Bell swims 73 miles to complete swim around Saipan

The Old Man in the Sea is back on dry land, for the time being, getting ready to move to another island. The last few weeks have been busy, finishing up some odds and ends of the barrier reef, harbor and shoreline inside the lagoon. On Saturday, Sept. 20, I swam the reef up to the channel to Sugar Dock and completed the swim around Saipan at the place where I started on July 4th. The swim around Saipan was complete in that connecting my swims made a closed line around the island. The swimming I accomplished this week completed every foot of the barrier reef and shoreline inside the lagoon.

I ended my last report with a crossing of the reef in Laulau Bay. As often happens, getting back over the reef to the open ocean was more difficult. On my second try on Sept. 8, I found the surf was down enough to make it over the reef. This swim would complete the east side of the island, which has occupied my time since arriving at Bird Island on July 26. Halfway through this swim, I covered the last stretch of cliff-lined east coast with a two-mile swim between Dandan point and Naftan Point. It was one last encounter with the confused seas created by incoming waves colliding with waves reflecting from cliffs.

Naftan Point, the southeast corner of the island, was approached with various contingencies in mind since it lies on the north side of the Saipan-Tinian Channel. If the current was flowing from west to east in the channel, I would not be able to get past the point and would have to kill some time in the open sea to the east waiting for the tide and current to change. The available daylight at this time of the year would limit my wait to about two hours or I would risk experiencing nightfall in the ocean. There were a couple of places back up the coast which looked like possibilities for making it to shore with climbable slopes beyond. I would try for one of these at the end of two hours. If the current was flowing from east to west, there was the possibility that I might experience a countercurrent coming down the west side of the point. If this was the case, I would have to stay off shore in the channel and come to shore farther to the west.

There ended up being no current at all at the point, but I did experience a countercurrent developing farther up the west side of the point. The current was a little less than my maximum swim speed and I experienced something I used to experience as a younger man. Thirty years ago, when I was making slow gains against such a current, I would sometimes get a burst of energy and feel as if I could swim all-out and never stop. Now, I had been swimming for six hours, but suddenly the burst of energy was there. The adrenaline was pumping for 100 yards, then the current disappeared almost as fast as it had appeared, leaving me wondering if I still have the energy reserves I once had. Maybe so.

My target was Obyan Beach, which I reached by pulling myself in on rocks at the edge of a channel with an outgoing current. My total distance was 4.5 miles in 7 hours and 22 minutes. I had seen two reef sharks and a number of turtles on this swim and some coral west of Naftan Point that was of such a deep purple that it almost seemed to glow. The reef is a hauntingly beautiful place.

The 7.5-mile walk home in the dark on roads, most of which have no provision for pedestrians, was also an adventure.

I had chosen to end my next segment at the Coral Ocean Point Golf Course, the place where I came ashore after swimming the Tinian Channel on June 9th. I proceeded westward along the north edge of the channel seeing some coastline I had not seen on my first swim of the Saipan-Tinian Channel in 1981 or on my most recent crossing. I found a current flowing from east to west that did not hug the shoreline but appeared only where points extended into the channel. I was picking up the current again as I swam along the shoreline adjacent to the golf course, but things looked different approaching from the east. There was another point ahead and I figured the place where I came ashore in June must be just beyond this point. As the current picked up in speed near the point, things began to look familiar and I realized I was about to leave the Saipan-Tinian Channel behind. The point was Agingan Point, the southwest corner of the island. Swimming with the current, I fairly flew by the point and burst into the Philippine Sea for the first time since July.

Turning north, I left the current and started up the west side of the point. Within a few hundred yards, the barrier reef formed and arced out to sea in a graceful curve that would carry it the length of the lee side of the island, with a few breaks, finally merging with the shore again at Wing Beach some fourteen miles away. The surf was up to some extent and there was no good place to cross the reef until the break in the reef at the channel leading to Sugar Dock. With the current running in the Tinian Channel and the surf up, I really had no choice but to head for Sugar Dock. This would mean finishing my swim a week early without fanfare instead of meeting friends there.

