The Freedom Swim series is a series of timed open water swims around the Cape Peninsula. Tony provided support to three swimmers who planned to complete the 7.5 kilometre swim from Robben Island in Table Bay, to Big Bay on the Blouberg coast. The day started extremely early, as I went to meet the swimmers at the V&A Waterfront at 0700 while Tony launched the boat at Oceana Power Boat Club.
Once I’d collected the swimmers’ gear, refreshments and warm clothes, I went to meet Tony in Granger Bay. There was a thick mist over the Atlantic seaboard, and all the boats who were helping with the swim were drifting on the flat sea just outside OPBC. It took a long time, but when the mist started to clear we could see Cape Town Stadium looming over us.
We did a lot of standing by to stand by, and then we did some standing by. It was very quiet in the mist!
At about 1030, after waiting for several hours, we got the go-ahead to set a course for Robben Island. Tony enjoyed testing the motors on Seahorse, as they’ve recently been changed. (And yes, we did get to the island first.)
The meeting point and start of the swim was Murray’s Bay Harbour on the eastern side of Robben Island. The swimmers were to start in two groups: the first swimmers would be in swimsuits (and Vaseline), and the second group, which included our swimmers, would be in wetsuits. We had numbers corresponding to our swimmers attached to the side of the console.
I loved seeing Table Mountain from the sea. What I particularly liked is that the strip of mist below the mountain hid all signs of human settlement (including Cape Town harbour and the abominable Disa Park towers, but excluding the cable station), which let me imagine what this place might have looked like to early visitors to Table Bay.
We are so fortunate to live here!
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