PINOY AQUAMAN Ingemar Macarine will face the biggest challenge of his stellar open-water swimming career as he attempts to swim across the treacherous English Channel on Monday, August 14 (Sunday, August 13 in United Kingdom).
Macarine, 39, who is a lawyer and a native of Surigao, will try to cross the 33-kilometer distance from Dover, England to Calais, France in the hopes of becoming the first Filipino to cross the channel.
This will be the second time Macarine will try to conquer the channel after failing last year due to bad weather.
This time, the weather seems to favor Macarine.
“Everything’s favorable for me right now because I am the first of four swimmers scheduled to cross the channel. Last year I was the last one that’s why I got caught with the bad weather,” Macarine told Cebu Daily News. “I have also adjusted with the cold waters of the channel but it will still remain as my number one challenge.”
The English Channel’s water has a regular temperature of 17 degrees Celcius.
“I have a window from Aug. 14 to Aug. 18, but everything will still depend on the weather condition. My navigator already told me that the weather is good on these dates,” said Macarine.
The channel is considered as the “Mount Everest” for open-water swimmers from all around the world.
While Mount Everest has already been conquered by seven Filipinos, the iconic English Channel has yet to be crossed by a Filipino.
“I have trained and prepared for this ultimate swim for two years. I have done more than 30 charity swims in the Philippines and in the USA, 15 of which were certified as pioneering or unprecedented marathon swims by the World Open Water Swimming Association of Huntington, California.”
Macarine will be swimming continuously or nonstop for approximately 13 to 15 hours. He only has 15 seconds every 30 minutes to rehydrate. If he is successful, this will be the 31st open-water swim for him.