With the Canary Islands being surrounded by Atlantic Ocean you would expect much of their commercial and leisure activities to involve water, but that is not always the case. However during October this year a group of hardy athletes tackled a challenging journey across the waters between two of the islands.

Unlike islands the Mediterranean, where sea conditions are much calmer, the Canary Islands are faced with more unpredictable and rougher ocean seas. That is the main reason why fishing fleets have not been a mainstay of industry for the islands and why marinas for yachts and other boats are small in number.

But inhabitants of the Canaries are a sporting race and the challenge of swimming between two of the islands during October attracted around 80 competitors. On 17th October at 8:00am the first of three groups of swimmers set out on the 15km journey from Lanzarote to Fuerteventura. Two further groups left at half hourly intervals from Playa Dora beach. The first swimmers started to arrive at Corralejo by 1:00pm.

To ensure that the groups stayed as close together as possible for safety reasons, the organisers requested that competitors complete a 3000m trial swim in the month before the race and provided their times in advance. The rules were quite strict as this can be a dangerous challenge, so swimmers were not to swim ahead of their group until the last three kilometres and anyone who was struggling to keep up with their group was forced to abandon and retire to one of the safety boats. Anyone wanting to undertake the swim had to register beforehand with the Vulcano Triathlon Club, who are based in Las Palmas, and were charged an entry fee of 50 Euros.