First All-woman, All-American English Channel Relay Team in History (and all Dolphins)

l-r: Karen Drucker, Susan Cobb, Carol McGrath,
Joni Beemsterboer, Lisa Smith, Susan Allen (1989)

Records, the saying goes, are made to be broken. This certainly applies to Dolphin Club athletic feats: Fastest, slowest, youngest, oldest, longest, farthest. Every one of these records has been broken repeatedly—and sometimes shattered. One distinction, however, can never be eclipsed: The first to do something will always and forever be first. In 1989, six Dolphins became the first American all-woman team to successfully swim the English Channel. They also happened to set a record of 10 hours, 54 minutes for fastest “All Ladies Relay Swim” that year. “Had there not been a deterioration of conditions,” says Andy Vernon, the crossing’s official observer, “I believe that the San Francisco Lady Swimmers would have broken the record of 10 hours thirty-two minutes.” Regardless, they will be the first American women relay until the end of time.

The idea to swim the English Channel and the core of the team formed in Hawaii.  When the whole team came together it consisted of six Dolphins:  Lisa Smith, Karen Drucker, Joni Beemsterboer, Susan Cobb-Frederick, Susan Allen, and Carol McGrath. The idea to attempt a Channel relay bubbled up over cocktails in Maui. In this oral history of the swim, the women recount the story of their precedent-setting achievement.

Karen:            I just remember margaritas and pina coladas being involved. Lisa and I had just swum the Maui Channel and after that, you go and do the Waikiki Rough Water swim.

Lisa Smith:     Susan Allen was always in charge of these swims. We did the Honolulu marathon every year even if we didn’t run it.

Susan Allen:   I wasn’t in charge. I was just following Conrad von Blankenburg. Morgan Kulla was the one.

Karen:            After our swims, we were just sitting around toasting ourselves and someone threw out, ‘What’s next for you girls?’ Somebody suggested the English Channel and by the time the last cocktail came, we were going, ‘let’s check it out!’” Lisa, immediately when she got back to the office on Monday, wrote to the English Channel commission or whatever it was to find out what the story was in terms of how you do it.

Lisa:               I belonged to the Olympic Club and I knew some people there were trying to put together a relay, and I wasn’t interested in doing it with them. I thought, “I can put a team together. I’m a manager type.” I wrote the letters to the Channel Swimming Association and learned what was required.

Karen:            The little lady there wrote back and said, “Well, if you girls do it, you’ll be the very first American women to do it.” After that, Lisa and I just looked at each other and said, “who would be fun to do this with?”

Susan Cobb:   This was in the days way before email. It was fax machines and regular mail. Lisa did this stuff. We’d get this big packet in the mail from the CSA. The communication part of this was not easy.

Joni:               I remember Lisa calling me and saying, “I’m trying to put this team together.” At the time, I had already committed to another team, but the idea of being the first American women to successfully make a crossing really appealed. So, I said, “If I can get myself replaced, I’m in. What’s the requirement?” And Lisa said, “You be faster than me.”

Susan Cobb:   She didn’t tell me that, which was lucky.

Carol:             I hadn’t been swimming for six months, and somebody asked if I was interested in joining the team. I think it was Joni. I said sure, and I guess I need to be getting in the water and practicing a little bit.

 Lisa:              I remember thinking, “I’ve gotta get fast. I’ve gotta get fast. And then realizing—I’m not going to get fast.” But I was strong. I’ve always been strong. I could do long distance triathlons. I could just never swim fast.

Karen:            I think Carol was our fast one. I remember that she was going into the Bay two or three times a day, and I was thinking we have to get this gal. She’s fast and she’s committed.

Joni:               That contributed to the notion of a team and not wanting to disappoint.

Lisa:               It was always just the six of us, and no one dare get sick or quit. We were all Dolphins. Peer pressure.

Karen:            That’s a really good point.  I remember even when I was swimming and thinking, “this is really hard.” But when there’s a team. You’re thinking, “I don’t want to be the one:  I don’t want be the one to get sick or quit or whatever.” And so that team spirit is what kept us all going and committed. My swimming got so much better because now I had a purpose.

For a warmup, five members of the team decided to undertake the Byron Cup swimming challenge, an annual event commemorating Lord Byron’s legendary 1822 swim across the Bay of Poets. A large number of swimmers register to swim the 7.5 kilometers between Portovenere and Lerici in northern Italy.  While Susan Allen dined in France, the remaining five relay team members met fellow Dolphin and renowned San Franciso restaurateur, Modesto Lanzone, in La Spezia for the swim and a magnificent dinner afterwards.

Lisa:               The trip to Italy was a hoot. We had a lot of fun.

Karen:            How in the world did we get the crazy idea to go to Italy beforehand?  Was that you Joni?

Joni:               I think it was, but it was really Modesto who tantalized me with the idea of swimming from Port Venere to Lerici which was about five miles—but it was rough water.

Karen:            Oh! The jet skis!

Susan Cobb:   It was a holiday and there were a lot of drunk people in the water. (Not us.)

Karen:            They did their boats the way they did their driving in the streets. Was that a relay? We swam five miles??? Did we even have pilot boats?

Joni:               Because of the chaotic conditions, we all got separated. Modesto was in a boat, and Carol and I stayed with him.

Carol:             The one thing that stood out for me was how terribly salty the water was. All I wanted was to drink something, and there was nothing to be had but oranges or something.

