Seibel of Kamloops among Salish Sea Sisters who completed English Channel crossing

“The actual event has many highs, but many, many, many, many lows. You learn a lot about people and you have to come together.”

The five swimmers had varying degrees of familiarity with each other prior to the crossing.

Liz Halloran and Kaley Williams are from Vancouver Island. Seibel recruited her friend Erin Parr, a Kamloopsian who lives in White Rock. Josée Bourgeois is from Halifax.

The swimmers took one-hour shifts and kept to a rotation that if broken would spur immediate disqualification.

“There’s only a 30 per cent success rate,” Seibel said. “You have to do an exchange off the boat where one person has to swim around the other person. There have been numerous times where a team has failed because a member has touched the boat.”

They wore swim caps and goggles and braved frigid waters without wetsuits, which are forbidden.

They departed from Dover, England, at 10:33 p.m. on May 29 under darkness.

Beneath the surface lurked jellyfish – hordes of them.

“There were too many,” Seibel said. “It was a real mind game. I could feel them on my feet almost all the time. It was like my feet were in bubble tea. Some of the heads were this big, but then their tentacles were this long. You’d be swimming over them trying not to hit them, but it was impossible. We all got stung numerous times.”

None of the sisters wanted to be the link that broke the chain, so they fought through fatigue and ailment.

“Our logo is stronger together and it didn’t mean as much until that actual 16-hour event,” Seibel said. “We were stronger together. It means a lot now.”

Halloran, Williams, Seibel and Bourgeois each completed three hour-long shifts. Parr, the anchor, took four shifts and was first to touch land in Wissant, France.

“But then we all got to follow in and get on land,” Seibel said. “We were freezing. I had my waterproof camera. We took about five shots and then it’s like, ‘Get back in the water and get to the boat.’ Once we got all warmed up in our parkas and our five layers of whatever, we cracked the bottle of champagne and had a celebration.”

The group travelled about 57 kilometres, avoiding shipping lanes and guided by tides, finishing with a time of 15 hours and 50 minutes.

Seibel said she is 99-per-cent sure her team is the first all-female Canadian relay group to complete the crossing, noting she is awaiting confirmation from a governing body.

She was emotional upon landing in France and is grateful to Halloran for spearheading the Sisters’ swim.

“She surrounded herself with these people that helped her do it at 68 years old,” Seibel said. “I thought I was old doing it at 56 and she completed at 68. It was way harder than I thought it was going to be. So, those were our emotions … but it was a happy cry. Lots of tears on the beach.”

by Marty Hastings

Seibel of Kamloops among Salish Sea Sisters who completed English Channel crossing

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