2 kilometres from Robben Island, 5.5 from Big Bay, after half an hour of swimming something hit me hard on my right quad. My first instinct was a purely cellular one. Intense hydrophobia and a burst of pure adrenaline had me levitating above the ocean swells. Half a heartbeat later I realised it was a fellow swimmer. We had been swept together by the westerly secondary swell and his forearm had collided with my leg; the force amplified by our lateral movement on the crest of a wave.
Strangely I settled straight back down and found my methodical rhythm again. Slow pulls, small kicks. One, two, three, breath – exaggerating the roll to breath without swallowing water. Then spotting where the boat was on every sixth breath, when I inhaled to the left, to keep swimming straight.
Arm over arm for 2 hours and 27 minutes. Or 7.5 kilometres. It’s a long trek. I got bored. I thought about life, and work, the things which frustrate me, and the things which make me happy. I didn’t get to the bottom of anything though. Perhaps the pea soup water colour of Table Bay is as unconducive for clarity of thought as it is for vision?
By Seamus Allardice
Swimming into the sunrise with the Groot Swem crew.
Robben Island Crossing
Robben Island is an iconic, or rather infamous, Cape Town landmark. Located in Table Bay it’s a low, rocky, isle which was used as a restocking station for Dutch and Portuguese ships en route to the Indies, a lepper colony, and a prison. Since 1996, when the prison finally closed, it has been a tourist destination with daily tours – weather permitting – to view Nelson Mandela’s former cell, the lime quarry, Robert Sobukwe’s house, and the World War II era fortifications.
For seafarers the island has held a significant risk for as long as boats have docked in Table Bay and 31 vessels are known to have been wrecked on or around the 3.3 kilometre long island. Fishermen have enjoyed better fortune on the reefs which jut up from the deeper waters. Named for the seals (robben in Dutch) which breed on the shoreline it is still home to a colony of African penguins and concerningly given the rabies outbreak, Cape fur seals.
The island is located 11km from Granger Bay and 7.5km from Big Bay on the West Coast.
The shortest and easiest swim route from Robben Island is in an easterly direction from the sheltered Murry’s Harbour to Big Bay. This 7.4 kilometre course allows swimmers to remain, largely, in the lee of the island and swim along the shallow spit which connects it, underwater, to the mainland. The alternative swim, from the island to Granger Bay crosses the deepest section of Table Bay and is far more exposed to the predominant South West swells.
For our crossing, on Monday 24 March, the ground swell out of the South Atlantic was small and the water was relatively warm, but a North Westerly secondary wind swell made staying on course tougher than ideal. It was also this wind swell which brought a fellow swimmer and myself into abrupt and terrifying contact miles from the shore.
Table Bay is shallowest along the underwater causeway between Big Bay and Robben Island.
Swimming for a Cause
Not that I really needed an excuse to swim the Robben Island Crossing, but in February a friend asked me if I’d like to join her in a swim for a charity. The StartWell Foundation fundraiser is in its fourth year and seeks to raise money, via what they’ve dubbed the “Groot Swem”, to combat childhood stunting caused by malnutrition. They use the money they raise, which totalled more than 1 Million Rand in 2025, to produce and distribute the StartWell Kids multi-whole grain, high protein, low sugar morning meal. It resembles a ProNutro or Futurelife cereal, but it contains more bio-available proteins and is made from whole-foods, like chickpeas, peanuts, sorghum and oats, and contains added proteins from milk powder, whey protein and buttermilk powder. The foundation currently provides over 13 000 children, from all 9 of South Africa’s provinces, with a nutritious morning meal every school day.
The StartWell Foundation provides nutrient dense breakfasts to over 13 000 children from across South Africa every school day morning.
Die Groot Swem
When Vanessa invited me to join the swim, I said yes knowing that it would be the week after the Cape Epic, which is also the busiest work week of my year. But I figured if the preliminary schedule for the swim was the 24th to the 28th there was a 1 in 5 chance it would happen the Monday after the race. I’d have time to recover and sleep in, I figured.
As it turned out, I didn’t. On the Thursday or Friday before Big Bay Events, who do the water safety for the swim, made the call that the swim would be happening on Monday. And I must admit when my alarm went off for the nineth day in a row at 4am I was tempted to abort the whole mission. But because Vanessa’s husband, Ivan, is an insufferable tease I knew I didn’t really have a choice. It was swim or face years of abuse.
