I woke up around 6 am, I wasn’t too stiff, and overall had a good night. My night was interrupted by my midnight meal, a plate of pasta and my regular bathroom stops.
I went on deck and found Yoav, our skipper making adjustments to the sails. We had drifted over night more than expected and had to sail back to the spot I finished my swim the previous day. It took us a good part of the morning to get back to our position and unfortunately I know I would not have a full day of swimming. Ty was at the helm for most part of the morning and spotted a 3 foot long shark.
I was a little anxious before going in the water not because of the shark but because of the water temperature, I put an extra layer on and hope it would be enough to keep me warm.
Ty and Maks were on the RHIB and lead me in the right direction. The extra layer did the trick. After the first two hours I was back into my routine, letting my imagination guide me into my parallel universe. On the deep blue static backdrop in front of my eyes, images of my family started to form.
Every 30 minutes, Ty and Maks stopped me to feed me, Maks had some warm soup ready, my stomach enjoyed that.
My hands felt the cold each time they were out of the water and the top of my shoulder as well. It started raining and the air was colder than the water. During my feeding time, I noticed that Ty and Maks started to put on more layers and our visibility started to diminish.
After about 5 hours Maks grabbed my hands to assess my body temperature, his hands were colder than mine. Both of them looked pretty miserable and were getting cold. Since our visibility was dropping and we were losing light I decided to swim another 1/2 hour before stopping for the day, at times we could not see Seeker, stopping was a wise thing to do.
Before going to bed we got another report from our weather routing partner that warned us of the system they have been tracking, it was developing faster and stronger than expected.
Ben
Starting point
time: 03:18 UTC
position: 035°45.379N / 141°03.808E
Stoping point
time: 8:27 UTC
position: 035°52.808N / 141°22.237E
12 thoughts on “[DAY 2]”-
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May God bless and keep you in his care, Ben. You are a warrior!
Drifting at night is going to be a continuous problem along the way..No way to fix that unless you had an endless suppy of fuel to keep in one spot. Glad you decided to return. Thanks for the narative.
Good on you Ben, following you from Bristol, UK. Message from my daughter (10yrs): hello that is a really good thing for you to do. You will be very happy when you have finished your swim!
What you are doing is incredible and very ambitious. I wish you and your crew all the luck in the world. May God stay with you, through your journey. I can’t wait to see all the pictures.
From New Brunswick, Canada
Well done, we are following and praying for you.
You are my age and an inspiration! Keep up the great work!
Ben,
we are following your epic swim from Genova (Italy). Thank you for finding time and spare energy for writing down what difficulties you are facing and what are your feelings. Good luck for your next swim.
Max (Caprajalonga)
What a journey good luck.
Dianne from Newfoundland, Canada
Hi Ben. My name is Kelly and I am a producer for Fox News Channel. We saw your story and would love to do a featured piece on you. I’d love to be there to record your trip back to San Francisco. Wanted to reach out and gauge your interest. Best of luck and I will be keeping up with your journey. Thanks, Kelly!
I am tracking your progress every day. Your quest is inspiring open water swimmers and ordinary people.
Wishing you and the team good luck.
Nadav from Israel
Thank you for sharing your daily updates and reflections with us! What you’re doing is so courageous and inspiring. Wishing you and everyone that’s taking this journey with you well wishes and safety!
Megan from New Providence, The Bahamas