts of your system are working!).

Otherwise, it was just swim, swim, swim with some bioluminescence and an occasional jellyfish sting. Yes it would appear I can’t avoid them – but they were not overly painful especially when compared to the North Channel and Hawaii both of which you can read about here. Journey to completing the North Channel, Channel of Bones – The “Aloha” Swim.

At this point I was getting to experience a little of what is locally called “Lake Los Angeles”, it was wonderfully flat and calm.

Lake Los Angeles

I could see the finish and was at that really annoying part of a swim when you can see the finish, but you know there is still plenty of swimming to do. I decided to use a technique from a friend Corrina Connor and break this part of the swim down to segments of 100 strokes as I was finding things a little tedious…feeling like a kid in the back seat of the car saying, “are we there yet?”

The swim Gods obviously weren’t very impressed by my attitude and the nexk minute there was wind and it was lumpy and bumpy again – bye bye Lake Los Angeles and no more asking “are we there yet!”.

Closer to the finish we came across another boat of divers. Patricio told me to stop and wave at it – which I did. He announced that I had just made my TIKTOK debut. 😊

Coming into the finish bay (Sacred Cove or Smugglers Cove) Patricio was trying to avoid the kelp – he wanted to go the “kelp free’ way – I just wanted, at that point, to go the shortest way. We picked our way through gaps in the kelp and then Patricio said swim straight to beach. I did and climbed out, walked up the beach and hit the “wall” on the mainland. The swim was complete in 11 hour 23 minutes.

Patricio kindly towed me back to the boat where Ivan and the kids helped me on board, got some towels around me and made me a cup of tea! Having all my family greet me back on board was very emotional.

Family supporting me all the way

I enjoyed some lovely banter and chat with my observers Julianna and Don as we headed back to the dock and Don showed me the amazing chart he had prepared and got all the crew to sign!

We drove back to Culver city to find our neighbours had decorated the back gate with a congratulations banner! We got some sleep and then welcomed Andy Donaldson and Jay for dinner that night. We had a lovely night debriefing my swim and briefing Andy and Jay for his swim! (Andy swam Catalina on the 10th July and set a new British Record of 9 hours and 22 minutes).

Number 5 of Oceans 7 complete. Second swim of the series of 4 I am doing to raise funds for Kenzie Gift. https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/4-3-2-1-4-swims-3-in-the-usa-2-open-water-triple

Thanks so much to all who were involved.

Now to rest up and get ready for around Manhattan 8 days later on the 15th July!