Inspired by boyhood heroes, British swimmer readies to cross Atlantic
dakar — As a boy, Ben Hooper wanted to join the British explorers he idolised for surmounting the impossible, and now as he prepares to swim across the Atlantic, he hopes to equal their daring feats — and survive.
Hooper is wrapping up no less than three years of preparation for an immense journey that will see him swim up to 10 hours a day in two sessions for nearly five months, starting on Africa’s western extremity and finishing on Brazil’s east coast.
Hooper will leave from Senegal on Tuesday with 11 crew members including a medic on his support boat, and will spend around 140 days struggling against what he calls “the blue wall” — miles and miles of ocean with no land stops. “Shark-wise, we have two lines of defence,” says Hooper, squinting at the waves of the Atlantic lapping at the Voile d’Or beach in Dakar, where he will begin his crossing.
The 38-year-old animatedly explains how he will carry synthesised rotting shark meat to ward off the predators, supplemented by cables sending out an electrical signal to put off any snub-nosed killers.
Sharks and jellyfish are not the only adversity: his muscles will be in agony after swimming 20km every day, his throat parched by saltwater, and there is little he can do to avoid sunburn in waters that may be too warm to wear a wetsuit.
His goal is to rack up 1,635 nautical miles, equal to about 1,881 land miles (3,027km) over the course of the journey. He will take in up to 12,000 calories a day of military food packs and energy drinks.
So why would any rational human do this? A combination of near-death experiences and a love of old-fashioned British derringdo, Hooper says.
A premature baby, he was born with collapsed lungs and barely survived. After five years of better luck, he almost drowned in a Belgian swimming pool. “That was where my affinity with water started. Rather than scare me, that’s where it began,” he says.
Years of charity swims, swimathons, scuba and free dives followed, through uncertainty professionally. —