Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
Day 1 – June 6th
Start Position: 35.43.220N 140.52.208E
Finish Position: 035° 45.288N 141° 03.758E
Swim Time: 6 hours 4 minutes
Swim Distance: 10.08 nautical miles
Wind Speed: 13 knots
Wave Height: 1 meter
Water Temperature: 21°C
Weather Conditions: Sunny
Reasons To Stop: Ben feeling cold
Comments: First Day. Ben stopped after feeling a bit cold. Maks call. Good first day.
Day 1, Session 2 – June 6th
Start Position: 35.45.379N 141.03.808E
Finish Position: 35.52.808N 141.22.237E
Swim Time: 5 hours 9 minutes
Swim Distance: 17.12 nautical miles
Wind Speed: 11 knots
Wave Height: 1 meter
Water Temperature: 21°C
Weather Conditions: Sunny sunset
Reasons To Stop: Started late because we drifted too far at night.
Comments: Ben is a lot stronger, stopped because it was late. Finding rhythm.
Day 3 – June 7th
Comments: No swim because of approaching tropical storm Maliksi. Following the advice of WRI. We are returning to Japan to let the system pass.
Day 4 – June 8th
Comments: Motoring to Yokohama
Day 5 – June 9th
Comments: On land in Yokohama – waiting for Maliksi to pass.
Day 6 – June 10th
Comments: On land in Yokohama – waiting for Maliksi to pass.
Day 7 – June 11th
Comments: On land in Yokohama – waiting for Maliksi to pass.
Day 8 – June 12th
Comments: On land in Yokohama – waiting for Maliksi to pass.
Day 9 – June 13th
Comments: Sailing back to the last GPS point.
Day 10 – June 14th
Start Position: 035° 52.786N 141° 22.193E
Finish Position: 035° 52.321N 141° 26.716E
Swim Time: 2 hours 26 minutes
Swim Distance: 4.14 nautical miles
Wind Speed: 9 knots
Wave Height: 1 meter
Water Temperature: 21°C
Weather Conditions: Sunny sunset
Comments: The rough weather yesterday slowed us down to come back to the point, we managed to arrive only in the afternoon.
Day 11 – June 15th
Start Position: 035° 52.323N 141° 26.712E
Finish Position: 035° 53.101N 141° 32.750E
Swim Time: 5 hours 56 minutes
Swim Distance: 37.62 nautical miles
Wind Speed: 7 knots
Wave Height: 1-2 meters
Water Temperature: 20°C
Weather Conditions: Cloudy
Reasons To Stop: 90% Technical failure – batteries
Comments: Ben’s tracker wouldn’t turn on, we are now using Seeker tracker to track Ben while we work on fixing Ben’s tracker (see Technical Brief). Now using boat tracker for Ben. We had to stop the swim because of an error code on the Torqeedo batteries. Even if they were displaying 90% it seems like they were flat. Back on Seeker, we started to install the stream pole to guide Ben but the wind picked up very fast and we couldn’t launch Ben safely.
Day 12 – June 16th
16/06/18 0 00:00 0 37.62 >30 182 2-3 SE Heavy rain Wind and swell too strong to launch Ben safely
13 17/06/18 17/06/18 1 01:42:00 035° 53.159N 141° 32.652E 07:16:02 035° 57.998N 141° 38.488E 05:34 8.34 45.96 Kayak Lauren 1 6 56 1-2 SE 21 Sunny Ben feeling cold
Still having troubles to make the Torqeedo batteries work, we decided to use the kayak
to pace Ben. Special break in the afternoon because Lauren broke the paddle, we had
to send Paul on the kayal to replace it.
14 18/06/18 18/06/18 1 02:10:00 035° 58.127N 141° 38.135E 09:29:41 035° 58.739N 141° 45.172E 07:19 7.38 53.34 Disco Ty Joe
1 +
additional
hoodie
15 164 1-2 SE 22 Sunny Sunset
Swim against the winds and waves, Ben put a additional hoodie. Change for the routine
break: instead of every 30min, Ben is stopping every hour. Instead of water + protein
shake, he is taking soup + bread. Seems to work well.
Despite a long session and good swim, Ben only covered about 5nm, probably because
of the waves and winds playing against him.
15 19/06/18 19/06/18 1 00:18:55 035° 58.755N, 141° 45.079E 03:30:00 035° 57.413N 141° 48.836E 03:11 4.78 58.12 Disco Maks Mark
1 +
additional
hoodie
17 170 2 SE 21 Cloudy 100%
Keep energy for better
conditions
Conditions similar than yesterday, Ben only doing 1kts speed. After trying a more
southern route, Ben decided to call it a day to not waste energy going that slow.
