They were courageous risk-takers, the six swimmers and crew of the intrepid Night Train Swimmers.

Despite the building-sized ocean swells, curious sharks that followed the swimmers, wind-whipped turbulence, and constant sub-15 degree C water, the Night Train Swimmers lasted 5 straight days out on the Pacific Ocean in an unyielding aquatic battle against an angry Mother Nature.

But ultimately the Night Train Swimmers were not invincible. It was not the apex predators that led to the premature stopping of their SF to SC to SB relay. It was not the ravages of an angry sea. It was not the days on end seemingly swimming uphill against the elements. It was the smallest of creatures, the jellyfish that finally did in the Group of Six.

The swimmers are heavy-hearted after the unprecedented 339-mile planned swim from San Francisco to Santa Barbara was called off due to a primordial soup of jellyfish that they encountered off the central California coast. After they restarted their swim from Santa Cruz, the Night Train Swimmers made it approximately 125 miles and were finally forced to stop west of Morro Bay.

Night Train Swimmer Matthew Davie said, “What these swimmers have accomplished is an amazing feat. Weathering through a false start due to mechanical difficulties (a broken throttle on their escort boat) that erased 50 miles from their swim, the swimmers endured 3 full nights of intense jellyfish visitors. They continued on until it was no longer physically possible. They are all an inspiration.”

“I will take 1,000 sea nettles to 1 of these snake-like torch lighters,” said Patti Bauernfeind of the siphonophores. “They sting like fire and it is hard to smoother it out. Their sting is like fire times ten. The nettles are polite in comparison.”

Wyatt Patry of the Monterey Bay Aquarium explained, “There were a ton of these siphonophores out there today. The ocean swells seem to have kicked them up.”

Copyright © 2012 by Open Water Source