Saturday, September 3, 2011

Catalina Channel

From Katy Catalina 2011

From Katy Catalina 2011

Sometimes in life, you're fortunate enough to meet an incredible group of people who believe that all goals, no matter how difficult, are achievable. This past Friday, my friend Katy Dooley met her goal of swimming across the 21-mile Catalina Channel in 9 hours, 49 minutes and 4 seconds.

Here are some photos of Katy and crew on her adventure:

Katy, before her swim.


Vegas, MVP crew member, who stayed up the entire night coordinating Katy's feed and kayakers.


Mel, grease coater and tweeter.


Alisa, a last minute addition. We were so happy the captain let her on the boat.

David. Veteran channel crosser who came with his daughter on the boat. He knew just how and when to motivate Katy to get her in under 10 hours.

Neil. Official observer who devised a great feeding system.

Thomas, kayaker extraordinaire.

Katy with Kevin, another kayaker

Katy's swim started off in rough waters for the first five hours, but the seas calmed down as the light came out. She was swam consistently throughout and picked up her pace towards the end. As she was coming out, the surge picked her up and pushed her onto the rocks nearly 90 feet away. She's a bit battered and scraped, but she finished!