Posted on 10/17/2015 11:47:33 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
Some time in December, Ben Hooper will step on to a beach in Dakar, Senegal, and plunge into the warm blue waters of the Atlantic. He will not stop swimming until he hits Natal in Brazil. The distance is 1,763 miles.
But thats only if he goes in a straight line. And swimming across the Atlantic in a straight line is a bad idea: The currents in the centre are so strong, Id never get there. Its an absolute car wreck in the centre. Great for rowers, great for sailors, horrible for swimmers, he says.
Instead he will go in a strange L-shape, heading south until he crosses the Equator before swimming back to the coast of Brazil. In all, if all goes to plan, it will take about 120 days: Hooper, a former policeman from Cheltenham, will swim for about eight or nine hours every day for four months. I will be staring at a blue wall. There might be some marine life, there might be sharks, dolphins, cargo containers, some garbage. But mostly just a blue wall.
If you thought this was an impossible challenge, youd be right: 4,100 people have climbed Everest, 1,340 have swum the Channel, and 12 men have walked on the moon. No one has swum the full distance of the Atlantic.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
...”definitely not from an eastern European nation...”
Why not?
JUst asking.
IMHO
I think I first heard it as a Polack joke. I am not into that sort of humor. Now if it had been about wetbacks....
If it is printed it must be true.
He better start early if he wants to get there while it’s still light out.
How many calories ? Swimming 8-9 hours a day?
Wow
Giant Squid Food
All he has to do is learn to drink nothing but seawater and enjoy a steady diet of sushi, and he'll be okay.
I’m submitting his name early for a Darwin Award so it’ll be ready and waiting for him.
“For I’ve received orders to swim to old England...”
I recently found that there are people who swim from the Farallon Islands to the Golden Gate. I can’t imagine many places worse to do that. Bad currents, cold, turbulent, and a breeding ground for Great White sharks.
Imagine the big wave of muzzie migrants hitting our beaches.
Tempting.
And most Great Whites attack by coming up from below...so no amount of spotters can help.
http://farallonswimfederation.com/wordpress2/
I thought *I* did some crazy stuff back when. This takes it.
It's like dangling fried chicken or a scantily clad cheerleader in front of Billy Jeff Clinton.
Boom!
Or holding a glass full of Scotch out to Hillary. Or...(we could spend all day making up similes here)
“I think I first heard it as a Polack joke”
I hate ethnic jokes too. It denigrates good people and puts them in an awkward position and many times makes the teller feel superior.
IMHO
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