Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

It is usual when a marathon swim or a channel swim is finished, the swimmer reaches shore to the cheers of only a few onlookers and within the camera angles of only a handful of support crew members.

But when a swim is an inter-island crossing between out in the Pacific, there are even lower possibilities of a swimmer being greeted by well-wishers.

But that is not stopping Anthony McCarley from trying to become the first person in history to swim from the uninhabited San Nicolas Island to Santa Barbara Island in the California Channel Islands, a straight-line distance of 28 miles (45.1 km).

Live tracking of his unprecedented attempt scheduled for September 30th can be seen here or on the Santa Barbara Channel Swimming Association website.

McCarley explained the difficulty of setting up the swim – and the adventure he will venture upon.

“San Nicholas Island is owned by the Navy. It took me 10 months of trying to get permission to be on shore for 3 minutes. We have a tight window (4-5 pm) for the start. I have been told (warned?) that security will be waiting for me. Anything happens to delay and I am not allowed on the island. The escort boat has to stay at least 300 yards off shore. All very interesting.”

It will be an adventure. Who knows what the landing spot will be? I will simply do my best to keep swimming until I am told to get out or I am told I completed the swim.”

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