Arriving at the Granger Bay Powerboat Club I wasn’t overly nervous. This was only because I’d attempted a Robben Island crossing before and I kind of knew what to expect. Even if that swim hadn’t gone to plan…
The swim starts in waist deep water alongside a long pier.
Back in 2022 I had signed up for and put a lot of training into a Robben Island crossing. Physically I’d been way better prepared than I could ever have hoped to be in 2025. I’d trained three times a week in the pool for three months, done numerous open water swims in the farm dams, and even done a couple of big sea swims. Then in the week of the swim I got sick. I thought it was just a sniffle and I could power though, so I started. Half an hour in I was fighting sea sickness. An hour in I pulled the plug, unable to keep up with my friends, Bjorn and Karl, who I was swimming with.
That experience taught me that to finish I’d have to be cautious about being competitive and swimming too hard. Bjorn is generally 5 seconds or so per 100 metres faster than me. So, while he was cruising, swimming within himself I was pushing just a fraction too hard.
At the safety briefing, before we got onto the boats for the island, we were reminded that the boat would stay with the slowest swimmer in the group. Each boat would look after two to three swimmers and there would also be free roaming boats to keep an eye on the faster swimmers if they pulled away from the slower ones.
The Big Bay Events crew run a safe ship.
The other advantage was that there were over 20 of us setting out. So, I was confident that I’d find someone or a group of someones who swim at my pace.
The boat trip from Granger Bay to the island is a little unsettling. Setting out before sunrise the swells rolling into Granger Bay were bigger than I’d be comfortable swimming in. It wouldn’t have been dangerous, but staying on course would have been tricky with six-foot hillocks of water driving across the ocean. At least there was no wind, the air was warm and the spray off the bow of the rubber duck was if anything slightly warmer than the air itself.
It took the best part of half an hour to motor the 11 kilometres to Robben Island. En route we spotted a dolphin, a seal, and watched the sun clear the Eastern horizon, though it was still half hidden by a bank of low cloud.
We didn’t see any wildlife during the swim, other than jellyfish, despite seeing a dolphin and a seal during the boat trip to the island.
In the lee of the island, about 200 metres from its Eastern shore the boats gathered and those of us swimming in suits pulled up our wetsuits, zipped up and prepared. While the skin swimmers stripped off to their speedos or one-piece costumes and donned their swimming caps and goggles. Then it was time to jump in and swim to shore.
The crossing itself starts in waist deep water, just to the south side of a large jetty. Then one of the skippers sounds a whistle, and away you go…
Just Keep Swimming
Protected from open ocean swells the leeward side of the island is fringed with kelp beds. These hamper any attempt to get into a rhythm, but as you have to regroup, find your swim buddies and the boat which will be guiding you across the channel that isn’t really a problem. For me the real swim starts 100 metres offshore.
Much like when starting a run or a bike ride the first few minutes are tough. The water was a warm 16 degrees, so that wasn’t uncomfortable, but it took me a while to calm my breathing and establish a routine. Faster swimmers, who have years of actual technique coaching, will look to glide between pulls and breath every five strokes.
This has never worked for me. I’m a strong rather than fast swimmer. And I’ve learnt through SwimRuns that if I can swim with hand paddles, I can maintain a good speed and somehow not blow my shoulders in the process. I don’t really understand how this can be, it must be my unique lack of technique.
Swimming without hand paddles all I could do for the crossing was slow it down to a cadence I thought I could maintain, breathing every three strokes. This was a problem for the two men I had been grouped with though, as they were intent on swimming much faster.
The basic stats of Seamus Allardice’s Robben Island Crossing.
On the boat one had asked me what my goal pace was. “2 minutes per 100 metres” I responded. “Oh, we’re going much faster than that,” he replied. Having nothing to say in response I just nodded.
Still, I swam the first half an hour, to the first feed, with them. I was surprised whenever I looked up to see them just ahead and when the boat stopped to hand us our bottles of hot, honeyed, rooibos tea mixed with a sugary carbohydrate drink they were still with me. “Clearly not that much faster” I smirked to myself as they faffed asking for gels and sips of second bottles. I pushed on, swimming breaststroke and looking around me a bit while I waited for them to get back underway so the boat could follow.
