Penny Palfrey (Australia, MSF bio here) swam 63.8 km from Santa Barbara Island to the California mainland in 2009 in 17 hours 53 minutes. Shortly after leaving the island, she saw a large Great White Shark swim past under her. “I know there is marine life out there. I have seen two Great White Sharks in my life. The first time that I saw a great white shark during my swims was very early on in my successful crossing from Santa Barbara Island to Point Vicente on the California coast, which is the same finished place as where the Catalina Channel swimmers finish.
One passed right under me. It was so big. It was majestic. I was in awe of this huge, graceful creature beneath. It me looked like a small submarine. But you have to remain focused.”
There was no panic in her words when she described this unusual – and potentially deadly – encounter. She felt no fear; she only displayed a healthy dose of wonder and respect.
The first large great white shark of the season was spotted in Nantucket, off the coast of Massachusetts on May 14th. The day after, Lewis Pugh began his 96 km circumnavigation swim around Martha’s Vineyard where the ocean scenes of the blockbuster Jaws was filmed.
Close call.
There was another race in the area back in 1968 that was another particularly memorable close call.
A 14.1-mile World Professional Marathon Swimming Association race was held from Sand Hill Cove State Beach in Narragansett Bay to New Harbor in August.
17 swimmers reportedly started, but only four swimmers – among the best in history including three International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Honor Swimmers – finished in one of the few documented cases where Great White Sharks – including a large shark that was swimming around Régent Lacoursière between 1.5 – 3 km from the finish in New Harbor on Block Island. The shark encounter was photographed by Jean-Guy Racicot who was an escort crew member and a photographer for Lacoursière who was popularly known among his fellow competitors as “Johnny”.
George Park recalls, “‘The world’s greatest marathon!’ is the way they advertised this 14.1-mile race because all the top marathon swimmers in the world were there. The race started from the beach. As we came out of the harbour through a gap in the breakwall, [American] Billy Barton was on my left and Régent on the right, I noticed something dark in the water just below us. I asked Billy, “Is that a shark?” Billy said, “It’s a shark”.
We picked up our pace and the three of us moved to the front of the pack very quickly. Billy moved away from me to the left and Johnny moved to the right and I swam straight ahead. The shark followed me. After about twenty minutes, the boat that was with me put up a sign it said, “Don’t panic there is a shark 200 yards behind you.” Then they wrote, “Don’t stop or change your pace”. Then they said, “The coast guard is tracking it and if it attacks…“.
Another example of swimmers remaining cool, calm, and collected.
1968 Results
1. Abdel-Latif Abou-Heif (Egypt, 40) 8 hours 11 minutes
1. Horacio Iglesias (Argentina, 26) 8 hours 11 minutes
2. Antonio Scamardella (Italy) 10 hours 28 minutes
2. Regent Lacoursiere (Canada) 10 hours 28 minutes
DNF: Tom Bucy (USA) 2 hours, Linda McGill (Australia) 10 hours, Bill Lafferty (USA) 4 hours 40 minutes, Harold M. Weymouth (USA) 6 hours 45 minutes, and George Park (Canada).
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