The North Channel is considered by most, the toughest or most perilous of the Ocean Seven swims in that it is very cold, is plagued by the notorious lions’ main jellyfish and involves many competing tides and currents all the way across right up until the final few metres. Located between Northern Ireland and Scotland, it is the coldest of the channels, and has confounded countless great swimmers. Widely regarded as the hardest or most gruelling sea swim in the world, it is characterised with unusual swimming conditions, changeable weather, jellyfish and a low temperature. Thus is it has testing qualifying swims, so people do not undertake this endeavour lightly. Till date only 115 people have successfully made the journey across.
Notably, the North Channel is among the Ocean’s Seven or the list of seven marathon open water swims. The most challenging factor of swimming across the North Channel is that even the summer temperature of the water is around 12 to 15 degrees Centigrade. Swimming across such waters for a long duration requires special acclimatization and training, over and above the experience of marathon open water swimming.
I recommend adventure sports enthusiasts to read accounts by ‘Journey to Complete Channel’ by Grainne Moss on ‘Swimming the North Channel, ‘by Marcia Cleveland and the ‘North channel Attempt’ by David Williams. They relate how it is the most perilous of missions where you are virtually trapped at junctures, with mental resilience and will power tested at it’s peak.
Sayani Das becomes First woman to swim Five of seven Oceans
On August 30th, Sayani Das, a 23 year old resident of Kalna in East Burdwan district of West Bengal, became the first Indian female to complete a swim of the challenging North Channel. in a time of 13 hours 22 minutes, battling the biting cold, unforgivable waves and harassment from jellyfish and other harmful denizens of the water. Sayani has scaled a new height in Indian aquatic or sporting endeavour and also carved a permanent place in the hall of fame of marathon swimming.
Sayani triumphed through her unflinching resilience and never say die spirit On reaching this landmark she has also become the first woman from Asia to have crossed five of the ‘Ocean Seven’. According to Britain’s timing, Sayani took to the waters at 7:45 am and completed her expedition at 03:00 IST (Indian Standard Time) on Saturday morning. The North Channel Swimming Association saluted Sayani’s glorious accomplishment on its social media handle, congratulating her.
Das, in April, had successfully swum across the challenging Cook Strait Channel in New Zealand and had begun her arduous preparations up for crossing the North Channel since then. Sayani is now aiming to cross o the Tsugaru Strait and the Strait of Gibraltar in the days to come and achieving the distinction of crossing all the channels under the ‘Ocean Seven’.
In India we have elevated cricket to a god-level sport, with other sport is given as much adulation as cricket. When a person tries to make a career in sports the 1st objection comes from family and surroundings. If you want to become successful you need to study hard to get admission in a prestigious educational institution. with a degree and education being the only road to success. This myth was shattered by this girl. It takes a heart of iron to swim 44 miles continuously fighting jelly fishes and cold waves. It was reminiscent of her life struggle, which was triumph over the clutches of adversity. zeal and unflinching resilience to not be overpowered by treacherous obstacles obstructing her, teaches us that on the most tortuous paths the mission is to keep walking till the destination arrives.
Initiation and Motivation
Her father Radheshyam Das motivated her to join swimming. Her natural talent for swimming was discovered by her headmaster. Swimming like a fish in the water she has a natural inclination to swim across waters. She dipped her feet into the water at the age of 7 years . At the age of 7 years she participated in a 10 Km stretch swimming competition across river Ganga. Although she stood 11th in that competition. her coach Mr Pasupati Kundu was convinced of her untapped or hidden talent and persuaded her to pursue swimming as a career and create a milestone no one ever achieved. She went on to win 6 state-level gold medals in Swimming and also participated in national-level swimming.
Tragically, in her hometown, she was a victim of harassment and discrimination while practicing on the local ponds. She was not permitted to swim in the pond by local people. who were rooted with a traditional orthodox outlook like how girls should behave and how they should dress in front of everyone. Swimming costumes are made tightly fitting which broke the dress code of orthodox local people. Sayani Das was anxious whether she would get access to practice in the local pond. However displaying the stuff or x factor that legends are made who cannot be subdued so easily with harsh realities and she started preparing for the huge jump of her life of being an internationally acclaimed swimmer.
