A successful he 250 meter test swim at Portal Point on the mainland of Antarctica Peninsula in the -0.40°C water went according to plan two days ago, but the first day of official swimming for the 13 members of the Antarctica Ice Swimming Adventure was more disappointing.

Hopes were high after the test swim, but none of the scheduled Ice Kilometers and Ice Miles yesterday were even attempted.

As expedition leader Ram Barkai (@rambarkai_iceswimmer) said, “Antarctica gave us a lesson about humility today.”

But today was another day, a very successful day.

Lynton Mortensen (@lyntonmortensen) wrote, “It sure was tough conditions in the -1.4°C water with 30 knot gusts and floating ice with icebergs, chop, and poor visibility. The Southern Ocean had it all today – and it made for a challenging recovery. It was the coldest water that I’ve swim in and the most difficult given the extreme conditions. Antarctica is the most magical place on earth. I am also having another swim tomorrow, weather permitting. I was going to swim again last night, but it got cancelled because of deteriorating conditions.”

Mortensen’s Ice Kilometer was swum in 25 minutes 53 seconds, his second Ice Kilometer in Antarctica this year.

His American counterpart Martha Wood (@mox_in_sox_2, shown above) said, “Those of us who didn’t swim on the 12th were able to swim off Danco Island yesterday evening. It was a shorter 125+ meter course to help with sighting. It was a stunning setting with no wind and a few small ice pieces floating in the course. I think the temperature was -0.8°C.

As I completed a kilometer [swimming], the only thing I saw underwater was red seaweed. However, Kate Steels (@waterbabykate) and Rory Fitzgerald (@fitzgerald.rory) saw 3 humpback whales swimming in the same area on the course two hours before we swam there. The Zodiacs made sure it was clear of whales before we swam. We have been seeing tons of penguins, lots of orcas, and a few humpback whales. I haven’t seen any seals, but others say they have seen one or two.”

With the challenging conditions, Barkai [shown above with Sam Whelpton] reported that the recoveries were rather hard, but everyone is well and incredibly happy.

He wrote, “We found a nice location by Cuverville Island at around 64° South with an amazing backdrop of a huge glacier. Most swam their Ice Kilometer with water temperature of -0.8°C. The conditions were great, no wind with some ice floating across the course. Few swimmers ended up with few grazes and bruises. No pain, no gain.

Antarctica is a magical place. It’s a very dynamic land that freezes to doubles in size during winter and melts back to its original size through summer and again. That process has vast dynamic that capture and release massive amount of floating ice into the water, in various sizes and shapes. It creates a wonderful display of frozen art, hanging from land or floating in the water. We can watch it all day, it changes, moves and has that raw beauty that only nature can create.

We visited the beautiful beach of 2018 test swim, a vast beach full of penguins and floating ice. It brought back wonderful memories to those who swam there.*

We decided to check the swim infomatic of the previous hectic day as the math didn’t make sense. Checking the data showed the 250 meters course was closer to 400 meters. It still was significantly slower, but with the current and strong wind, it made more sense. We had to adjust the swim distances accordingly.

Test Swim 250m Results in -0.4°C water:

• Rory Fitzgerald 3:34.88
• Neil Hopkins (@neil0212) 3:51.66
• Kate Steels 3:55.58
• Martha Wood 4:04.37
• Sam Whelpton (@samwhelpton) 4:10.32
• Bulcsú Lengyel 4:11.81
• Ram Barkai 4:31.27
• Lynton Mortensen 4:39.69
• Anel Stydekova in 4:59.69
• Charlie Fluery in 5:10.50
• Adam Baker in 5:12.77
• Maxime Valabregue (@maximevalabregue) in 5:38.62
• Dr. Ruth Williamson in 5:54.59
• Wei-Ping Chew (@weipingchew89) in 6:33.87

Main Swim #1 in Port Lockroy on November 12th in -1.4°C water with 30 knot winds

• Lynton Mortensen 1000m in 25:53.00
• Rory Fitzgerald 750m in 12:12.05
• Charlie Fluery 750m in 21:38.95
• Anel Stydekova 750m in 18:58.95

Main Swim #2 in Danco Island on November 13th in -0.8°C water with 0 knot winds

• Neil Hopkins 1000m in 17:00.82
• Kate Steels 1000m in 17:37.94
• Sam Whelpton 1000m in 17:44.78
• Bulcsú Lengyel 1000m in 17:04.07
• Martha Wood 1000m in 20:24.17
• Wei-Ping Chew 750m in 25:37.00
• Maxime Valabregue 750m in 22:28.12
• Adam Baker 975m in 28:48.76

* In 2018 Sam Whelpton, Alexander Brylin, Yunfeng Wang, Leszek Naziemiec, Paolo Chiarino,  Andrey Agarkov, and Sergio Salomone completed an Ice Kilometer in Port Lockroy.

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