Thursday, February 28, 2013
Saturday, March 31, 2012
The final lap
The big swim.
I needed to wait until today before writing this as my head was not in the right space straight after yesterdays swim. Almost a full year of training to get fit enough to tackle the Straits and I’m sad to say we didn’t manage to ‘knock the bastard off’. We stepped up to the challenge, gave it our absolute best shot but unfortunately nature had the last laugh.
Nerves meant that neither Al nor I got much sleep the night before but we boarded the boat in good spirits and motored off to the start. We were to swim from Ohau point on the North Island, almost directly West to Perano Heads on Arapawa Island. When we arrived at the start it seemed like perfect conditions; fairly flat water, light winds and sunshine but at that stage we had no idea how strong the tide would be and we had totally underestimated the effect of being in 15 degree water for 6 hours.
It felt quite chilly when we first got in but we thought that some hard work would soon warm us up. It’s difficult to describe how cold it was but its enough to say that I knew we were in serious trouble when after only 90 minutes, at our second food break, I couldn’t hold the drink cup because I was shivering so much.
Physically and psychologically the cold slowly but surely sucks the life out of you. After 2 hours I couldn’t feel my fingers and unfortunately my hands had cramped up with the fingers bent and open, which meant I couldn’t pull on the water properly. The cold is so dominant that I found it almost impossible to control my thoughts and reverted to chanting positive mantras to try to keep my mind off the cold – with little effect.
After 3 hours we heard the news that we were almost half way across and ahead of target, which gave us a little lift but within 30 seconds of hearing good news the freezing conditions wrench your mind back to how helpless you’ve become. In the centre of the Strait the tide is at it’s strongest and we started being swept north at a huge rate of knots. When we looked at the chart afterwards we found that in this period, during one 30 minute segment we swam the required 2km but made only 300m towards our goal.
After that things became a little blurred, I remember that we were visited a couple of times by a pod of dolphins that kept swimming 2m beneath us smiling and mocking the pathetic figures above them. At times I was so cold that I started hallucinating and realized that from time to time I was making detours to swim around palm trees!
Finally the cold water started to win and hypothermia took over. I remember looking at Al as they pulled him onto the boat and thinking how grey and near death he looked - thank God I didn’t have a mirror in my togs. I don’t remember much about my last 30 minutes other than it was totally dominated by thoughts of hopelessness.
I was shaking so much when they pulled me out that I couldn’t do anything for myself other than hold my leg which had totally cramped up. The support crew dressed me and as the life slowly crept back into us Al and I started to discuss the swim and thank the brilliant guys that had helped us. Unfortunately I felt extremely sick at this stage so I couldn’t eat or drink anything and had to just sit there holding a bucket as we motored back to Mana! We warmed up within the hour but my sickness didn’t pass until much later when we arrived at the airport to catch the last flight home.
My wonderful, long suffering wife Siobhan brought the kids to the airport to greet us and my great friend and supporter Allie Mooney drove down from the North Shore to be there too – a wonderful surprise.
Thanks for all your 1000’s of emails and messages of support and sorry I’ve not responded to them all individually. To answer some of your questions: Yes I’m obviously disappointed in the outcome but extremely proud of what we achieved. We were definitely fit and strong enough and we actually swam the full 26 km (just not in the right direction), but nature beat us in the end. There are a few things I would do differently but what it has taught me is: never underestimate the importance of the right preparation and nothing beats the experience of someone who’s been where you want to go. Will I have another go? I don’t know, only time will tell.
I can tell you that what they say about Everest is true for the Cook Strait too: You don’t conquer either of them - they relent. I’m told that only 1 in 6 of the attempts on the Straits are successful and I suppose that’s because it’s a rare occurrence that the elements conspire to let you across. As with life in general you have to be good enough and be in the right place at the right time and then you’ll have your chance of success.
I must take the opportunity of thanking the captain and crew of the boat that took us across. They were absolutely brilliant and kept Al and I safe and secure during the whole swim, despite the odd curse from us! Thanks to Dave Sharp for filming the day – God I’m not looking forward to some of those shots. Thanks a million to Jones Lang LaSalle and Turners and Growers for helping with the funding and to Happy Valley Honey for the wonderful honey sandwiches!!
Whatever your Cook Strait challenge is just make sure you give it everything you’ve got and be prepared to be challenged to your limits on the way.
John Shackleton
I needed to wait until today before writing this as my head was not in the right space straight after yesterdays swim. Almost a full year of training to get fit enough to tackle the Straits and I’m sad to say we didn’t manage to ‘knock the bastard off’. We stepped up to the challenge, gave it our absolute best shot but unfortunately nature had the last laugh.
Nerves meant that neither Al nor I got much sleep the night before but we boarded the boat in good spirits and motored off to the start. We were to swim from Ohau point on the North Island, almost directly West to Perano Heads on Arapawa Island. When we arrived at the start it seemed like perfect conditions; fairly flat water, light winds and sunshine but at that stage we had no idea how strong the tide would be and we had totally underestimated the effect of being in 15 degree water for 6 hours.