16 20/06/18 20/06/18 1 01:31:55 035° 57.426N 141° 48.781E 04:24:05 035° 57.581N 141° 49.879E 02:52 0.98 59.1 Disco Maks Joe
1 +
additional
hoodie
18 240 2 E 21
Rainy – cloudy
100%
Technical failure – batteries
Too much water coming in the dinghy caused a short with the batteries. Waves and
winds were picking up which didn’t allow us to use the kayak to pace Ben. Back on
Seeker, the conditions weren’t safe to launch Ben
17 21/06/18 21/06/18 1 05:32:29 035° 57.581N 141° 50.023E 08:45:18 035° 56.443N 141° 53.462E 03:12 2.72 61.82 Disco Ty Maria
1 +
additional
hoodie
12 300 2-3 E 21 Cloudy 100%
Ben’s lower lip started to swell
up
Winds and swell too strong in the morning, we had to wait for the afternoon for
conditions to calm down. After few hours, Ben realized the extra layer of hoodie was
pressing against his lips, the lower lip started to swell up, he decided to call it a day
18 22/06/18 22/06/18 1 02:33:59 035° 56.390N 141° 53.371E 09:30:00 035° 52.082N, 142° 06.516E 06:56 13.27 75.09 Disco Maks Mark 1 7 90 1-2 SW 21 Cloudy 100% Sunset
We started late morning as we were waiting for the conditions to calm down. Good
day, we had to stop Ben because it was getting too dark
19 23/06/18 23/06/18 1 01:31:10 035° 52.154N, 142° 06.475E 09:00:00 035° 58.079N 142° 37.615E 07:28 34.61 109.7 Disco Ty Lauren 1 15 346 1-2 W 22
Rainy – Couldy
80%
Swell picking up
Lauren swam next to Ben at the end of the day for the last hour. Swell picked up a bit,
retrieving the dinghy was a bit challenging.
20 24/06/18 24/06/18 1 01:25:04 035° 58.238N, 142° 37.628E 09:02:30 036° 03.775N 143° 13.259E 07:37 33.23 142.93 Disco Ty Maks 1 6 97 1-2 SE 22
Cloudy 50%-
Fog
Sunset
After a good day, wind died and Seeker couldn’t keep up with Disco and Ben. We had
to stop Ben for sunset, waiting for Seeker to motor and join Disco.
21 25/06/18 25/06/18 1 04:27:48 036° 03.766N, 143° 13.429E 09:22:53 036° 04.654N 143° 33.965E 04:55 16.81 159.74 Disco + Seeker Ty Maria 1 9 99 1-2 NW 22 Fog- Sunny Difficulty to pace with Seeker
Departure delayed due to a long conference call for Ben. After 1h of guiding with Disco,
we had to do a special break as an error came up with the batteries. We installed the
stream line at the back of Seeker and started pacing Ben. We had issues to slow the
boat and maintain a constant speed.
22 26/06/18 26/06/18 1 00:23:30 036°03’464N 143°34.923E 07:34:03 036° 10.495N 144° 17.177E 07:10 36.56 196.3 Disco Maks Joe 1 9 96 1-2 NW 22 Cloudy 50% Ben tired Uneventful day, good launching and good swim session for Ben
23 27/06/18 27/06/18 0 00:00 0 196.3 >30 220 3 NW 22 Cloudy 90% No Swimming, Bad Weather, wind above 30 knots, swell 3m
24 28/06/18 28/06/18 0 00:00 0 196.3 >20 230 2-3 NW Sunny
We started to install the carbon fiber pole to pace Ben from Seeker, the pole broke. We
spent most of the day trying to fix the pole. By the time we found a backup solution, we
drifted to far and couldn’t fight the current and wind to come back before sunset to the
starting point.
25 29/06/18 29/06/18 1 02:30:00 036° 10.510N, 144° 17.249E 06:56:54 036° 10.345N 144° 45.369E 04:26 23.21 219.51 Seeker Yoav Paul 1 21 180 2 SW 21 Sunny Ben tired because of Seeker pace
Too much winds to launch the dinghy. We had trouble to come back to the starting
point due to wind and current direction. We used the dinghy stream pole to guide Ben
from Seeker, the pace wasn’t ideal as gusts would push Seeker too fast at time. Ben
was tired by the difference in pace and we had to call it a day.
26 30/06/18 30/06/18 1 00:04:39 036° 10.253N, 144° 45.266E 08:15:18 036° 05.903N 145° 09.305E 08:10 20.62 240.13 Disco Maks Joe 1 12 208 1 S 23 Sunny Sunset Good day, good conditions, good swim!
