Reminiscences of a Long Distance Swimmer: Santa Barbara Channel (Anacapa

Bookending our holiday in California was the considerable physical and mental challenge of the Santa Barbara channel to complete the California Triple Crown. (I had already completed the other 2 legs of the made up list with the Catalina Channel in 2015 (blog here) and Lake Tahoe in 2018 (blog here).

This was also a great chance to catch-up and reunite with another of my best buddies based in the US, Dan Simonelli, who drove up all the way from San Diego to sit on his uncomfortable kayak for the day to watch me swim (again) plus a chance to resolve a swim that had been on the cards since 2020 then Covid hit.

Pic below taken from the Santa Barbara Channel Swimming Association website (here). Observe Anacapa is the small island group to the east of the Channel Islands National Park north of centre.

Another sleep-deprived 2am alarm (but nothing great is easy!), a drive from our AirBnB in lovely Santa Barbara for a 3am meet at Oxnard dock, 4am boat departure for the 1 hour trip out to Anacapa island.

We all boarded New Hustler (here) which is a substantial 60 foot boat insured to take up to 25 passengers which often spends weekends out sports fishing so I told the girls that they were in for a proper treat of a sightseeing tour and bunks on hand if they got tired (as Dan handled all the feeds from the kayak). All the English Channel pilots would die for this boat!

On the boat trip out we chilled out and observer John went thru all the usual rules and regulations plus anything particular to this swim. All very official as you would expect for a swim of this nature. After 50 mins I realised the boat was getting closer to the island as the speed of the engines slowed to a crawl so we exited the comfort and warmth of the cabin and wandered outside to take a look.

Great pic from Dan as we arrived at the island. Never thought in my life I would be lucky enough to turn up at Anacapa with both girls in tow - that's how marathon swimming has enriched our lives as brought us to parts of the earth we would never have gone to otherwise. The word 'proud' doesn't do it justice as this year Sophia (right of pic) moved out to be financially independent and Issy also matched her sister and got a 1st for her degree (result while we were out there!).

Pic of Dan looking a lot happier about the task at hand than I was before our jump at 05:30. In the end he had it way tougher than me having to endure over 8 hours on a sit-on kayak....he fed me, he navigated, paddled and generally kept the show on the road!

We arrived at the island around 05:00 while it was still dark but slowly dawn was breaking amid murk and sea fog over the island. One of the boat crew had seen a fish on the radar in the wheelhouse so decided to throw a line over the side hoping to snare a sea bass. It was all rather surreal!

(Thanks to observer John McCarthy for this pic - he's the ultimate professional and helped me just get on with the task at hand. I had trained for this swim in water <60F so 62 at the start was more than doable especially so with my healthy 'bioprene' layer!):

Dan then said it was time to get ready. The scene was also eerily intimidating as the boat rocked and I held onto a rail as Issy took considerable care to apply sun cream, zinc and anti-chafe measures for underarms (mixture of butt paste from CVS and vaseline worked a treat!) that were still sore from RTAI just one week prior. She did an amazing job and I didn't burn or chafe anywhere which is a first!

I was ready by around 05:30 and a deckhand informed me it was time to lower myself into the water via the ladder on the starboard side (Dan was already in with his kayak) and then to swim around the ship's bow to the cliff edge and touch land to start.

As I carefully lowered myself into the dark kelp-rich water I noticed a couple of seals playing in the kelp just 10m off the boat and generally felt quite vulnerable in my budgie smugglers as my senses took in the bewildering foreign scenery.

Swimming through 100 meters of kelp forest I slowly got to Dan where he could witness me start where he took this pic (below). It is hard to see the fact that the swell was probably 2 meters and I was urged just to touch the cliff and not kick otherwise I might cut my legs on the mussels etc.. which were everywhere.

Thumbs up and a yelp from Dan and we were off! After the first 50 meters of kelp I found my usual 50 stroke per min rhythm at the start of these endeavours and we headed out into the morning gloom of the vast pacific. Below the water was reasonably clear but there was a distinct blackness far below as I reminded myself that any real predators generally opt to feed at dawn and dusk!

The currents around the island can be quite strong but we seemed to be making nice progress then on 45 mins I took in my first (low GI) feed mixture of Cyclic Dextrin, fructose sugar, electrolytes and orange squash (thanks to Ray Smith on my Swimtrek LDT week for introducing me to Cyclic Dextrin which involves fewer peaks and troughs than maltodextrin (and available on Amazon from Bulk)). For the rest of the swim this would be the same regime complimented by the odd salty potato and then the last few feeds just flat coke.

The water felt so much saltier than San Francisco Bay and I started to feel queasy worried that if I actually were to throw up that might also attract unwanted wildlife attention!

