The day after rest day… The current was still going South-North today. It was another day of making a call on how fast the current would be and if we should take a gamble.
Each day, my goal is to swim for 4-5 hours. My swim is based on time rather than distance. However, with a reverse current, we have to settle on distance rather. Due to the current being faster than anticipated, this has meant that the last 3 swims have been much shorter than planned. At the starting point, the current was negligible, so I figured I would do 16km in just over 4 hours. So we set off.
The first hour was at a pace of 4km per hour, so I was looking good for the 4 hour swim ahead. Yet, as I progressed the current increased, and so did my pace. I ended up doing 16km in just over 3 hours. It was a solid swim, and I felt comfortable for most of it.
We had three feeds along the way. At one point, we saw a boil in the water that was suspected to be either a big manta or a large shark. Luckily, it did not reveal itself.
There were a few moments when my shoulders were uncomfortable, and my right baby knuckle is still sore from jumping into the boat three weeks ago while on a training swim. I had to jump into the boat to escape the Blacktip sharks who were swarming me!
Today we had Andy replacing John on kayak duty. Andy did a fantastic job of keeping me steady and jumping in for shark watch on every feed.
Nikki Williamson also joined us today. She is the founder of the Philocaly trail. It was fantastic having her on board as she got really involved. She jumped in for shark duty and also rode on the kayak. I am so grateful for her support.
The days are starting to merge now. We are finally getting into a better routine. Once I have completed the swim, I can get back home to pack, restock, rest, and have my recovery session before an early night. The mornings continue to be an early start before sunrise to avoid swimming in the heat of the day. Yet, even with the early starts, it is hot out at sea. I am grateful when we have a little cloud cover or when I hit a cooler patch of water.
There continue to be very few sightings. However, today we saw a flying fish on our boat ride, which was exciting. I also saw one small lone fish next to a piece of floating rope. Even the jellyfish were few and far between.
Today was a solid day of swimming, and I am looking forward to getting a good f hour swim in hopefully soon.
This afternoon I will go to the hyperbaric o2 chamber for recovery between eating every 2 hours!
Day 4 Stats:
Start time: 7:30am
Finish Time: 10:43am
Pace: 12min/km
Distance: 16km
Start location: S 30°16693 E030°51933 Park Reynie
End location: S 30 09.652’ E30 55.841 Umkomaas
Water temperature: 25-26degrees
Water quality: clean most of the way 10m vis?
Sights seen: jellys and blue bottles flying fish and 1 small fish,plastic packet, plastic bottle one more plastic
Stings: 1 blue bottle and a few stingies
Calories: 3380 (5079 for the day)
Strokes: 5039
Weather: sunny with some cloud and a south east wind the wind picked up and was bumpy the last 6km
