CNN
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When Barbara Hernandez was swimming for greater than 35 kilometers throughout the North Channel, the strait between Northern Ireland and Scotland, the freezing waters and highly effective currents have been the least of her issues.
That stretch of water is populated by lion’s mane jellyfish, that are among the many largest recognized species of jellyfish on the planet with tentacles stretching 30 meters lengthy. Though not lethal to people, their stings pack a punch and may go away victims in ache for a number of hours.
During her swim, Hernandez knew it was extremely doubtless that she would come into contact with these jellyfish within the murky waters.
“There were a lot of the jellyfish, I suffered,” Hernandez recollects, sustaining the everlasting grin she has when speaking about swimming. “In the final half [of the swim] I touched lots, it was very painful.
“When I swam off Molokai Island in Hawaii, I received stung by the person o’ battle, probably the most harmful ‘jellyfish’ on the planet, and it was painful, however this [the lione’s man] was a lot worse. For two days after the swim my pores and skin was nonetheless on fireplace.
“Of course it was scary in the beginning, but in the end it was amazing because it’s the opportunity for us in South America, for me and my team in Chile, it’s the opportunity to prove your limits and that is amazing. I love that.”
After swimming for 12 hours within the freezing water, which additionally included navigating fog and torrential rain, Hernandez says her ft had turned utterly blue.
It takes a really explicit type of mindset for someone to willfully put themselves by an ordeal like that, however Hernandez’s swim was a part of a longtime ambition she has to change into the primary individual to swim components of all of the world’s seven oceans.
Hernandez has accomplished her swim within the Strait of Gibraltar, the Catalina Channel, the English Channel, the Molokai Channel and the North Channel.
Her subsequent problem would be the Cook Strait in New Zealand adopted by the Tsugaru Strait in Japan, which she goals to finish in 2023.
Hernandez has already damaged quite a few swimming world information, together with the World Open Water Swimming Association (WOWSA) document for being the primary individual to swim three nautical miles (5.5 km) between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and the Guinness World Record for finishing the quickest ocean mile swim by the Drake Passage in southern Chile, thought of to be among the many most harmful waters on the planet.
In 2020, Hernandez’s daring feats of endurance noticed her named the WOWSA Woman Of The Year.
Hernandez’s love of swimming started the primary time she received right into a pool on the age of six.
For 15 years she competed at nationwide and worldwide degree in her house nation of Chile, however quickly after she found open water swimming which might rapidly change into her true ardour.
Growing up within the Chilean capital, Santiago, there was no rapid entry to the ocean, lakes or lagoons, however Hernandez would frequently drive 120 km (74.5 miles) to the coast to get her chilly water repair.
Nicknamed the ‘Ice Mermaid,’ Hernandez can be a professional psychologist, one thing she says has been essential to her success in these excessive challenges, with psychological preparation for a grueling swim being simply as essential because the bodily.
“I train in my mind in the same fashion as my body,” she explains. “I do know the significance of placing a reputation to your fears, desires and your passions and dealing for them. Two years earlier than my [North Channel] swim, I used to be already getting ready for it in my thoughts.
“Most people are very scared about hypothermia, the cold or the pain and, for me, that is the prize. If I want to be the first South American, the first woman or the first whatever, I need to be prepared for to pay the price and the price is your commitment, your training, your focus on your mind and, of course, your health and your body.”
With hypothermia posing a really actual hazard each time Hernandez undertakes one in all her challenges, the restoration instantly afterward – which incorporates wrapping up in her specifically designed Dryrobe adopted by heat showers – is simply as essential because the preparation.
While her swim throughout the Drake Passage is the one Hernandez says she is most happy with, she lessons her swim throughout the Chungara Lake in northern Chile to be her most harmful. At 14,820 ft above sea degree, it’s among the many highest lakes on the planet and the dearth of oxygen at that altitude can pose even better dangers.
Several of her swims have taken place in waters round glaciers, notably within the south of Chile, with the hope of elevating consciousness across the affect of local weather change.
“That is my passion,” she says. “Not the medals or the prospect to be the primary lady from Chile or South America [to break a record].
“That is my alternative to speak on social media and likewise with the press and say: ‘Come on, are we are working for the environment or not?’ How can we be helpful for an additional era to take care of our seas or fauna, and likewise for the jellyfish and the sharks as a result of it’s the house of those animals and these fish?
“Me, a swimmer, I’m just visiting.”
Hernandez has been working with the Chilean navy as she prepares for her subsequent problem in Antarctica, the place she is hoping to lift consciousness concerning the affect of air pollution on the atmosphere.
Following that, she’s going to proceed on her quest to swim the seven seas with challenges within the Tsugaru Straits in northern Japan and the Cook Strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand, thought of one of the crucial unpredictable stretches on the planet.
But irrespective of how chilly or densely populated with jellyfish the waters are, Hernandez doubtless will nonetheless face these challenges with a smile.