Big swim day for the 4 of us.

Emily and I swam 9.5km in Sitges (house – Aiguadolç – Sausalito – church – Terramar) with our good friend Alberto Compte, who crossed the strait of Gibraltar last summer. Visibility was low, water was a bit rough, with currents to the southwest which made the swim challenging at times. Adverse conditions might not make the swim as pretty, but it makes the training a lot more substantial. Knowing how to swim in rough conditions comes only as a result of logging many kms alongside the current, swell, waves and wind. By trial and error, you learn how to best adjust your stroke, body and mind to the ocean’s conditions. The pool allows you to swim at your own pace, but in open water you swim at the ocean’s rhythm. Emily’s progress in open water swimming and her ability to overcome some of her initial fears is spectacular.

Pretty much at the same time, but 6365 kilometers away, Susan and Carrington competed in New York City’s Little Red Lighthouse 10.2km swim. The results have yet to be posted, but Carrington came in 3rd place in women (among 110 women swimmers) and 17th overall (among 325 swimmers). Her time was 2 hours 1 minute. Susan had a great swim as well, finishing the 10.2 km in the Hudson in 2 hours 14 minutes one week after her great performance in Cadaques’ 6.5km swim. Here is a picture after their swim, disproving Emily, Susan and Carrington’s claim that “swimming making you ugly”.