http://www.newsje.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=5438
(Note: Ji-su translated this into English and Steve edited Ji-su's English translation.)
"Big Swim finishes 5th day course"
(Field focus) Sherrin and Steve finish swimming from Samyang to Seongsan
August 5th, 2010
(Picture 1) Sherrin and Steve, who started swimming around Jeju for the environment, have completed swimming through the 5th day.
Sherrin Hibbard and Steve Oberhauser, who are swimming around Jeju for the first time in the world to promote environmental awareness, part of The Jeju Big Swim, have safely finished swimming through the 5th day's course on August 4th.
On July 31st, the team started at Samyang Beach and reached Hamdeok Beach. For Day 2 (August 1st), they started swimming at 2:10 p.m., from Hamdeok Beach and arrived at Kimnyeong Beach at 6:30 p.m.
The Kimnyeong Maze Park provided accomodations and food for three days to support the project. Sherrin slept there, while Steve went back to his home to Samyang the first two nights.
(Picture 2) Sherrin and Steve are on a rigorous schedule and only get about 5 hours of sleep each night.
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During the third day of action (August 2nd), they left Kimnyeong at 6:30 a.m., and reached Woljeong Beach at 8:45 a.m.
Because Steve had to work at English camp at Sehwa High School, he went to school and came back to Woljeong by 4:30 p.m. They resumed their progress, to Pyeongdae, going through tough conditions and reaching there at 8 p.m.
Sherrin said that day, "It was the dirtiest water that I've swam before," pointing out, "I've seen rotten fish, plastics of all kinds, and garbage floating around. It even stunk in the water."
On the fourth day, August 3rd, they started off at Pyeongdae about 6 a.m., and reached Hado Beach at 10:20 a.m. Again, Steve had to go to Sehwa High School to teach in the middle of the day.
Currently, Sherrin and Steve are going through a rigorous schedule where they do not get more than 5 hours of sleep each night.
They prepare for swimming early in the morning and start swimming. When they have a break time in the middle, they have to write and take pictures, check e-mail, and interview. These two look extremely tired and Sherrin complains of muscle cramping.
At 4:30 p.m., they got to Hado Beach and got to Jongdal Port at 6:10 p.m., where they could see Chimibong.
That day Sherrin was very tired and the current was too strong and it was very dark (and foggy); it was very hard to swim.
(Picture 3) Sherrin points out that people say the Jeju sea is clean, but it is actually not.
Sherrin went through the worst scenario where she had to hold onto Steve's kayak from 5:30 p.m., and get to Jongdal Port.
Steve advised Sherrin: "This kind of behavior is like cheating people, so we should go back to where you held on to the kayak and continue the course again."
Sherrin agreed to this and first went to the minbak and Jongdal Port and decided to go back to the place where she held onto the kayak and swim there again the next day.
On the 5th day (August 4th), Sherrin went back 1 kilometer west of Jongdal Port and swam there starting at 6:30 a.m.
That day they had Seongsan Sunrise Peak in their swimming plan. Because Seongsan Port has a lot of boats coming and going, and because of how dangerous it can be, they had to ask the marine police to escort them.
Also on this day, Chai Ba-da (poet and expert who went from Jeju to Japan three different times on a taewoo) had volunteered to swim with Sherrin to encourage her.
That day Sherrin met Ba-da around Jongdal Port at 7:50 a.m., and swam together. The marine police escorted them safely to Seongsan Sunrise Peak at 12:40 p.m., and finished their swimming course.
(Picture 4) Sherrin and Steve decided to rest on August 5th to relieve their weariness.
After swimming, Sherrin said, "My Australian friend sent a picture of the Australian sea via e-mail and it was very clean." She surprisingly reported, "It's hard to see even an adult fish that has grown normally in the Jeju sea."
Sherrin pointed out, "In the sea, there are only small fish and there are no big healthy fish," and emphasized this is because "people do not think about marine ecology, but just overfish."
"Some people think they can just culture fish, but the pollutants from culturing fish all goes out to sea so nothing can live in the sea in the end." She continued: "Some points where I swimmed through did not even have any fish living there. People think the Jeju sea is clean, but there are many points where it isn't."
Meanwhile, Sherrin and Steve went through a rigorous schedule, were too tired so they thought they could not swim on August 5th and decided to take a rest day and continue their trip.
-Ji-su's writing, Steve (editing only)
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