FOR THE second straight year, Ingemar “Pinoy Aquaman” Macarine has called off his bid to cross the treacherous English Channel.
Macarine was supposed to swim the 33-mile channel from Dover, England to Calais, France on Friday, but his navigators from England advised him to call it off for safety reasons.
“I am so disappointed but we can’t do anything about the weather here. It is so unpredictable,” Macarine said.
The 39-year-old Surigaonon open-water swimmer already attempted to cross the English Channel in August of 2016 but backed out due to bad weather.
He tried again last Aug. 13 but his navigators called it off an hour into the swim due to strong winds. The team rescheduled it for Friday, but the weather didn’t cooperate again.
Macarine has so far completed 30 open-water swims. Had he succeeded with the English Channel crossing, he could have been the first Filipino to achieve such feat.
The environmentalist now based in Bohol is planning to attend an ocean clean-up activity next month in Cebu.