Joni:               Our water bottles landed in another boat. Modesto tossed us a peach which we shared, Carol and I, passing it back and forth. I still remember how terrific it tasted. Back in La Specia, Modesto treated all of us to a lavish Italian dinner served al fresco.

About a week later, all six women rendezvoused in England for the channel swim. Their pilot was Willie Richardson, and their boat was the Stumark III. Like almost all channel swims, they started from Shakespeare Beach, a rocky stretch on the Dover coast. The start time was 5:46 on the morning of August 24, 1989. The skipper apparently had an English sense of humor.

                        Karen:            The pilot had some kind of a hammer or something and said, “I don’t know. The engine hasn’t been working great. I’m not sure we’re going to make it.” That was a good one.

                        Joni:               It felt to me when we started out, these guys didn’t think we were going to make it. Frankly, they get paid if you go a mile or if you go the distance. But at some point—around half—they began to realize, “Oh wait a minute. We might be taking the first American women across.” And I felt their attitude change slightly.

                        Carol:             What were these signs that they were skeptical?

Joni:               That we were women. That we were from another country. That we didn’t know what we were doing.

Susan Allen:   A lot of people were trying to swim the channel there and had never trained like we had trained in open water. And when they found out that we knew how to handle open water like we do, they realized that we were going to make it for Christ’s sake.

Carol:             Well, I was on land because I was the first, but my recollection was that [the crew] was very kind. They just didn’t quite get why we were all so seasick. They were just impervious. I remember being seasick the whole time except for when I swam.

Karen:            I remember we were in our own little worlds. You’d do your swim and then you’d get into your sleeping bag or whatever and no one was talking to each other. I was swimming my turn and thinking, “Oh god. Isn’t Joni just the best! She’s coming over to support me and then blechhh.”

Carol:             I think the pilots were cooking fish or something god-awful below and offering us food. The thought of it was blechhh. No thank you. How can you guys eat right now on this boat.

Susan Cobb:   I think they were eating something like fried spam.

Joni:               They would walk from one place to another and cross our paths with this bucket of whatever it was they were eating and it was so awful.

Carol:             I could barely understand them because they had an English brogue or cockney or something like that.

Karen:            All I remember of the food on board was digestives. I loved those. Digestives and GU are what got me across.

Lisa:               Digestives were really just cookies, but we thought they were health food and we ate a bunch of them.

Joni:               After my second swim, I was really not doing so great. I was on the boat and all bundled up and had this cap on. Lisa was trying to get me to drink and I had a water bottle. She said, “Take the cap off. And I took my hat off. I didn’t know she meant the cap on the water bottle.”

Carol:             It was a bright, sunny day and we were all just huddled up in clothes. Those blue long coats we had.

Susan Allen:   Sweatshirts, caps, slippers. Everything.

Susan Cobb:   I have the observer’s report. The air temperature was between 56 and 58. The sea temperature went between 64 and 66. The wind force started at 2 and went to 4/5.

Those numbers refer to the Beaufort scale, developed by Britain's Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort in 1805 to help sailors estimate the winds via visual observations. The scale starts at 0 and goes to a force of 12. A Force 2 is a light breeze, which forms ripples with the appearance of scales. The crests have a glassy appearance and do not break. At Force 4/5, the wind is a moderate to fresh breeze that causes small trees in leaf to sway. The water forms moderate waves with many white horses (breaking waves or white caps that appear when the wind blows.) These were the conditions that led the observer, Andy Vernon, to cite deteriorating conditions as costing the team an historical all-women crossing record.

The team completed the swim at 4:40 in the afternoon when Susan Cobb stepped ashore on the beach near Calais. This allowed the team to at least set the all-woman record for that year.

Lisa:               I was in the little dinghy just in case I had to be the last swimmer. So, I did get to touch France.

Susan Cobb:   You take three steps out of the water and then you just swim back to the boat. I think we were pretty tired. Pictures showed us all with sunburned faces.

Karen:            And then we all felt like, “OK. Yay, we did it.” And then you have something like three hours back. They’re just high-tailing it back. It felt like someone was taking a bucket of water and just throwing it on us for three hours. We’re just hanging on for dear life.

Carol:             I do remember the boat ride home, I was wondering, “Are we ever going to get there?” It was so choppy and dark and I just wanted to get back to the other side. It took an eternity in my head. It was a harrowing ride home.

Joni:               I think the pilots were full throttle. They were like, “BANG!”

Susan Allen:   We were singing show tunes—West Side Story.

Karen:            When we got back, you’d think that there should be like fireworks or something going on the other end. No one had thought about bringing cab money and we had to walk all the way back to the room. We’re stumbling like drunken sailors because we’d been on the rocking boat for so long.

Joni:               When we arrived back in England there was this little tour group in a bus. Someone told them what we’d done and they started clapping for us.

Karen:            I remember taking a shower first and it was one of those metal showers and everyone was in the room. I was just banging against the shower because I was so wobbly.

Lisa:               We got back and partied. I don’t think we were tired. I know I wasn’t. We went out and ate and drank.

Susan Cobb:   We went to an Italian restaurant, probably the only good restaurant in Folkstone.

Almost 36 years later, each member of the first all-American Channel relay team vibrates with the memories they made that August day. They share a bond of great pride and enduring friendship born in the achievement of a record that can never be broken—and the fun they had doing it.