Swimming to Antarctica_ Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer - Lynne Cox [138]
Climbing back on the ball, I emptied my head of everything else and managed to balance for five throws. This was an invaluable lesson for me. For this swim, the mental training and the physical training were completely intermeshed.
In addition to dry-land workouts, for the past two years I had been training in the ocean all year long, and in my folks’ backyard swimming pool when its water temperature got colder than the ocean. I swam one-, two-, and three-mile sprints, alternating between swimming head up and head down. Swimming with my head up would enable me to conserve body heat, since up to 80 percent is lost through the head. But this body position in the water creates drag; it was like swimming uphill, and it reduced my speed and made me tire quickly. So I decided to alternate between head up and head down.
I was to fly to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in Argentina, on the Beagle Channel, ten days ahead of my crew and train in Ushuaia Harbor. This would enable me to get over jet lag, acclimate to the cold water, and begin psyching myself up for the swim. My crew would arrive a day before the ship, the Orlova, sailed for Antarctica. Included in the crew would be seven friends, some of whom had been on past swims. Barry Binder would be the person I communicated with during the swim; he would help me with coordinating the logistics and navigation. Dan Cohen would be the rescue swimmer; Dan would jump into the water and help me get out in the case of an emergency. Bob Griffith and Martha Kaplan were the scouts; they would be positioned in the lead Zodiac watching the water for ice and potentially dangerous animals. Griffith, who was an expert with a lasso, would have one on hand in case I needed additional help clearing the water. He would use the lasso to pull me over to the boat. Dr. Gabriella Miotto, Dr. Susan Sklar, and Dr. Laura King would be observing me during the swim, making sure I didn’t go into hypothermia. But if there was an emergency, they were trained to revive me.
CBS would be covering the swim. They had sent their own crew, who would be traveling with us. Shawn Efran would be producing the segment with Scott Pelley for 60 Minutes II. Casey Morgan was assistant producer, while Chris Everson and Ian Robbie would be filming the story. Adam Ravetch would film the underwater scenes, and Mark Brewer would handle the sound.
A week before leaving for Argentina, I started avoiding public places and made a point of washing my hands a lot. If someone near me sneezed, I held my breath and raced out of the area. After training so hard for this swim and working through so many details, the last thing I wanted was to jeopardize it all by getting sick. One of my greatest concerns was catching a cold or other sort of infection on the thirty-hour flight. The recirculated air in an airplane cabin dries out the nasal passages, making the area a perfect entry point to the body for rhinoviruses—which cause the common cold. I asked Laura King if there was some kind of lotion I could use to keep my nasal membranes moist. She recommended using Aquaphor, which was normally used on premature babies to keep their skin moist, and for dry, cracked lips. She also gave me a surgical mask to wear if I had the misfortune of sitting on the plane near someone with a cold.
Blood clots were also a concern. They could occur during the long flight from sitting too long in one place. My father had advised me to get up, stretch my legs, and walk around to keep the circulation going. As an added precaution, I began taking Bayer baby aspirin three days prior to departure to thin my blood. I was also concerned about health problems that could occur after my swim. If my limbs were extremely cold during the swim, my blood circulation would be greatly reduced, and there would be a chance of getting