The California coast was shrouded in fog that fourth of July morning in 1952. Twenty-one miles to the west on Catalina Island a 34-year-old woman waded into the water and began swimming toward California, determined to be the first woman to do so.
Her name was Florence Chadwick and she had been the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions.
The water was numbing cold that July morning and the fog was so thick she could hardly see the boats in her own party.
Millions were watching on national television.
Several times sharks, which had gotten too close, had to be driven away with rifles to protect the lone figure in the water.
As the hours ticked off, she swam on. Fatigue had never been her big problem in these swims – it was the bone-chilling cold of the water.
More than 15 hours later, numbed with the cold, she asked to be taken out.
She couldn’t go on.
Her mother and her trainer alongside in the boat told her that they were near land.
They urged her not to quit.
But when she looked at the California coast, all she could see was dense fog.
She had been pulled out only a half mile from the California coast. Later she was to reflect that she had been defeated not by fatigue or even the cold – the fog had defeated her because it obscured her goal.
It was the only time Florence Chadwick ever quit.
Two months later she swam the same channel, and again fog obscured her view, but this time she swam with her faith intact – somewhere behind that fog was land.
Not only was she the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, but she beat the men’s record by some two hours!
--- from The Best of Bits & Pieces
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Keep your eyes on the prize.
Rob Gilbert
