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Cot to Rott [lizziecantoo]

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Last year, one support boat sank and a 4m great white joined in 12km across the channel. Perhaps that’s why a new record was set.

Known colloquially as the Cot to Rott, the race is one of Western Australia’s most iconic events – as opposed to an observation on the journey of life.

Last year’s headlines

On Saturday, hundreds of soloists as well as thousands of swimmers in teams will attempt to make the 19.7km crossing from Cottesloe Beach to Rottnest Island. This will be 28th year for the swim, for which team entries sell out in minutes.

I feel wholly unprepared, even though this is the third year that I have achieved a Rottnest qualifying time for a soloist with time to spare.

Importantly, I’m not even swimming solo, but in a team for Can Too.  To my knowledge, only 3 Can Tooers have ever done this swim, coaches Tamera Lang and Judy Cameron and the totally inspirational Katie Price.

I swim about the same speed as Eli Ball. Here’s what happened to Eli last year.
C2R The Worst

Adding to the challenge of the swim itself are the logistics. Every swimmer needs a support boat and ideally, a paddler.

You start the swim on your own and then find your paddler between 500m-1km.

The team/soloist and paddler then has to rendezvous with their support boat before they pass the Leeuwin tall ship at the 1.5km mark.

The ship is named after a seventeenth century Dutch galleon.  History indicates that the Leeuwin took more than a year to sail from the Netherlands to Jakarta, a voyage other vessels made in less than four months.

Commentators conjecture diplomatically that her poor navigation may have lead to the discovery of large parts of the south-west Australia coast.

Put simply, she got lost and stumbled upon WA.  Beware swimmers, this navigation marker has a salutary tale.

C2R Leein

OMG – I thought that was someone’s support boat!

The swim crosses close to the Perth Canyon, just 20 kilometres west of Rottnest Island, roughly the length of the Grand Canyon, twice as deep and reaching depths of 4km below the waves.  Something to ponder as we gaze down into the abyss.

Nonetheless, since the inception of the modern day race in 1991, more than 16,500 people have crossed the Rottnest Channel.

Too easy then? Er, no.

On that day in 1991, the mercury reportedly hit 46.2C, but despite the sizzling temperatures, some swimmers still got hypothermia.

According to the Rottnest Channel Swimming Association, 2003 saw the worst conditions in the history of the swim with 12 – 15 knot westerly winds and early squalls which meant turbulent water for the duration of the event.  Many swimmers didn’t even start the event while others withdrew during the event for safety reasons.  Only 43% of competitors entered that year finished.

Swimmers also faced bad conditions in 2006 with a large swell, buffeting winds and colder-than-usual water.  The demanding conditions saw a quarter of the field retire.  The 2007 event was cancelled due to poor weather conditions caused by cyclonic activity in the north west of Western Australia.

But in 2012, everyone finished well before the 5pm cut off time!  So, here’s hoping, we have a good year!

Not everyone that has completed the swim has been wholly prepared.  The first recorded crossing of the Rottnest Channel in 1956, started out as a bar room boast by German immigrant, Gerd von Dincklage-Schulenburg.  Gerd was having a few schooners in the Quokka Arms on Rottnest when he bet his journalist friend that he could swim to the mainland.  Gerd was warned of the cold, sharks and the notorious rips around the island but his mind was made up.  And days later, he did it.

Gerd’s swim prompted a bit of a media frenzy.  A WA newspaper offered cash prizes to better Gerd’s time.  Two months later, nine swimmers raced across Rotto with four of them making it.  All of them beat Gerd’s time.

It took another 13 years for the next recorded swim across the Rottnest Channel in 1969. Lesley Cherriman, a recent English immigrant, became the next swimmer and first female to complete a Rottnest crossing.  She went on to complete two more crossing and then in some moments of self reflection, Lesley wrote a book called ‘Why swim to Rottnest when you can catch a ferry?’  Um, good point Lesley.

But my favourite story from around about the same time, is about another German immigrant, a swimming pioneer nicknamed Shark Bait.  Herbert Voigt was known for his penchant of towing a small picnic lunch out to sea in a small bath tub.  In his tub, Herbert would place sandwiches, beer and cigarettes.  He would swim out to sea and then stop for lunch.

In March 1968, Mr Voigt set out to swim from Cot to Rott.  Like his compatriot, the swim was a bet.  Allegedly, Mr Voigt was bet two 18 gallon kegs of beer if he could swim to Rottnest.  One bet was made in a bar and one in a nightclub at which he had drunk until 1am.  It’s reported that he had 4 hours sleep and a cup of coffee.  He admitted that he was hungover.

Three weeks later in 1969, Herbert Voigt’s skull and femur bone were found bobbing near the wreck of the Alkimos at Yanchep.

Gulp.  Perhaps I will stay off the grog on Friday.  Here’s hoping we make it to the Quokka Arms.
Quokka Arms

But before you go, here are 2 beautiful bedtime stories….

Against the Current
How the Quokkas came to Rottnest

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