Day 7 was a bit of a crazy day. We had a rest day from swimming the day before however, it was incredibly stressful trying to organise a recovery session after the stormy swim I did the day before. The night before that swim, I spent time in the O2 chamber, got a massage and had an Epson salt bath. Yet, I still felt wiped out.
The emotional stress of not having funding and vehicles began taking its toll on me, and I had to have some very real conversations with my management team. I spent the day running around, collecting satellite phones, having meetings and trying to pack for our time away. I had made many phone calls and had many conversations, so by the end of the day, I was absolutely exhausted, frustrated and somewhat disillusioned with everything.
I have put everything that I have into doing this swim. I love every minute of it when I am in the water. I have put my career on hold, my body on the line, and I have given all I have to this project. Furthermore, my team has done the same, so it is challenging to consider that we do not have any more financial backing.
The public has been phenomenal in offering food, snacks and accommodation. We have received overwhelming support in this area, which I am so grateful for.
With everything else lining up so well and having absolute trust and faith that I believe God has called me to do this swim, it is so hard to keep the faith when the money bank is dry. For now, we have enough to keep going for a week, which buys us time to keep going.
We have had to make an alternative plan fast regarding vehicles. Again my incredible team have stepped up with no complaints. John and Andy have offered their vehicles in the interim to help us get through the next week.
We are 89km closer to CT, and this is cause for celebration!!
I have put everything that I have into doing this swim. I love every minute of it when I am in the water. I have put my career on hold, my body on the line, and I have given all I have to this project. Furthermore, my team has done the same, so it is challenging to consider that we do not have any more financial backing.
Today, we left Durban at 5:30 am to meet Cassie, Frikkie and Andy at Scottburgh for our final launch there. The ocean looked better today, and it only took 4 minutes to get out instead of the 20 minutes we had taken at the previous launch.
We headed out to the mark where we had reached on the previous swim and then travelled a further 10km out to sea to find the current. UNBELIEVABLY, the current was still flying South-North despite a strong Easterly wind. I was adamant that we were to swim south today, so we headed back inland to where the current was a little weaker.
This process took a while, so 2 and a half hours had already gone by since launching when I was finally able to be in the water. I was tired of being in the boat and also felt seasick. However, it was time to swim, so I dived. I quickly realised that I was making minimal progress. The Easterly wind was pushing me, but as it pushed me forward, the current pushed me back even stronger. We were going nowhere fast!
I made just under 400m before we decided to call the swim. I jumped back in the boat, and we had a long discussion about where to exit. Hibberdene was, unfortunately, closed, so we had to push back against the wind to Pennington. I then decided to jump back in the sea for another 100m to get 1km under my belt for the day. It was really just to blow off some steam and iron out the creases after a rest day and a more than 2 hour-long boat ride.
The ride back to Pennington was bumpy and long. Eventually, we got to shore and then had to wait for our lift. We headed to our new base for the next few nights. It is a beautiful old farmhouse style 14-sleeper with an incredible tropical garden right on the beach at Mzumbe. A friend from swimming offered his aunt’s place to us, with 3 fridges it was a welcomed treat.
Despite the frustrations of the day and the stress of funding, we learnt a lot and now know that current beats wind. Tomorrow is another day, and we will continue to bow to mother nature as she dictates our daily movements.
Day Seven Stats:
Start time: 9:21am
Total swim time 0:26:56
Pace: 26min/km
Distance: 1.08km
Start location: Mtwalume
End location: Mtwalume
Water temperature: 25 degrees
Water quality: clean
Sights seen: jellys, hammerhead shark, dolphin off boat
Stings: none
Calories: 198
Strokes: 723
Weather: North East wind strong South North current
Total distance covered: 89.3km
