Terrapins Do Alcatraz by Cheryl Wagner

Alcatraz! The very name conjures up visions of sharks, frigid waters, Al Capone and the barren, fog-enshrouded "rock". What better place to hold an open water swim!

Alcatraz closed as a federal prison in 1963. Five prisoners who escaped and attempted the swim were never accounted for. It's now home to an assortment of seagulls although not much else chooses to live on its forbidding shores. It eventually became a park and tourists discover its secrets by boarding ferries at Pier 39 and touring the island wearing audiotapes with sounds of the prisoners and an historical narrative.

Our Terrapin "Alcatraz" team (Dave Bartolone, Bob Lazzaro, Kirsten O'Loughlin and I) assembled two days before the swim at a Day's Inn near Ocean Beach. Bob, Kirsten and I decided to take a practice swim in the ocean at dusk. Little did we know we'd be greeted by 6-10' breakers, 55 degree water, and the threat of Great Whites. (Locals told us one had washed up on shore the week before!) We changed our practice location to Aquatic Park the next morning (in San Francisco Bay) where the scariest thing we encountered was a 6' seal. (Got my heart rate up!) The bay is actually colder than the ocean because a number of fresh water rivers empty into it.

Saturday dawned overcast, chilly and foggy (surprising for San Francisco!). Kirsten's wetsuit zipper broke and Bob happily agreed to duct tape her into it so that she could do the swim. Soon afterward, all 600 entrants began the "parade" from Aquatic Park to Pier 39 to board the Park Service ferry. There was a boisterous atmosphere with Californians trading horror stories to try to scare us. It worked! I was terrified.

We boarded the ferry and a Los Angeles beach lifeguard who we befriended, tipped us off that the Californians stay on the bottom level in order to exit first. Soon all 600 of us were crammed into the bottom level of the ferry as we awaited our turn to leap into the water, three at a time. Bob and Ricardo, our new L.A. friend, toughed it out deciding to wear no wetsuit or grease. Bob joked about the cold water with another non-wetsuit swimmer as we treaded water waiting for the start. Later at the finish, that same swimmer would be rushed to the hospital with severe hypothermia and no recollection of the swim.

As we waited for the start many swimmers snapped photos with waterproof cameras they had tied to their wetsuit zipper pulls. We were having fun! Finally we started swimming unsure whether we had heard the starting horn or just another blast of the Golden Gate foghorn. We were off!

Kirsten and I swam stroke for stroke. The water was surprisingly glassy with little or no waves. There were occasional warm spots - probably around 60 degrees. We always saw the San Francisco skyline and easily sighted on the twin skyscrapers directly behind the Maritime Museum and Aquatic Park.

Dave Bartolone finished 18th overall (wetsuit) in 31:38. Bob Lazzaro finished 7th overall (non-wetsuit) in 33:57. Kirsten and I finished in 42:31 and 42:32. Roberta, Bob's wife, said one swimmer emerged from the cold water completely naked - looking none the worse for the cold. Finally when race organizer Dave Horning thought all swimmers had finished, a delirious swimmer entered the protected area near Aquatic Park. They told him 12 times to get into the boat but he refused. When he finished it was obvious he was suffering from severe hypothermia. They rushed him to an aid station and then the hospital.

We were exultant. We had tamed the monster and finished Alcatraz. I shivered in my wetsuit as Bob brought me hot chocolate; but the cold couldn't dull my excitement. I swam Alcatraz and lived to tell the tale!