I was predominantly breathing to the left but I threw in the odd right-sided breath to take in the sight of the famous arch marking the far east side of the Anacapa island group. It was absolutely magical:

(Thanks to observer John McCarthy for this iconic shot)

Getting to the first feed in the slowly-emerging light felt like it took an eternity but then at 90 mins we arrived at feed 2. I had taken on some salty water in my mouth in the chop and felt really sick reminding myself why I mainly do fresh water swims these days. I dispatched of the feed, threw away half of the potato ready to swim. I looked down and immediately saw a large 6-7 foot SHARK 10m below me heading perpendicular to us. I yelled to Dan that there was a shark below me....he asked 'how big is it'....err '6 feet maybe bigger' I replied....'oh that's probably a blue shark' he said nonchalantly as he then just looked ahead ignoring my concern as if I had asked him something totally mundane like what he had last night for dinner....with a whisk of its tail the shark majestically swam away to the west of us and I was relieved that I hadn't freaked out not knowing I would react faced with such a situation.

(I am guessing it was curious and lured by the sound of the boat which spends most of its time out sports fishing so these predators are up for a lazy meal?)

Pic below is an example of a blue shark not THE blue shark. I can 100% guarantee you if you see one of these 10 meters below you in the wild they are easy to confuse with a Great White!

Anyway, on we went and we swam from feed to feed with not a lot to report other than the agoraphobia of the vast pacific. The crew enjoyed the sight-seeing tour of 5 pods of dolphins or 'dolphins everywhere' as Issy said, a humpback whale and another fin in the water that turned into a sunfish (I didn't see any of them). Glad we brought the binoculars from home. Sophia grew up reading books about sharks and whales so this was heaven for her!

After a number of feeds, I realised I must have been over 4 hours in and still zero major sign of the Gina oil rig anywhere on the horizon which marked 6km to go. In this area there were two clear lines of a bounty of small fish glittering in the sunlight which clearly marked where the deep channel was soon to become more shallow and these herring probably destined for a humpback's stomach. There were millions of them!

Eventually after ca. 5 hours we crawled alongside Gina as my swim was clearly impacted by a stiff ocean current headed against us. As we went passed the oil rig I finally got a sense we were making progress as there was a buoy nearby that we flew past which gave me some reassurance.

I began to feel tired, continued to feel pretty seasick and could barely even make out the mainland but was told there was about 6km to go. In my head I told myself there was probably more like 10km, so got my head down and grafted playing mind games and counting to 100 over and over (reading Lynne Cox taught me that tick!). I told myself the quicker I got this done then the quicker I could get cleaned up and have a hot shower plus a nice mid-afternoon nap!

I even amused myself by looking at my lucky duck (pic below) who had been with me thru thick and thin since the beginning on most swims and thinking about what we had experienced together. A silly but welcome distraction to help me ignore the task at hand, my sick feeling and my sore shoulders.

Eventually we fed and I looked up, saw a sandy beach at Oxnard in the distance and Sophia shouted out 'you are doing so well you are nearly there'. I probably had 1-2 miles to go. Dan pointed out a few orange roofed houses and gradually I saw the rolling surf (and a surfer) I would have to navigate to get to the finishing beach.

I continued to reel the swim in until I knew we had it cracked when Dan declared 'just 1000m to go' (I still don't know why he didn't just say 1K?!)

The chunky waves grabbed me and hurled me to the finish...one even started to remove my goggles over the top of my swim cap which I salvaged just in time. I then got to the shallows, fell over twice as didn't want to be pulled backwards and slowly released myself from the shackles of the ocean with arms aloft and receiving the applause of 3 beach lifeguards who asked where I had swum from! 'Anacapa island' I said victoriously......with one lifeguard noting 'you should be rightly so proud of yourself'. I was. I then quickly said my goodbyes, navigated my way back out over and under the surf and back to the awaiting boat for some applause and a chance to get warm in the pleasant Californian sun.

Thanks to observer John McCarthy for this pic as the main boat could venture no further as I went in to land the swim:

Thanks for Kathy Harrington for this picture below. It was taken on another day but from the finishing beach clearly showing the Gina oil rig and Anacapa in the far distance. A 20km self-inflicted wildlife-rich mullering!

I giggled informing observer John that I declared the Santa Barbara Channel season now 'officially open' as that was the first solo of the year and he nodded. (I was pleased I had trained for water in the low-to-mid 50s as had done a 6 hour swim on the LDT Swimtrek camp in Croatia in 13.8c so mentally & physically I knew I could cope).

Kate, the trainee observer, asked if I wanted to know my time which I was ready to ignore but informed I had done ca. 8 hours 11 mins (subject to the usual ratification (whatever that means)). Not great but massive ocean counter current all the way to the oil rig and one week post RTAI so probs didn't start the swim as fresh as I could have. I didn't care. I look at other peoples times and it proves that every day is so different in the open ocean.

The California triple crown was complete and I could lay claim to being the 3rd Brit (after Kevin Murphy and Melanie Tyrrell) to complete this made-up list.

A very short 5 min boat ride back to the dock at Oxnard and we were free to head to our AirBnB at Santa Barbara, have a nap and enjoy our last fully day of holidays! The extra large full fat coke on ice never tasted so good!

Here's the track from my swim - the pilots keep to the pre-plotted route out here: