Update-
I made it! I swam across the Strait from Tarifa, Spain to Tangier Med, Morocco on Thursday morning August 20 in 4 hours and 1 minute, after waiting 4 days for the strong winds to slow down. During my swim there were tough currents, a lot of oil tankers, container ships, and ferries, as well as two pods of leaping dolphins. As I got close to the shore of Morocco a Moroccan Navy gun boat kept circling me, creating really big waves. Nearby a small boat of Moroccan fisherman waved and another group of fisherman onshore cheered me on as I reached land. I just found out from the Gibraltar Strait Swimming Association (ACNEG) that I am the youngest American to swim across the Gibraltar Strait.
Thanks everyone for donating to my Swim for the Seals.
Hey Everybody,
As many of you know I am training to solo swim the Strait of Gibraltar during the week of August 17th. I am currently doing double pool training sessions daily and 5 to 7 hour Bay swims about every 10 days. The temperature of the Bay has ranged from 50 to 59 degrees during my swims.
The
Strait of Gibraltar is an active shipping channel that connects the
Atlantic Ocean to the
Mediterranean Sea, which accounts for the heavy winds and currents. I will be swimming approximately 13 miles from Tarifa, Spain to Morocco.
The Arab name for the Gibraltar Strait is
Bab el-Zakat or "Gate of Charity". I hope to use my swim as a way to support the
Marine Mammal Center (
www.tmmc.org), which is located in the Marin Headlands just north of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Founded in 1975, The Marine Mammal Center is a nonprofit organization that rescues, rehabilitates and releases injured, sick and orphaned marine mammals (elephant seals, harbor seals, sea lions, and occasionally dolphins, porpoises, whales and sea otters) along a 600 mile stretch of the California coastline. The Center is the largest marine mammal facility of its kind in the world to combine animal rehabilitation with on-site research, treating between 500 and 1200 animals a year. On June 15, the Center opened its new facility to the public and I encourage you to make a visit!
Also in June, the Center began admitting a large number of California sea lion patients; in fact, the Center has three times the average number of sea lion patients in its hospital at this time. Almost all of these sea lions are coming in malnourished, so providing food for them is essential. In April, the Center launched the “Dollar-a-Pound” challenge to raise funds to purchase fish for its patients. Each pound of fish costs $1, and the Center set a goal of raising $60,000 to purchase 60,000 pounds of fish. With the large numbers of sea lion patients now in the hospital, the Center has increased the Dollar-a-Pound Challenge goal to $90,000 for 90,000 pounds of fish.
Your support of my swim would mean a lot to not only me but to all of the starving sea lions that are being treated by the Center at this time.
If you would like to support my Gibraltar Swim please make a gift online here. You may also mail your donations to:
Stewart Goossens Gibraltar Swim
Attention: Development Office
The Marine Mammal Center
Marin Headlands
2000 Bunker Road
Fort Cronkhite
Sausalito, CA 94965
Thanks very much and wish me luck!
Stewart
P.S. While The Marine Mammal Center is taking care of its sea lion patients, it is also actively engaged in trying to understand why the food web for the sea lions (and by extension, for humans) is so out of balance right now. Lots of news organizations are also following this and you can stay up to date by visiting the Center’s web site - www.tmmc.org - and signing up to receive its e-newsletter.