Marathon Charity Swim from Batam to Singapore - 11 Nov

A hectic weekend just passed. Hubby and a group of other ten swimmers - 11 swimmers swam on 11/11/2007 from Batam to Singapore. A total of 20 km was the original distance but in the end they swam more as the tides were pretty strong. When they were nearing SAF Yatch Club, they were swept by the strong currents towards the restricted zone and even the navy was alerted and on a few occassions, it triggered the siren. Finally it took them 7-8 hours to complete the swim.

It was definitely not an ordinary achievement. Who would dream of swimming such a distance and imagine from Batam! I had taken the boat ride to Batam and it is already a long enough journey. Imagine to swim that distance? On top of that, the kind of huge gigantic sea transports they have to be mindful of - the tankers, the ships, speedboats, sails, surfs .... and not to imagine the strong currents from Indonesia waters to International waters to Singapore. What about those sea creatures which might pose a danger to them? The jelly fishes, sea snakes .... and the unnatural items - plastic bags, oil spills, seaweeds, floating stuffs. One really takes a lot of courage to simply even imagine doing that swim - not to say, complete it.

Seeing them eventually complete the course one by one was a relieve and admiration. I have problem completing 1 km, not to say 20 times of that or more. I am happy that things went really well on Sun and no mishap occurred. The success of this swim means more of such in the future and more work for me ..... (having body aches and legs are aching big time), however, if it means to raise more funds to help the kids in Singapore, what is my little effort compared to the swimmers who braved the sea to swim that distance despite all the odds to do their bit for charity.