Until that point the swimmers were all still pretty closely grouped. I could see all the boasts in the fleet around us, the fastest was about 100 metres ahead and the slowest was less than that behind. The presence of a little flotilla was reassuring. Because I’ll be honest the very human thought about what lurks beyond your field of vision in the ocean is never far off.
More stats from the Robben Island Crossing.
Weirdly, as had been the case in 2022 I never felt concerned about men in grey suits during the swim. Somehow, I was able to keep them out of my mind. This is certainly not always the case during sea swims. I’ve swam along the backline of the breakers in Betty’s Bay and in Fish Hoek. On both occasions I’ve actively had to reject creeping sharky thoughts.
So, when I got swept up and to the right by a wind swell only to be struck, hard, on my right quad I very nearly panicked. My heart rate went from 90 beats per minute to 290 in an instant and only the laws of gravity kept me from launching out of the water like a rocket. It was terrifying.
Another heartbeat later I realised it was one of my “much faster” companions catching up to me. That was also the last time I saw him as he was, indeed, much faster. They clearly had a more nuanced plan than my, start slow finish slow, approach as they paddled off into the distance over the next half an hour.
Details…
Feed to Feed
Fortunately, there was a couple swimming at a similar pace to me, just 40 or so metres across to my right. Once the faster men pushed on, I gradually cut across to the pair at my pace and joined them. The skipper of their boat must then have radioed the roving rubber duck and had my feed box relocated to his craft.
This happened without my input but I saw a second boat pulling up when I inhaled to that side and when he stopped us for our second feed, he threw me a bottle of warm tea mixed with carb drink. This solution was cloyingly sweet, but I guess you need the energy and it’s an established mix Big Bay Events, who have overseen thousands of crossings, recommend.
They also recommend stopping to fuel every 30 minutes. This gives you a nice break and serves as something to aim for, swimming feed to feed, not focusing on the distance you have covered or need to cover. I never looked at my watch between feeds but quick glances after taking a sip from my bottle and throwing it back revealed that I had covered 1 800, 3 300, 4 900, and 6 300 metres at each of those intervals.
Most of the Groot Swem participants swam in wetsuits but there were a handful of brave souls who swam skins.
This illustrates that what I perceived as a consistent pace wasn’t quite as consistent at all. But the level of effort I put in remained level until the final half an hour. From 6 300 metres to the beach, I was working noticeably harder and moving slower.
It was also only in that final 1 200 metres that I started to struggle. The current bouncing off the Voelsteen island, to the north of Big Bay made entering the bay harder than expected. I kept anticipating a push from the ground swell which would carry me into towards the beach. It never came. Or never really came.
It was only when I reached the shallows and could clearly make out the sand, just centimetres below my fingertips that I got picked up and rolled head-over-heels by a breaking wave. Getting up I found myself cramping, in my right calf muscle, in knee deep water.
A faces crumpled from 2 hours in googles.
Pointing my toes to stretch out the cramp I hobbled stiff legged out of the water, only to have a Big Bay Events crew member snap a very unflattering photo of me as soon as my toes touched dry sand.
Vanessa was next up for a photo as my feed box was past back to me, then a StartWell member of staff handed me the sweetest and possibly the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted.
Finisher’s group photo.
Pea Soup Water is Unconducive for Clarity of Thought
I had thought I’d plan the next six months of my life while swimming for 2 hours. With no music or podcast to listen to and doing a highly repetitive activity I figured it would be the perfect time to focus on some of the bigger things which have been bothering me lately. Like what to do in my fourth decade (turning forty is more terrifying than a shark), because doing the same as I did in my third isn’t going to bring me creative fulfilment.
It turns out that the gradual change of colour from murky green to murky brown, through a thousand shade of green-brown in between, isn’t the best backdrop for thinking an issue through from start to finish. I did contemplate about 20 or so different topics, but I reached no firm resolutions about any of them.
I’m not sure if that means I have to do it again. Or if I should try riding my bike for three days, to see if that will be better for thinking. I guess I’ll do both and report back then…
Done! First Robben Island Crossing ticked off with a terrible post-swim photo.
Donate to the StartWell Foundation
You can donate to the StartWell Foundation’s bid to feed more of South Africa’s youth a nutrient dense meal by visiting www.startwellfoundation.org or by clicking here. Or via GivenGain by clicking here or on the image button below.
