On the evening of Friday, August 4th, I was messaged by, Dominic, a friend who I met on the island. The message was simple… “Can you canoe?” Knowing that the British refer to kayaking as canoeing, I simply replied, “Yes”.
Dominic swims at Pesqueiro almost every morning. Pesqueiro is the tidal pool swimming area in Ponta Delgada. You are literally swimming in the water where it comes in from the ocean. A section is roped off for the swimming area. It’s not a beach! The beaches are in the town of Lagoa a few miles away.
Pesqueiro Tidal Pool Area
There are also typical swimming pools, diving pools, water slides, and wading pools. All are filled with salt water!
Pesqueiro Pool area
The following morning, I met Dominic at Club Naval… a local boat club. From there, we were meeting someone that Dominic knows through swimming. We were going to catch a ride to Villa Franca, a city east of Ponta Delgada.
During our ride, our driver asked if I knew how to canoe… I proudly said yes and told him I had crossed Lake Ontario 5 times. He very indignantly replied, “Oh, that is a lake. We will be on the ocean.” I wanted to tell him that it was the 14th largest lake on the planet and that Sao Miguel, the largest of the Azores’ islands would fit across Lake Ontario and all the Azores islands would fit in the lake with room to spare.
It hit me with a bit of shock at how quickly I was ready to defend the Great Lakes!
In a rare moment of constraint, I bit my tongue and simply said I had also kayaked on the ocean in South Carolina. FYI… 58 miles across Lake Ontario is a far greater challenge than coastal kayaking on the ocean! Okay, I had to get that off my chest! LOL
Organizing Kayaks and Swimmers
In Villa Franca, I spoke with the promoter. This was not a race or training event. It is something Azorean swimmers do once or twice a year. Some of these swimmers will travel to other islands to participate with the swimmers there. It is an informal event. The organizer took care of safety; acquiring the kayaks and power boats for the support group.
Only tandem kayaks were available for the event. Dominic and I would be in the boat together since we were both English speakers… Kayakers were assigned to swimmers and would stay with the swimmer throughout the event.
The promoter said he had to find a swimmer that speaks English so communication would be clear to all. Then a voice behind me said, “I speak English!” I turned around. A man came walking over in his wetsuit and introduced himself as Hugo. The promoter said, “There you go!” and walked off.
Hugo explained that he wanted us to paddle alongside him. We were to cut between him and any Portuguese Man ‘O War that we spotted. We will carry his bag, which has bananas, gels, water, and energy bars. He also wanted us to keep time for each of his rests. The first one would be about 1 hour. Then, he will see how he is feeling for each successive rest after that. All-in-all, simple.
Since we were starting in the marina and would have to paddle out and around to the beach, we would meet up in the water after the start. Then we told him our kayak was #4. He showed us his fluorescent green cap. We then took Hugo’s bag, placed it in the kayak and each went their own way.
There were 17 swimmers. Each swimmer was assigned a support kayak. Although there were fewer kayaks we were only concerned with Hugo.
The Start
There were just three green caps. Thankfully, Hugo was the only one wearing a red top.
I had never paddled a sit-on-top kayak, let alone a tandem one. The same was true for Dominic. So, it took us a little to get in sync. I was in the back. Therefore, I was responsible for steering.
We were about 150 yards off the beach. There was no point in bringing the kayak inside the surf just to turn around and go back out. We waited.
The swimmers would depart from the beach at Villa Franca and finish in Caloura at the boat ramp. This was an open water swim of 7km!
The gun went off! We were able to spot Hugo right away. We turned the kayak around and positioned ourselves to be seaward of Hugo. That is, Hugo would be between us and the land. We were on his left side.
From the Villa Franca beach, the course started into the waves. About 15 minutes later, we were turning west to go with the waves. Now, there was very little paddling to keep pace with a swimmer.
I had a waterproof camera to take photos along the way… I had forgotten to charge the battery!
There is an island off the coast of Villa Franca. The island is an old small volcano about a half mile off the Sao Miguel coast. It’s a wildlife protected area and only 400 visitors are allowed there each day. It’s known for its amazing snorkeling and fish varieties in the lagoon.
We were going between the island and the mainland of Sao Miguel.
At this point, the waves were funneled into a smaller area between the island and Sao Miguel. Predictably, the waves grew and it became quite rough. I had no trouble steering, but I was concerned about how Hugo was doing in these waves. His stroke was noticeably shorter. Dominic, who swims almost every day said those waves would be tough to swim through even though Hugo was going with the waves.
Main Stretch West
Once we were well past the island, The water had calmed down a bit. Hugo’s stroke seemed more energized. He was moving at a good pace!
The wind was at our back. We were going with the 4-foot waves. There was a 1000-mile fetch for the waves to travel uninterrupted. It was generally rough all day.
Hugo was trying to keep pace with another swimmer who had passed him earlier. During his first break, Hugo said he was a strong swimmer and asked us to keep watch where he was to help keep pace.
During one of his breaks, I asked Hugo how it was going. He said the waves would push him a little when he was on top. After that, it felt like they grabbed his feet and pulled him back. He said this was his longest swim. He had never gone more than 2km in open water before. I was never a distance runner and 7km would be a difficult run for me. I couldn’t imagine doing this.
Hugo wanted to know where the other swimmer was. I pointed so he would have a relative direction. then told him the swimmer was much closer to shore. He asked if we thought he should go closer to shore. Dominic and I said, “No”. The waves will be bigger closer to shore and he was keeping a nice straight line toward Caloura. Hugo was satisfied with that.
No matter how difficult it got, Hugo kept going. That part I understood … the determination and willingness to fight through the difficulties to reach his goal. I had great respect for him. During a water break, one of the power boats came by and checked if everything was okay. Hugo spoke Portuguese to the boat operator. When the boat left, He said there were just three people behind him. Six swimmers had dropped out. I reached into his bag and pulled out another gel pack. He smiled and gladly accepted it. I encouraged him to drink a little more water because the gel will give you a sticky mouth if you don’t rinse it down.
The Finish
It wasn’t much farther to reach the entrance to the Caloura harbor and Hugo just kept going.
Dominic and I in the Kayak, Hugo’s Elbow to the right
The waves were visibly crashing onto the rocks of the harbor. Instead of being on Hugo’s left side. I switched to his right. That way we could go far enough right to get out of the rough water. I called Hugo and he looked with each breath. I waved for him to come closer to us, so he could swim in the smoother water.
The swimmer that Hugo wanted to keep pace with was close and rounding the point in much rougher water. He was behind Hugo!
Hugo, After Crossing the Finish
Dominic and I in the Kayak with Hugo after his 7km Swim
With great determination and grit, Hugo completed his longest open water swim successfully; 7km in about 2 hours 45 minutes!
Hugo
This started the same day as The White Party. Later that evening, I was walking back from a bar where I had dinner. I was heading down to the White Party. Hugo and his wife were walking up the hill to get away from the crowds for the evening. When he saw me, his face lit up with a big smile. He came over and gave me a big hug and thanked me again. Then introduced me to his wife.
He told me which number his home was, and said if I need anything… anything at all. Just knock!
It was a great accomplishment for him. It could not have happened for a better man!
Respect, Hugo!