THE 'four crazy swimmers with very low profiles', who tried to swim from Tobago to Trinidad on September 17, began an arduous journey before calling it quits after ten exhausting hours and 28 kilometres of open-water endurance.
But William Carr, Tobagonian John Procope, Roger Watts and Patrick Lee Loy were not the first swimmers ever to have undertaken this courageous test.
Carr said it has been 'proven' that a slave escaped his captors in Tobago and successfully swam to Trinidad in the 1700s.
He also highlighted Grande Riviere resident and open-water swimmer Raymond La Croix, who had tried the distance five times previously, and supposedly achieved the feat on his final attempt some years ago.
La Croix, who still lives there, served as one of Carr's main motivators for the inter-island trek.
Carr said, 'Raymond has been very helpful to me. His experience in the lead-up to this swim was invaluable.
"I attempted it once and failed, but learned a lot. Knowing the challenges we faced, credit has to be given to him.
'Attempting this swim was never about credit and who did it first, but pushing yourself to another level of grit.'
And that they did.
After their initial plan to make the 35.4km swim in March 2021 was cancelled owing to pandemic restrictions, the team resumed training in November and set September 17, 2022 as the new date.
They wrote to the health ministry in November and were allowed to train from 6-8 am daily. They did physical events and cold-water swims, among other gruelling tests, to prepare for their inter-island swim.
Carr, Watts and Lee Loy travelled to Tobago monthly to train with Procope to ensure they were equally ready. They also did open-water swims there to acclimatise. Besides training, they ensured a proper support and logistics team was on hand to help.
The Friday morning before they set off, the four swimmers did a trial swim on the course, starting from Rockly Bay, Lowlands, in 'near-perfect' conditions.
After reaching four kilometres out, with no undercurrent, they joked about continuing, considering the conditions, but there was no marine support that day.
After a sleepless night, the quartet hit the dark, chilly waters once more at 3 am on Saturday, en route to Trinidad.
Carr said, 'We reached the start point as planned and the wind was incredibly high. I could tell other swimmers were concerned, but we had no window; everybody was ready. Although we questioned the safety, everything was in place; we had to go.
'We battled those waves from 4-8 am. We took a serious beating. The distance we achieved in half-hour on Friday, we took about 90 minutes to do it on Saturday. At 5.30 am, I realised we should have been further.'
Because of the rough water, they missed their first feeding (after one hour). They got their second feeding a bit late because their rations were frozen.
Not too long after, one of the swimmers cramped up and was taken o
