After having to delay earlier this month a Lower Mainland woman has completed a swim across Georgia Strait.
Rachel Schoeler swam the 35 kilometers from Nanaimo to Sechelt on Saturday. She says as far as she knows she’s the first woman to make the crossing solo since 1972 and the first person in a long time to do it without a wet suit.
Schoeler is an experienced open-water swimmer and she says she told her support crew not to give her updates along the way, so she wasn’t even aware of the biggest hurdle she faced
Schoeler also went by the strict rules set for attempts to swim the English Channel, including no touching the support boat.
As well as the personal challenge Schoeler, who works with the Fraser Riverkeepers, was trying to raise funds and awareness for their “Swimmable Water Project”. And she says she’s succeeded in that.
In July a pair of young women attempted the swim heading in the other direction to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society. You can see our story on their swim here.