I think when the current in the Tinian-Saipan Channel is running at full strength from east to west there are probably large eddies of water on each side of the channel as it empties into the Philippine Sea. As I proceeded to the north, apparently the north-side eddy impinged on the reef, giving a current heading south. No burst of energy was going to carry me two miles up the reef in a current that was increasing by the minute so my only option was to cross the reef.

Swimming across a reef is a different experience than snorkeling. Swim fins are powerful even in shallow water, but bare feet are not much force in any depth. Approaching the reef, you get on the backside of a wave and swim hard to stay just behind the peak of the wave. As the wave plunges, the back side of the wave is propelled forward and you ride it over the reef. For a few seconds the water is deep enough to swim free style, then as the wave spreads over the reef, a few seconds of breast stroke and finally you start pulling yourself forward with quickly, but carefully selected handholds in holes and, if necessary, coral. Practically every hole is home to someone, but the residents you particularly want to avoid are the spiny sea urchins. As the water loses its momentum, you look for secure handholds and hang on. The next wave, usually following in about 9 to 11 seconds, is slowing and rising into an almost vertical front. As it does so, the trough in front of it deepens and the water on the reef cascades back into this trough. You do not want to be pulled backwards into the trough. As the wave plunges, you will be slammed onto the reef and then rolled in the advancing surge. The coral that could be used gingerly for handholds will spoil your whole day if you are rolled or dragged over it.

I stayed out of the trough, threaded my way through the branching coral at the lagoon edge of the reef front and finally made it to the deeper water of the lagoon. Landfall was made at the Pacific Islands Club Resort. I had swum 4.6 miles in 4 hours and 54 minutes. I was in the home stretch now; a three-mile walk up the beach and I was home with the sun still shining.

Saturday, Sept. 20, marked the day of completion. I left my walking shoes at Sugar Dock and walked barefooted down the two miles of beach to my starting point. Halfway there, I slipped on mossy concrete slabs piled across the beach and got a nasty cut on my right arm. It was still bleeding moderately when I started my swim. I figured that this might raise the rather modest shark count for my swim, but I encountered only one reef shark and he swam quickly away.

Going out over the reef with plunging surf was a different process than the week before. Now, I was going against the surging waves and had to dig in and wait for the right timing. I found a hole in the reef close to the leading edge and deep enough to duck down in when the waves surged over me. After 18 minutes, there was a brief period of disorganization in the waves, I made my break for it and got over the reef before the next wave plunged.

I had told friends that I would finish my swim at Sugar Dock at noon. I allowed plenty of time in case I ran into the opposing current again and had to come back in for a swim up the beach in the lagoon. It was a beautiful swim, with no current at all. For the first time in my swim around the island, I was worried that things were going too well. I arrived at the channel leading to Sugar Dock at 11:00 and had to do some reef sightseeing to use up time. I arrived at the dock at 11:56.

Waiting for me at the beach were friends who had been there for the start of the swim on July 4th: Perry Conner, Eun Hee Chu, Rik and Janel Villegas and their children, Lakell, Alicia and Jason.

A break for statistics (these are wet, not dry statistics): Total Miles Swum: 73. Total Time: 87 hours 24 minutes. Total Reef Miles: 13.6. Total Shoreline Miles: 46.3. Total Miles Walked: 91.5. Sea Creatures: 15 reef sharks; 12 turtles; 5 sting rays; 5 crown of thorns starfish. Note: The Total Miles exceeds the total of Reef Miles and Shoreline Miles because it includes miles swum in the lagoon that did not count as reef or shore miles.

My future plans include a change of residence to Tinian with a swim to Tinian on Oct. 4. After swimming the channel, I will swim the shoreline of Tinian in segments as I did with Saipan. That completed, I will fly, not swim (63 miles), to Rota and swim the shoreline there. During my stay on Tinian, I may try a swim to Goat Island (5 miles), which would require spending a night there before returning the next day.

I will probably send out a special report on my channel swim and then reports on my progress in swimming the shoreline of Tinian.