Nuala aims to cross oceans to set new record

DINGLE woman Nuala Moore is preparing for yet another icy challenge, this time attempting to become the first person ever to swim from the Pacific to the Atlantic at the tip of treacherous Cape Horn.

Although she has conquered many extreme challenges, including swimming around Ireland and across the Bering Strait, Nuala (pictured right) will never have been “as remote, as exposed, as vulnerable” as when she slips over the side of a Zodiac to swim a mile in some of the most dangerous water on the planet, where the temperature is as low as 3 – 8 degrees Celsius.

Nuala will be accompanied by two rescue divers on the swim, which she aims to undertake in late March/ early April, but even so the risks are huge.

“At this location the Atlantic and Pacific oceans meet, often in a confrontation. This is by far one of the most remote and most difficult swims that can happen worldwide, based on the risks and the remoteness of the location. No land to the east, none to the west – winds sweep all the way around the world,” is how Nuala describes the scene.

Nuala plans to leave Ireland on March 25 and the swim expedition will stay in Port William, Chile, until a weather window becomes available to sail south to Cape Horn through the Drake Passage and the Beagle Channel. “My team and I will train and acclimatise to the freezing waters while at Port William and also get familiar with recovery procedures etc in the event of an incident where I need to be removed from the water,” she says.

Assuming that all goes well at Cape Horn, Nuala plans to make the most of the trip to the far reaches of South America by swimming across the mouth of the Italy Glacier in the Beagle Channel.

If she manages this 2km swim she will be only the second person in the world to have completed the feat. If, as she hopes, she manages to swim the 4km over and back across the channel she will have another world first under her belt.

To round off the tour, Nuala plans to swim across the Straits of Magellan which promises another 5km of freezing and highly unpredictable water. It wouldn’t be everybody’s idea of a winter holiday but then again Nuala enjoys nothing more than pushing the limits of endurance

“What is certain about the ice and the cold water is that it will take you at one point of no return, but pushing that point and managing that limit is what the sport is all about,” she says.

And for anybody planning to follow in her wake, Nuala has written a manual on ice swimming. “I want people to know how to prepare and what to expect… there’s more to it than just running in and running out of the water,” she says.

Meanwhile, and aside from all her other preparations, Nuala is looking for sponsors for her South American swims and will be very happy to hear from anybody with a few bob to spare for the cause. She can be contacted at nualamooreswim@gmail.com