Catherine Breed Starts Her ‘Swim California’ Summer Cruise
Swim California mothership skipper Matthew Sessions sent this update on Catherine Breed’s Swim California expedition last week. She’s now south of Crescent City on her coastal swim.
We’re checking in from Swim California, where we’ve had two very successful days’ swimming completed (with about 120 to go!).
All is good on the SV Catalyst and we are currently in Crescent City, CA. Our days start early, as the best swim windows are from sunrise until mid-morning. While we have had sunny days up here at the NorCal border the last few days, most afternoons we have seen 25–35+ NW winds ripping down the coastline.
We have a small army of remote volunteers shoreside to lead on logistics, social media, nutrition, media requests, fundraising and sponsorships, medical safety and more, and our yacht crew has six of us aboard. In addition to my role as captain, we have Maisie Bristow and Heather Hitchcock from England (both age 23, and each with 100,000+ offshore miles, RYA Yachtmaster credentials, and more yachting knowledge than most sailors I know that have spent decades on the water), Jon Cahill (lead medic from Truckee, CA), and the swimmer, Catherine Breed (Mill Valley, CA). Sailor, open-water swimmer and SFYC member David Holscher has been an excellent resource aboard these first two days and will be making weekly trips to join the team for a day or two at a time.
Life aboard Catalyst starts early (0330–0500) with Catherine in the water around 0530 most days. We have only a few hours each morning to swim before the winds kick up huge seas, which shut down safe swimming. Return to harbor by midday daily, team meetings, boat maintenance, amazing prepared meals, and back in the bunk before sunset.
Please follow along on our website and spread the word. We are really excited for each successful mile southbound. Our brief stopover in San Francisco should be mid-August.
