Can you swim the Strait of Gibraltar?
Travel long back in our history, and you’ll find humans have always looked at any vast expanse of water and asked, ‘Do you reckon I can swim across that?’.
Whether I’m stood in Putney after a couple of beers and calculating my chances of swimming across London’s famous Thames tipsy, or whether you’re looking at a map and wondering whether you’d be able to cross an ocean with just your thashing limbs, we’ve all wondered about diving into the bodies that form 70% of the Earth’s surface to some degree. Naturally, it turns out people have been seriously asking whether the Strait of Gibraltar can be conquered with sheer willpower.
So firstly, let’s make one distinction clear that Gibraltar itself is a small British territory on the Iberian tip of Spain that is now known for being home to online casinos and bookies, and the Strait connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, separating Europe and Africa, or to be more accurate, Morocco, remaining an essential waterway for hundreds of years during the Napoleonic Wars and World War II, and presently as a world trade route
To answer our original question, yes, you can swim the Strait of Gibraltar, but unless you are a serious swimmer and not just somebody who likes doing a few lengths at the pool, you shouldn’t even entertain the idea.
At its absolute narrowest, it’s nine miles, 14.4km to be exact, from Punta de Tarifa in Spain to Punta Cires in Morocco; however, the reality is very different because the Strait sees particularly strong currents that make it impossible to actually swim in a straight line, with some estimates suggesting that it might add on a further seven kilometres in the wake of the struggle to cross it.
How dangerous is it?
Not only do the strong currents increase the difficulty and add significantly more risk, but there are other aspects that come into play, making the challenge harder and more dangerous. The Strait is an important shipping lane, which means there are a lot of huge boats in the water, and there are wider safety issues which require swimmers to be escorted by a boat, featuring an official observer, if they decide to take on this challenge. The other primary threat is the cold water, with temperatures ranging between 16 to 20°C, making hypothermia a common concern, where the cold can increase your heart rate and impair muscle and cognitive functions.
To take on a challenge of this magnitude, you need to be the real deal, but you won’t be alone in realising this challenge, which is famed for its difficulty and is undertaken by some of the best swimmers on the planet. It makes up part of the ‘Oceans Seven’, a series of the hardest swims around as the aquatic version of mountaineering’s ‘Seven Summits’.
The quickest swim ever recorded was in August 2009 when Georgios Charalambous swam north to south in two hours and 16 minutes, substantially quicker than the average time, which lies between four and six hours. Many have tried other methods to cross, such as Hector Ramirez Ballesteros, who only used the butterfly stroke and took over seven hours to make his way in 2013.
If you’re a pro swimmer longing for a challenge beyond your nine-to-five life, and this feat intrigues you, it’s essential that you first speak to ACNEG (Asociación Cruce a Nado del Estrecho de Gibraltar), as they’ll grant you the appropriate permission and support for the undertaking. With April to October being the official swimming season, you’ll have plenty of time to lay out the planning grid and train yourself to see if you’re up to snuff for the journey.