Road to English Channel
In the year 2017 when she was 18 years old she set her eyes on swimming the English Channel. The. Her father had to mortgage their ancestral house to raise funds for the journey to the UK and attempt for an English channel. Inspite of her VISA being rejected a couple of times. and no one financially supporting her. she reached the shores of UK to awit the challenge.
In her first test swim the English Channel water she was totally aghast with the temperature is 12 degree Celsius. After relentless determination in getting accustomed to such chilling swimming water is near. After that the weather there is very unpredictable and it changes abruptly. So there are high chances of a participant that she might not be allowed to swim. But she again was not so easily dominated or disheartened, she kept her practice. Then a tentative date was given to her. On the dates she was allocated unfortunately the weather was not suitable for swimming and her swimming schedule was cancelled by the authorities. When she requested the authorities to let her swim the channel swimming authorities replied “You are an Indian, you cannot swim in such cold conditions there are high chances you might freeze and die. Many swimmers have tried swimming in English and died only due to cold. They were scared to risk the life of a swimmer when there are records of previous accidents and fatalities. Sayani kept pleading “Please give me one chance. Indians can do anything. Finally the authorities relented to her pleading and sanctioned the swim to the lady who dared to scale the heights.
Journey across English Channel
.On 25th July 2017, at the age of 18, she began her journey. Sayani started her swimming across the English Channel in the afternoon 12.55. The weather was at a continuous ebb and flow and waves escalating high but Sayani remained unflinched. While having food the salty sea water poured into her .The left side of her face got burnt and her hands, legs started burning, due to a jellyfish attack. Unruffled she kept swimming and slowly by night temperature fell drastically. Sayani now had thoughts entering her head of giving up. With the flesh in her mouth and face bruised and the upper layer of her face skin hit. The belt around her shoulder got bruised and salt water hit that area incurring more pain. Her father and the boat instructor persuaded her to keep swimming as at that point as if she stops moving her hands hypothermia might occur which might lead to cardiac arrest.
Sayani was determined not to surrender at any cost, with her inspiration was the legendary swimmer Masidur Rahaman Baidya who crossed the English Channel without both his legs. She gave her final burst to bang the final nails in the coffin, and at 3.03 AM in the morning, she touched the shores of the French coast. All her energy reserves were exhausted, with the journey taking the toll out of her. She was now the youngest Bengali swimmer girl, to cross the English Channel after a swimming battle of 12 long hours. She waved the Indian flag on foreign soil in the moment of untold glory stating later that waving the India flag after creating history in foreign soil was the proudest moment in her career.
Support and Recognition
There hardly deserved financial support from the government sector and even from the ruling body of the country’s swimming association. She said that her father mortgaged their house to finance the expenses of previous occasions. Still , she received 3 lakh from the state government after completing English channel but still had to incur 13 lakhs overall expenses from her own pocket. She was extremely thankful to California-based US long-distance swimmer coach Dan Simmonelli who is providing online training to her.
SN Films created a Documentary film, “JALPARI” , based on the the expedition of of Sayani Das. This documentary won Best Documentary Film at #SWIFF 2023 #FilmFestival at Waldwick #NewJersey (USA). Apart from that, her autobiography is going to be released soon in Bengali, “Against the Tides.” This book narrates her ardous journey as a girl swimmer who was not only swimming against the tides but battling against the perilous odds of life. She also got invited to share her journey experience as a swimmer in the famous online Ted Talk show.
Other Achievements
In 2019 she swam across the Catalina Channel in United States of America. lies across Santa Catalina and Los Angeles, it is 21 miles long and it is equivalent to the English Channel.
In 2022 she swam across the Molokai Channel located 44 km from Hawaii. It is also known as the Kaiwi channel is around 43 Km long and at times it descends 2300 feet in a few places. Sayani left for the USA on 29th March 2023, however before that, she practiced hard for 2 years. On reaching the USA the 1st two weeks of April she trained hard and on 28th April 2022 at morning 10 AM she started swimming on Molokai Channel water. After 19 hours of an ardous mission, she completed the Molokai channel. She was the 1st Asian to complete Molokai channel, swimming almost nonstop, without any breaks.
Harsh Thakor is freelance Journalist who swam the English Channel and Lake Zurikh in 1988.Thanks information from Swimdean, Longswims Database, openwaterpedia .Millenium Post, Reflections Live by Palash Basu Roy , Times of India. And JOSH TALKS
