It has been a while… [Swim & Tonic (Courtney Paulk)]

Matt recently pointed out that it has been a REALLY long time since I posted. In fact, it has been since 2016. I actually was a little shocked by that. So many things have happened since my 2x Catalina attempt in 2016. For starters, I went back and completed a 2x Catalina swim in October 2017. Yay! See the attached write-up – http://dailynews.openwaterswimming.com/2017/10/courtney-moates-paulk-describes-2-way.html

Before my 2x Catalina swim, earlier in 2017, I swam around Manhattan twice in July 2017 for the inaugural 40 Bridges swim. Again, see attached write-up http://dailynews.openwaterswimming.com/2017/08/the-genesis-of-40-bridges-doing-57.html

Both of these swims were absolutely amazing. And, I couldn’t have accomplished them without the support of so many people.

For my 40 Bridges swim in Manhattan – Matt and my friend Paul Rekoff were crew. For my first lap I had Terry Lopatosky as my kayaker and for my second lap I had John Humenik. I couldn’t have asked for better support on this swim! It took me 20 hours 15 minutes and 55 seconds to circle Manhattan twice. This swim was nice because there were 5 other amazing people swimming around with me. In the end, four of us completed the swim – me, Jaimie Monahan, Michele Walters and Gilles Chalandon (this picture was taken a few months after the swim). New York Open Water did a fabulous job getting us around the island twice through tricky currents and lots of boat traffic. Swimming around Manhattan in the dark is one of the coolest things I have ever done.

For Catalina, I had Matt, Kris Rutford, Stephanie Hopson and Cheryl Siler on the crew. Pulling double-duty as crew and kayakers I had Amy Frick, Kristi Turner, Jamie Siler – and the head kayaker was Dan Simonelli. Truly an amazing team. It took me 33 hours and 13 minutes to get to Catalina and back. These folks got me through perhaps the most vulnerable point in my life. By the end of the swim, I was hallucinating pretty badly. I was seeing all sorts of things in Dan’s kayak during the last five hours – a walrus, a dog (named Chris), a boom lift. I also was seeing pebbles underneath of me as if was coming into shore – despite the fact that it was dark and we were miles from shore. And, I had a crazy notion that we were swimming in circles waiting for the woman that owned the land where we were going to finish to give us permission to land. Of course, the land we were aiming for is public – no need for permission. Once on board, I asked Amy to kill a bug that wasn’t there. The hallucinations passed slowly – turning into geometrical patterns on flat surfaces and after about 24 hours they were gone. I was so glad to get this swim done – in what were not really ideal conditions for a two-way.

Also since 2016 – I’ve been to Ireland twice for Cork Distance Week (only for part of the week this year). And, I went to SCAR in Arizona in April of this year. Both events are amazing experiences and I would highly recommend both of them.

Next week, Matt and I are headed to England for another big swim – a 2-way English Channel swim. My window is between August 18-25. I will be swimming with Eddie Spelling with the CS&PF. I will post the link to the tracker when I know for certain when I will be swimming.