Catalina Channel

In fairness, I need to provide a detailed report on Goody's Catalina Channel attempt  But in the interest of being somewhat up-to-date, I need to report that Goody put a good fight in his swim and stuck with it for over 15 hours of swimming, but sadly fell short by 4.8 miles of completion.  The level of stamina he displayed was outstanding.  He started at 10pm on Monday, and swam all through the night, into Monday afternoon.  The wind was starting to pick up, the tide was against him, and the pilot was concerned that his next swimmer for the day would be affected if we continued.

Coach Marcia and Goody go through the bag of feeds
before the swim and find this little treasure.  

So Dave (the Outrider pilot), Lynn, and Patricia discussed it, and broke the news to Goody that he was being pulled out.  His vitals were good, he wasn't being pulled over a concern for his safety, or about his lack of ability to actually complete.  It was just a matter of time.  At the end his rate was going to put him at reaching the shore at about 9pm.  That would have been nearly 24 hours of swimming.  There was just no preparation on the pilot's, and many of the support crew, to last that long.  And with the increased wind and chop that was starting to show up at 1:15pm, it may have been even more of an effort and may have resulted in an even further extended 9pm completion estimate.

I have a ton of video and pictures to process and plan to have a video summary put together by this weekend.  I try to put myself in his shoes, but I honestly can't.  But if it were me, I wouldn't want a bunch of pity emails.  Instead, focusing on the journey, instead of the final exam, is something of value.  As well as the superhuman level of effort that was put forth.  He was a machine in the water.

Me trying to pace Goody as the sun rises.
With Rob D in foreground, and Neil Van der Byl,
the most amazing paddler I've ever seen, in the background.

I had the pleasure of swimming along side him for one hour.  It was a magical moment for me.  I saw dozens of jellyfish and enjoyed the experience (literally) of swimming into a little one which brushed past my left arm pit and gave me a little shock.  On the pain scale it was like a 1-2 for about 20 seconds, and then it was gone.  I saw lots of them below me in the water, pulsing with light and there were different kinds.  Big globs, small ones, some in "chains".  It was beautiful.  The water was cool, but manageable.

I was sad to have them call me out after the hour.  I don't know the exact distance but it was at least .60 miles.


.60 miles in 1 hour total


Expect a more detailed report later this week.