Some stories are best told with pictures. Here’s what happened on our first day of the journey – from Victoria to Drifter’s Cove on Denny Island. 6:00 AM departure from Victoria, British Columbia with Ray, my partner and main kayaker. 7:00 AM picked up Matt, one of my pilots, in Lake Cowichan 8:30 picked up…

When I swim Great Bear this year I will be following traditional marathon swim rules. This means I can wear no more than a swimsuit, cap and googles; in other words – no wetsuit. The water is currently somewhere between ten and 14 Celsius and the air temperature will likely be similar. The possibility of…

Day one of my swim will take me through the beautiful waters of Lama Passage in the traditional territory of the Heiltsuk Nation. There’s a public boat ramp in (Bella Bella), home to the Heiltsuk, and where Jill, Dale and I landed last year – I hope to start from there. We leave Victoria, British…

In my search to learn more about Namu I came across a short video about an Orca known as Namu. Please take a few moments to learn about Namu.      

In 1969 an archaeology team from Simon Fraser University dug up bones and artifacts that were 1,000 to 6,000 years old in Namu. They uncovered burial bones, artifacts and artwork that indicate human habitation in Namu as early as 11,500 years ago. Found in the traditional territory of the Heiltsuk First Nation, the remains were…

I know very little about Namu. My friend Colette Henneghan mentioned Namu soon after we starting planning the Great Bear Swim last year. She pointed me to a video she had worked on for Pacific Wild with April Bencze. Like Ocean Falls, the place where we started last year’s swim, Namu is an “abandoned ghost town”….

The journey from Bella Bella to Namu will take two full 8 to 10 hour days of swimming in 11 to 14 C degree water. My head will be down and I will hear little more than the sound of my breathing and my arms moving through the water. It is a place of peace…

As I learn I share. Here’s a short video about Namu by Pacific Wild. Namu from Pacific Wild on Vimeo.

We are pleased to announce the official release of the video of our swim in the Great Bear Rainforest off the central Coast of British Columbia. Thank you to Seaproof.tv for joining us in our journey and for your incredible gift of filming and storytelling. Your Mini-documentary gives our swim life. And thank you to…

Super fabulous Great Bear reunion this week. There is talk of Great Bear II – hoping to swim from Bella Bella just past Namu.