Stephen Redmond's Catalina Crossing

On October 19, I had the pleasure to be an official observer for the last swim of the season.  Stephen Redmond had come over from Cork, Ireland to complete the 4th of 7 swims in the Oceans 7 series.  A former wrestler, and rugby player turned open water marathon swimmer, Steve has completed the English Channel, Straights of Gibraltar, North Irish Channel, Catalina Channel and (as I write this) swimming the Molokai Channel of Hawaii!

The reporters and photographers of Red Bull were on board to document the Catalina Crossing in style.  We started off with interviews, photos, and introductions on board Greg Elliot's Bottom Scratcher in San Pedro, CA.  I was on board as official observer with David Clark, Gracie Van der Byl and Forrest Nelson were the paddlers escorting Steve and his brother, Antony, was serving as coach, medical officer and support crew.  Due to mechanical issues we were late to shove off. 

After prepping, advisements, well-wishes  and a final prayer, the official start of Steve's swim began at 01:09:50 at Dr's Cove on Catalina.  The skies were overcast but the sea was calm with the glow of the LA lights in the distance.  Steve has a consistent 3 stroke rhythmic rate of 48-50 SPM (strokes per minute).  Grace and Dave are on first watch till dawn.  The wind kicked in about one and a half hours into the swim from the East at 5kts and swell around one foot.  His feeds of Perpetuem were given from the paddlers every 45min as he specified, but Steve was having a hard time keeping them down from the start. 

Intake and output, an important element in marathon swimming, you need energy, carbs, water and you need to pee.  Because he was unable to feed properly, because he was vomiting and because he was unable to evacuate but once, Steve was feeling weak, cramping and dehydrated.  Aside from the physical problems this presents, it plays havoc on your mental game.  By 06:00, with Forrest and me on deck as the morning sun was rising behind the thick marine layer, Steve was making progress and his stroke count was still a solid 50, but he was having shoulder pain and had a lot of negative talk.  The next hour would be the breaker. 



Captain Greg Elliot pipes the daybreak



With 10.2 NM (nautical miles) to go, he really needed to dig deep and find the strength mentally and physically to pull himself out or this adventure was going to have a different ending!  Forrest was being a positive motivator along side as Antony and I were shouting encouragement from the boat.  At one point, Steve stopped and was treading water for a very long time.  He moved over to the back of the boat and was asking to get out!  This was something he had specifically told everyone NOT to let him do under no circumstances.  Not that I wanted to.  So I told him "you're going to need to go back to acting school, because you just don't have me convinced yet!" and other fine quips.  If we had felt he truly was unable to continue, we'd have pulled him, but this is a powerful man.  Anyone else would not be able to continue after being stopped for so long under these conditions. Forrest had gotten word from Antony to mention Steve's daughter's name, Sadhbh (pronounced "sive") and that she wouldn't want him to quit.  He nodded, treaded some more. Antony threw him a Milky Way bar.  Full of salt water (it's so 'in' right now with the sea salt and all), he got it down with some sweet tea, put his head down and got down to business.  He was able to hold it together like we knew he could.  We were feeding him more frequently now and making progress.





Gracie paddling, Steve and the Scratcher
Photo taken by me from Bubba



Somewhere around 9am a baby duck came on the scene and started following Steve for about 15min like he was it's Mama!  LOL  We have 4.9NM left to go now and he's asking how much further (he told us not to tell him).  Steve has been able to keep some of the feeds, water, tea etc down. We're on 20min schedule now and he seems to be doing better.  Still vomiting, but doing well as Grace and Dave come on duty.  He's still doing a bit of trash talking,  Grace tells him she's "the Closer" so there's no quitting now! 

The captain is launching Bubba (outboard motor boat).  I go along with one of the photographers to observe the finish.  Steve has been pushed a bit off line and must swim parallel to shore for about a mile plus a bit.  The water temp was fairly consistent between 61 and 64F and the air temp ranged 59F at night to 67F at the finish.

At 13:49:48 Stephen finishes on the beach between Pt Vicente Lighthouse and Long Pt. Time to shower, rest and reflect on the events as we motored back to the harbor.

It was indeed an honor and a pleasure to assist Stephen in his quest.  He is a formidable athlete with a huge heart.  I expect that by the time I post this, he will have successfully completed #5 in his quest for the Oceans 7.

We later met up with Steve Munatones while gathering for dinner...

yeah, he was referring to yours truly saying I was "lovely" facetiously!

the next day Stephen did another interview