27 01/07/18 01/07/18 1 01:01:06 036° 05.888N 145° 09.272E 08:37:17 035° 57.562N 145° 39.203E 07:36 25.75 265.88 Disco Ty Mark 1 12 217 1 NW 22 Sunny Sunset
A little difficult to come back on time to the starting point, bad synchronization in the
team. But in the end, another very good swim session
28 02/07/18 02/07/18 1 01:33:51 035° 58.472N 145° 39.230E 09:24:30 035° 43.783N 146° 08.095E 07:50 28.33 294.21 Disco Lauren Maks 1 22 206 2 NW 24 Sunny Sunset
Still some synchronization problems to get Ben at the right time at the right place.
Quite hard to fight winds and currents to arrive on time at the starting point. Ben felts
some pain on the right ankle due to the rubbing of his fins. He swam with 1 fin on the
left leg, then no fin for 2h. Pain went away in the end
29 03/07/18 03/07/18 1 00:00:00 035° 43.172N 146° 09.401E 09:03:48 035° 19.798N 146° 53.095E 09:03 43.6 337.81 Disco Ty Mark 1 10 117 2 NW 24 Sunny Sunset Perfect conditions for a perfect day
30 04/07/18 04/07/18 1 00:34:29 35.19.886 N 146.53.138 E 04:26:59 35.18.666 N 146.59.669 E 03:52 5.37 343.18 Seeker Yoav Lauren 2 18 121 1 SE 25 Cloudy 60% Technical failure – sea drogue
Winds were too strong to use the dinghy, we used Seeker with the dinghy stream pole.
The sea drogue got tangled with the stream line and almost ripped of the pole, we had
to cut all the lines. Ben managed to save the lines and attached them to a isolated
buoy. We rescued Ben and got all the lines back on board, and decided to call it a day
to fix everything
31 05/07/18 05/07/18 0 00:00 0 343.18 Bad weather and Ben has an ear infection. No swim for today.
32 06/07/18 06/07/18 1 04:16:54 35.18.841 N 146.59.625 E 09:23:27 35.18.198 N 147.22.019 E 05:06 18.33 361.51 Disco Ty Joe 2 22 154 1 SE 25 Cloudy 80% Sunset
Conditions on edge of no dinghy, started late due to large swell, big gusts. Very wet in
dinghy with waves.
33 07/07/18 07/07/18 1 01:10:18 35.18.116 N 147.21.992E 09:12:54 35.25.067N 147.52.246E 08:02 26.84 388.35 Disco Paul Maria 2 10 152 1 E 26 Sunny Sunset
Getting to point was difficult due to current and little wind.
Perfect Calm conditions for swimming. Little swell, wind and sun out.
34 08/07/18 08/07/18 1 00:51:36 35.25.111 N 147.52.259 E 08:41:43 35.45.758N 148.37.352E 07:50 21.3 409.65 Seeker Ty Maria 2 12 158 1 S 26 Sunny Ben tired
Departure delayed because of a new technical problem with the magnetic handle of
the Torqeedo. We used Seeker to pace Ben. Since it’s harder to get a sustained speed
with Seeker, the session is more tiring for Ben as he has to catch up with the boat when
there are gusts
35 09/07/18 09/07/18 1 00:19:11 35.32.963 N 148.16.467 E 01:25:01 35.45.762 N 148.37.361 E 01:05 21.57 431.22 Seeker + kayak Maria Lauren 2 8 110 0-1 E 26 Sunny Ben tired
We arrive at the waypoint at the right moment, good launch. Was difficult to keep
Seeker in the right course and speed, we tried new set up with the sails but still was or
too fast or too slow for Ben. After about 4h we decided to use the kayak to pace Ben,
Ben didn’t come back on the boat during the changing, he remained in the water and
swam on his back
36 10/07/18 10/07/18 1 01:45:00 35.45.762N 148.37.361E 09:18:07 35.58.196 N 148.54.897 E 07:33 19.17 450.39 Kayak Maks Lauren 2 8 80 0-1 SE 26 Cloudy 7/8 Sunset
No wind in the morning, we chose to pace Ben with the kayak, Maks was the 1st pacer.
Seeker was motoring behind them for 1h30 before the wind picked up and she could
sail. After 5H swimming swap kayaker. Ben stayed in the water, directly continued the
swim after.
37 11/07/18 11/07/18 1 01:41:26 35.58.190N 148.54.866E 09:03:42 36.12.610N 149.18.532E 07:22 24.09 474.48 Kayak Yoav Maria 2 7 SSW 0-1 S 26 Clear skies Sunset
We spent most of the morning coming back to the GPS location, Yo
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