By thinkSPAIN Team Mon, Sep 2, 2019

AN ALICANTE swimmer has achieved his goal of crossing the sea between Ireland and Scotland - the equivalent distance to that of a marathon.

After 13 gruelling hours in waters with a temperature of under 13ºC, Jorge Crivillés is one step further towards his target of completing the Seven Oceans title - an achievement that no Spanish swimmer has ever managed to date.

So far, he has crossed the Santa Catalina Channel in California, the Tsugaru Channel in Japan, the Channel between Dover and Calais (UK and France), and the Molokai Channel in Hawaii, in addition to the North Channel from Scotland to Ireland.

This leaves him with only two more to do, one of which is the Cook Strait in New Zealand and which he is already planning for.

Afterwards, Crivillés' final thrust will be the Strait of Gibraltar.

He has in fact already swum the latter, but in a neoprene suit - and to qualify for the Seven Oceans title, he needs to cross all of the above without.

Crivillés attempted the Scotland-Ireland channel a year ago, but had to bail out as he ended up suffering hypothermia - although he was determined to keep trying until he succeeded.

He was facing extremely taxing conditions in the last six hours - nearly half the crossing - with strong currents and high waves, and even coming face to face with a swarm of 'Lion Hair' jellyfish - a species so notorious and deadly that it even featured in an instalment of Sherlock Holmes.

Crivillés escaped relatively unharmed, but with several painful stings.

Five kilometres from the Irish coast, he was trapped by a powerful current which kept him paddling constantly and getting nowhere for some time.

"The last six hours were tremendously hard because the sea complicated things greatly," he said.

"However, I'm very happy to have closed this chapter of my life. My team's support was crucial in getting me to the shore."

This support team, who followed the plucky swimmer by boat, included his brother Carlos Crivillés, his kayaking friend Rafa Pastor, and Mexican swimmer Nora Toledano - a woman who has already completed the Seven Oceans trial and swum the Dover-Calais channel twice.

Whether or not the Scotland-Ireland crossing was to go ahead was a decision that could not be made until the eleventh hour due to currents and turbulence - in fact, Crivillés, 48, had already flown three times before to Belfast and Donahadee but been forced to abort his attempts before even hitting the water.

A member of the RC7 association and sponsored by the ASISA Foundation in order for his swims to raise money for the GEPAC cancer charity, Crivillés is hoping to complete the Cook Strait crossing before the end of this year.

 

Photograph of Jorge Crivillés' arrival in Ireland by the ASISA Foundation on Twitter