It felt quite chilly when we first got in but we thought that some hard work would soon warm us up. It’s difficult to describe how cold it was but its enough to say that I knew we were in serious trouble when after only 90 minutes, at our second food break, I couldn’t hold the drink cup because I was shivering so much.
Physically and psychologically the cold slowly but surely sucks the life out of you. After 2 hours I couldn’t feel my fingers and unfortunately my hands had cramped up with the fingers bent and open, which meant I couldn’t pull on the water properly. The cold is so dominant that I found it almost impossible to control my thoughts and reverted to chanting positive mantras to try to keep my mind off the cold – with little effect.
After 3 hours we heard the news that we were almost half way across and ahead of target, which gave us a little lift but within 30 seconds of hearing good news the freezing conditions wrench your mind back to how helpless you’ve become. In the centre of the Strait the tide is at it’s strongest and we started being swept north at a huge rate of knots. When we looked at the chart afterwards we found that in this period, during one 30 minute segment we swam the required 2km but made only 300m towards our goal.
After that things became a little blurred, I remember that we were visited a couple of times by a pod of dolphins that kept swimming 2m beneath us smiling and mocking the pathetic figures above them. At times I was so cold that I started hallucinating and realized that from time to time I was making detours to swim around palm trees!
Finally the cold water started to win and hypothermia took over. I remember looking at Al as they pulled him onto the boat and thinking how grey and near death he looked - thank God I didn’t have a mirror in my togs. I don’t remember much about my last 30 minutes other than it was totally dominated by thoughts of hopelessness.
I was shaking so much when they pulled me out that I couldn’t do anything for myself other than hold my leg which had totally cramped up. The support crew dressed me and as the life slowly crept back into us Al and I started to discuss the swim and thank the brilliant guys that had helped us. Unfortunately I felt extremely sick at this stage so I couldn’t eat or drink anything and had to just sit there holding a bucket as we motored back to Mana! We warmed up within the hour but my sickness didn’t pass until much later when we arrived at the airport to catch the last flight home.
My wonderful, long suffering wife Siobhan brought the kids to the airport to greet us and my great friend and supporter Allie Mooney drove down from the North Shore to be there too – a wonderful surprise.
Thanks for all your 1000’s of emails and messages of support and sorry I’ve not responded to them all individually. To answer some of your questions: Yes I’m obviously disappointed in the outcome but extremely proud of what we achieved. We were definitely fit and strong enough and we actually swam the full 26 km (just not in the right direction), but nature beat us in the end. There are a few things I would do differently but what it has taught me is: never underestimate the importance of the right preparation and nothing beats the experience of someone who’s been where you want to go. Will I have another go? I don’t know, only time will tell.
I can tell you that what they say about Everest is true for the Cook Strait too: You don’t conquer either of them - they relent. I’m told that only 1 in 6 of the attempts on the Straits are successful and I suppose that’s because it’s a rare occurrence that the elements conspire to let you across. As with life in general you have to be good enough and be in the right place at the right time and then you’ll have your chance of success.
I must take the opportunity of thanking the captain and crew of the boat that took us across. They were absolutely brilliant and kept Al and I safe and secure during the whole swim, despite the odd curse from us! Thanks to Dave Sharp for filming the day – God I’m not looking forward to some of those shots. Thanks a million to Jones Lang LaSalle and Turners and Growers for helping with the funding and to Happy Valley Honey for the wonderful honey sandwiches!!
Whatever your Cook Strait challenge is just make sure you give it everything you’ve got and be prepared to be challenged to your limits on the way.
John Shackleton
Friday, March 30, 2012
All over....
At 3.30pm the support crew made the decision to take John out of the water too as he was exhibiting signs of hypothermia and was also vomiting. The current was still so strong that progress was minimal and there was at least an hour until the tide turned which would probably have given some assistance. Needless to say, both he and Al are gutted after all the training but sometimes the elements are not in our favour and this was one of those times. They spent 7 and 7 1/2 hours in the water and swam their hearts out but today the Strait was not letting them over. Thanks for all your messages of support, and in particular thank you so much to Jones Lang LaSalle, Noel Leeming, Happy Valley Honey, Good Morning, Breakfast, The Breeze and Dave Sharp for your invaluable input.
Collective positive thoughts needed right now please...
After being in the water for over 7 hours John is struggling, in the last half hour he only made 300m due to a very strong northbound current that is pushing him way off course and will make the swim much longer if he is able to continue. The water temp is only 15 degrees, not 16-17 as expected and Al has had to stop swimming as he was on the verge of hypothermia. The boat guys are continuing to encourage John to continue and will check his progress on the chart next break to ensure he's not actually going backwards. Damn Cook Strait currents...
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