BEN LECOMTE IS SWIMMING MORE THAN 5,500 MILES ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN —
AND FROM THE GET-GO, THIS WAS NEVER GOING TO BE EASY.
IN ORDER TO COMPLETE HIS JOURNEY,
BEN NEEDS A MAP TO NAVIGATE STRONG CURRENTS, EDDIES, AND EVEN TO ADJUST
FOR THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE EARTH.
JEREMY: The further north you go, the circumference of the Earth is less and less,
so that can help shorten the overall voyage.
If he stays too far south for too long, those winds and seas are gonna be going against him,
which will end up slowing him down.
BEN’S TEAM HAS BEEN PLANNING THIS ROUTE FOR OVER THREE YEARS,
WITH THE HELP OF JEREMY DAVIS.
IT’S HIS JOB TO PROVIDE DIRECTION FOR ANYONE CROSSING THE OCEAN — FROM COMMERCIAL VESSELS,
TO CRUISE SHIPS, TO ROWBOATS —
AND NOW, BEN.
So we've been tracking Ben.
He's been able to swim at about 20 or 30 nautical miles per day.
It just all depends on his own energy levels, time of the day, visibility, all those factors
can play into it.
We wanna make sure they're on the best possible route to try to help shorten it as much as
possible and give the most favorable conditions.
The weather is gonna be a major factor on the success of this voyage.
SO FAR, WINDS AND EXTREME CONDITIONS HAVE MADE THE INITIAL SWIM GRUELING FOR BEN.
AT THAT RATE, IT WOULD TAKE BEN OVER THREE YEARS TO CROSS THE OCEAN, SO, JEREMY AND THE
CREW ARE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF OCEAN BEHAVIORS AND BATHYMETRY TO SPEED THINGS UP.
Once they head little bit farther offshore, they get into the Kuroshio current.
That's a major boost for him for swimming, so he can cover a lot more ground in a shorter
period of time.
THE KUROSHIO IS A WARM-WATER CURRENT THAT FLOWS OFF OF THE COAST OF JAPAN AND THEN
PEELS OFF TO THE EAST, DRIVEN BY THE CIRCULATION OF THE NORTH PACIFIC GYRE,
A LARGE AREA OF HIGH PRESSURE MOVING CLOCKWISE.
TAKING MAXIMUM ADVANTAGE OF THE KUROSHIO CURRENT HAS ACCELERATED BEN’S SWIM MILEAGE
TO AS MUCH AS 45 MILES A DAY.
BEN: I am finally in the Kuroshio current, so right now I know I am getting a good push whenever I swim.
I am very happy about that.
PAUL: Like every good highway, we have maps.
Instead of going straight to San Francisco we have to do a curve, like this, meeeeow,
and go down, and after that we probably have to go up, like this.
If we just headed straight east we wouldn’t have all that push, so it’s not instinctive
but we have to trust the weather team, we have to trust the scientists, and so far it's
working very well.
UNFORTUNATELY THE KUROSHIO IS NOT GOING TO LAST MUCH LONGER.
SOON, BEN WILL FIND HIMSELF OUT OF THIS CURRENT AND ON HIS OWN.
BEN: I am happy to be in the current but I'm not like,
“Oh yay, I made it, I'm in the current now!”
I still have a lot to conquer.
FOR THE NEXT LEG OF THE JOURNEY, HE'LL BE SWIMMING AT A MUCH SLOWER PACE,
LIKELY ALONGSIDE EDDIES: TEMPORARY LOOPS OF SWIRLING WATER BRANCHING OFF FROM CURRENTS.
THESE COULD GIVE HIM A SMALL BOOST, OR PUSH HIM BACKWARDS.
JEREMY: Ben's route's gonna be changing quite frequently, and sometimes on an every three-
or four-day basis we're gonna be making minor changes to the route.
WHILE BEN’S CREW CAN MAKE MINOR ADJUSTMENTS TO HIS ROUTE, THERE ARE MANY UNPREDICTABLE
FACTORS THAT COULD THROW EVERYTHING OFF-COURSE.
JUST AS BEN WAS FINDING HIS STRIDE IN THE KUROSHIO CURRENT, THREE LARGE STORMS CONVERGED
ON THE BOAT, FORCING THE CREW TO MAKE A DIFFICULT DECISION.
JEREMY: So, Ben and the crew were about 500 miles east of Japan in the Kuroshio current
when we detected the development of the tropical storm 14W to the south, another one, 15W,
that would be developing right after that and moving off to the north up towards Japan,
and a third one, developing in the southeast of Japan.
So with all of this activity, the decision had to be made to send them back to Japan
to keep them safe and out of harm’s way with all this tropical activity.
WITH HEAVY HEARTS, BEN AND THE CREW HAVE RETURNED TO PORT TO WAIT OUT THE STORMS
UNTIL THEY GET THE GREEN LIGHT TO CONTINUE.
JEREMY: So it’s going to be a little more difficult for Ben to get back out and restart
the swim for at least the next week and a half; hopefully at that time we’ll start
to get a break in the weather and he be able to head back out to the east.
ACCORDING TO METEOROLOGISTS, STORMS AND TYPHOONS OFF THE COAST OF SOUTHEAST ASIA
HAVE BECOME MORE FREQUENT, POWERFUL AND DESTRUCTIVE OVER THE PAST FOUR DECADES;
SO IT’S CRITICAL THAT BEN AND THE CREW DON’T TAKE ANY UNNECESSARY RISKS.
LUCKILY, TYPHOONS THAT STAY OVER THE OPEN OCEAN ARE LESS LIKELY TO INCREASE IN INTENSITY.
SO ONCE THEY GET THE ALL CLEAR, THE SEEKER CREW WILL RACE BACK TO BEN’S LAST GPS POINT
AND CONTINUE THE SWIM,
AS WELL AS ALL THE ESSENTIAL RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION ON BOARD.
BE SURE TO VISIT SEEKER.COM/THESWIM TO READ DAILY UPDATES FROM BEN LECOMTE,
TRACK HIS PROGRESS IN REAL TIME,
AND WATCH MORE VIDEOS ABOUT THE SCIENCE HAPPENING ONBOARD SEEKER.
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