Swimming in a Washing Machine

As a teenager, Sybil Fisher, now an occupational therapist in Milwaukie, Oregon, put swimming the English Channel on her life to-do list. When she was diagnosed with asthma in 2001, rather than letting the goal die, she decided to swim the Channel to raise awareness of the disease.

By June 2003, she was swimming more than 25 miles a week and was ready for the challenge of the 23.69-mile (38.12-kilometer) swim between Shakespeare Beach near Dover, England and Cap Gris Nez, France. In late July 2003, Fisher, her husband/trainer, and her coach arrived in England, giving her approximately 10 days to practice onsite. The pilot of the escort vessel Fisher hired to accompany her on the swim gave her a five-day window in which, depending on the weather, she might swim.

For any Channel swimmer there is a lot of anticipation and anxiety, says Fisher, because a swimmer can wake up, go to the docks, and think "this is the day!" only to have the pilot call off the swim due to bad weather. Sometimes, the window of opportunity never opens.

Fisher's day did come. She swam on August 8 – a day when the wind was blowing perpendicular to the tide causing her to feel as though she was swimming "in a washing machine." At 7:42am, when she set out with her escort vessel, Aegean Blue, the fog was thick, with about 50 feet (15 meters) of visibility, and it hung in until about 4pm. The air temperature was 63F (17C), and the water 64F (18C).

The Swim

Fisher describes three particularly memorable moments during her swim: the most dangerous moment, the biggest challenge, and the hardest part.

The most dangerous moment occurred about two hours into the swim. She heard two low, long foghorns through the mist. Luckily, Fisher didn't have to scuttle frantically out of the path of the huge freighter – it was about 100 feet (30 meters) away – but she did get its wake right in the face.

The biggest challenge occurred after she had been swimming for about 7.5 hours. An experienced occupational therapist, she knew exactly what was wrong, "I was experiencing bilateral wrist and shoulder tendonitis at its extreme. Every stroke felt like sharp knives stabbing me." To get past the pain, she asked her coach to act as a pacer, which solo Channel swimmers are allowed for one hour a few times during the swim. Having something else to focus on – and someone beside her to also battle the waves – allowed her to forget the pain and get her second wind.

And the hardest part was the last two hours. As the sun was setting, she could see the coast of France lit up in the distance – but it never seemed to be getting closer. To continue, she had to overcome her exhaustion and battle the tides and currents, which can sweep you back out into the Channel and can lengthen a swim by six hours or more.

Despite everything, Fisher always knew she would succeed. "I set my mind, about two months ahead of the swim, that I would not get out until I walked onto land or someone was dragging me out."

Fisher Out of Water

And when she reached France – after 13 hours and 52 minutes of swimming – she was overwhelmed. She landed right below a restaurant, and about 30 people came down to the rocky shore to congratulate her and shake her hand. She couldn't cry, because she knew it would set off her asthma. And it wasn't over – the water at the shore was too shallow for her boat, so she had to swim back out to the Aegean Blue for the four-hour ride to England.

Fisher is now developing a new list of challenges – swimming the Cook Strait between New Zealand's North and South islands, learning surfing, and learning Kung Fu. But, perhaps, the biggest and most anticipated challenge of all is starting a family, which Fisher and her husband plan to do in the near future.

Channel swimming is – relatively speaking – a common thing. During one training day in the Dover harbor, Fisher met fellow swimmers from Hungary, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Scotland, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, and the US. In fact, it is so common that Fisher didn't see any mention of anyone swimming the Channel in any British or European media. (Although the media back in Oregon did publicize her effort to raise awareness of asthma.)

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