Prologue
29 July 2001, Somewhere in the San Francisco Bay
“I think when Dr. Blatz recommended you take up swimming, he meant in the pool.” The words of my physical therapist Chris Kuhn came back to me as I struggled to stay afloat in the three foot chop.
My goggles were fogged. I tried to clear them, but was so hypothermic I couldn’t move my fingers. I was wearing a 3mm wet suit which did nothing to keep me warm in the 65ºF water. I couldn’t feel my feet. I assumed they were still attached to me though I hadn’t seen them since I had jumped off the ferry at Alcatraz Island. A thick fog moved in, making it impossible to see the shore of San Francisco or Alcatraz Island.
That’s when I realized I was lost.
Swells rose around me like large shark fins, smacking me in the face and sometimes flipping me over onto my back. Waves crashed on top of me and pushed me down into the murky brown water. The strong current I was caught in carried me closer and closer to the Bay Bridge. As the seconds passed I realized that I would soon be swept out into the open ocean.
If that happened, the chances I would be rescued were miniscule. I doubted a boat would be able to find me, even though I was wearing a hideously bright yellow swim cap that didn’t match the rest of my swimming outfit.
My predicament had not been covered in any of the training films I had watched a few months before. It made sense to me now why people had told me I was crazy when I said I was learning to swim using internet videos instead of a coach. And why they thought it was a mistake to make my open water swimming debut swimming in a race from Alcatraz to San Francisco.
I didn’t want to drown in the diesel, sewage, and kelp infested waters of the Bay. I had to keep swimming.
But which way should I go?
I thought of a quote from the movie Himalaya: “When two paths open before you, always take the hardest one.” The tide wanted me to surrender. It was counting on killing me by taking me out into the no man’s land beyond the bridge.
I chose, and began to swim against the current.
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