Petrovac Swim
There's something magical about the idea of swimming out across the azure waters of an Adriatic bay to a deserted island. So that's what we did.
A couple of days after our 5k epic at Rafaelovic this one turned out to be only around 2k, but the sea was a fair bit more lively! Beautiful clear water once again, but with a bit of chop to provide some challenge. I know you can't see if from the picture (taken a couple of hours after we swam) but there was plenty of energy in that sea. As before, we took a pedalo as a support boat so less experienced swimmers could swim in relay, swapping on and off the boat as they needed. As well as Purnendu, Angikar, Karteek and myself we had Suswara and Devashishu attempting the crossing.
Having picked up some intense sunburn on the last swim (I had no idea you could burn that badly underwater - well, now I know!) i wore a tri suit to protect myself from the rays and a thin buff around my neck as well to make sure that didn't burn either. Thermal swim hat, goggles, I was well equipped for anything the weather or the water could throw at me.
On the way out I took it slowly, contantly watching for the rest of the group and trying to keep us together. That wasn't easy as Purnendu was taking a strange line towards the island to correct for some drift, Angikar and Karteek were in full on quality training mode, the guys in the boat were more concerned with having a laugh than watching over the swimmers and Suswara and Devashishu were a tad slower than the rest. Somehow we managed to hang together enough to be safe and make steady progress across the sea to the seemingly distant island.
Suswara would have made it but for the waves that got more intense as we got further out - his stamina was there but he wasn't used to sea swimming and he took a rest on the boat just before we made it to the rocky island. Devashishu did the whole outbound crossing and the remaining 4 of us swam both ways. The others in the boat all had a dip but didn't swim long distance.
At the island we had trouble getting our feet down on to the rocks to climb ashore without stepping on urchins - you can see them clearly but the water distorts your vision and your foot doesn't go where you think it's going to go! Eventually we used the boat as a king of quay to get on and off the rocks. Climbing the steps to the deserted church, we rang the bell, meditated on the sea and soaked up the views. We didn't stay long as despite the sunshine some of us were feeling chilly from the immersion - soon we were back in the water and making a fast return to Petrovac bay.
4