Rottnest Solo Channel Swim Details - Part II

....Nothing eventful happen, 5k came and went.  10k finally arrived at 3.5 hours.  It was the half way point and knew it was all down hill from here.

The pack to the left of me and about quarter way mark:

At the 15k point this is were the race became interesting.  I took a GPS straight line as I mentioned earlier.  It was clear sailing up to about 12k and I started to notice boats and other swimmers at that point.

At or around the 15k point, I ran into a point.  Could not beleive it.  I said to myself this is some sort of joke.  Not only did he hit me once he hit me 2 other times and really did not care, he shitty relay team was more important.  I was too focus to actually say anything but I should of grabbed the fatty and drowned him...

Seconds before the boat hits me.

Afterwards there was another really annoying huge boat called the Mahalo.  First, it was a yacht, second they did not care for anyone else swimming.  I counted about 5 times this boat cut in front of me and than blasted it's engines blowing me back about 4 meters.  Everytime, I actually had to scream at the asshole, but little good that did.  This was the def the worst part of the race.  Since everyone has to get into a gate it starts to bottleneck here.  Everyone is hitting each other, paddlers are running into each other, swimmers are becoming tight, boats were picking relays members up, chop, exhaust, this was def the worst part.   On top of this there was a brisk current that was there and the wind also kicked up making the swells pretty high.

After the gate it thinned out as the boats could not escort any longer.  The current went away and the wind died due to being sheltered by the island.  At the 800m point the paddler goes away and your home free!

They have a the entire area roped off all the way to the finish so it was a clear shot to the finish line.  All you see on each side of you is tons of boats.  You can't see the island at all just boats!  It was really pretty cool.  About 150m from shore, the jellies kicked in.  I was getting stung all over my arms, pits and shoulders.  It was quite unpleasant but just reminded you that you are still alive...  25m from the shore, I knew I was still breathing and kicking I could not take it as the jellies hit me the neck.  That was it, I got up and walked/ran the rest of the way in!

Final time - 07:16:15