Marilyn's story of the Santa Cruz Island swim

We started the swim just before midnight. I swam up to a cliff on Santa Cruz Island that was covered with kelp and touched it. The water was magical at first, fairly warm, by my standards, quite calm, and full of bio-luminescence. Paula said it looked like I was swimming on a sparkling cloud.
That lasted about an hour before the cold air started to chill me. As you can see from the tracker, I sprinted for about 3 hours. It was too cold to zone out mentally. It was a constant struggle with the mindfulness skill of "let it go" whenever a worry thought or quitting thought popped up. With sprinting and warm feeds, I was able to hold my core temperature steady. Five or ten minutes before each feeding, I would start to get really cold.
We dangled the shark shield from the kayak for 6 hours until it ran out of charge. The shark shield is a flexible electrode about 7 feet long that emits a low voltage current that is specific for the nose semsors of  predatory sharks. The current is effective up to a 15 foot radius.
My paddlers did 3 hour shifts, first Paula, then my son, and finally my husband. They gave me 4 feedings each (every 45 minutes), so I had a pretty good idea of the time by counting feedings. Shortly after 5 a.m., I started to be able to see outlines of people so I knew that sunrise was on its way. It was a relief to have the night behind me. However it took another hour before the air warmed up to the point where I didn't feel the desperate need to sprint anymore.  It was still overcast but still nice and calm.
There was a deep sea oil drilling rig named "Gail" lit up like a Christmas tree, that took us forever to pass.
After about 8 hours of swimming, when my husband was paddling, he stopped me and told me to swim to the boat and wait while we put the shark shield in the water. Evidently some "animal life" had been spotted. Even though the shark shield hadn't fully recharged, the light was green, so we kept swimming. I stuck close to the kayak for about 5 minutes when we got word to return to the boat and we were given the instruction to get out. It was definitely a shark. At first, I was told that the 10 minutes rule would apply, which was a relief. That meant I could sit on the boat for 10 minutes without penalty and get back in if the coast was clear.
That was when I saw the shark. You could see its' dorsal fin, in the classic triangle shape, followed about 6 feet later by the top of its rear fin. It was swimming in circles around the boat, investigating. Evidently, the head and mouth are about the same distance in front of the dorsal fin as the tail is behind it, making it about a 12 foot shark. In the photo, the head would be near the left side of the picture. It swam in the area beside the boat in which I had just been swimming, looking around. We continued to watch it swim around the boat and under it, even as my 10 minutes was long elapsed.
Captain Alicia was the one to spot it. She says that at first it was swimming around fairly far away (about 200 yards away), in the direction of the Gail oil rig, but then it made a sudden left and swam deliberately for us. Not fast, but in a straight line. You can see this in the video (that I will be uploading shortly). She caught a glimpse of the white markings, confirming it as a Great White shark.
Yes, very disappointing. I've had 15 successful swims in a row, most of them luckily on the day that was scheduled. I figured I was overdue for an unsuccessful swim. I console myself by saying that I did not fail, the circumstances were beyond my control. All the safety systems that the Santa Barbara Channel Swimming Association has in place, in the event of aggressive shark behaviour, worked well today. The observers and captains were knowledgeable and reacted quickly with safety in mind. Evidently, this is the first time in SBCSA history that they have had to pull a swimmer out because of a shark.  I continue to feel confident in the system, as a swimmer.
We are trying to regroup for the shorter 20 km Anacapa Island swim in a few days. Stay tuned.
Thank you to my crew, Dave Van Mowerick (chief observer) Charles Slosberg (assistant observer), Captain Alicia and Captain Dawn Brooks. You guys are the best. Marilyn