Local aims to be first woman to make ocean crossing
A Durban North swimmer has been training five years to swim between two islands.
A LOCAL lass, who hails from Durban North, will be the first woman from South Africa to attempt swimming between two islands. Sarah Ferguson will swim 42 kilometres between the Hawaiian islands, Moloka’i and O’ahu. Ferguson will be one of a handful of people who have attempted the crossing.
The 34 year-old former professional swimmer said about her decision to make the swim, “After retiring I was figuring out what I wanted to do and was struggling with not having a goal. I didn’t want to swim competitively but I wanted to do something with my love of swimming.”
Ferguson had previously been invited to an ocean race in Hawaii, “When I was there I saw Moloka’i and wondered if anyone had swum that before.” The crossing between Moloka’i and O’ahu is one of the Ocean’s Seven, seven long-distance open-water swims considered to be the equivalent of mountaineering’s Seven Summits challenge.
Ferguson has been training for the crossing since 2012. Her initial aim was to do it in 2016 but due to an illness in 2013 and 2014 she postponed it for a year.
“It’s been at least three years training. A lot of preparation, a lot of mental training. I have a full-time job. That takes up a lot of my time. That’s one of the reasons why it takes longer to prepare for something like this which is literally on the other side of the world, just in terms of logistics and coordinating. Also for me, I could have done it two years ago if I really wanted to in terms of the distance but I wanted to do it well and for something of significance.”
She said it took about a year to figure out what that was. She has become particularly passionate about ocean conservation and the specific problem of plastic pollution in it.
Ferguson will make her attempt in July and she is looking to cross the channel in about 15 hours.
