Book Review: Conquering the Straits

Anna-Carin Nordin recounts how she became the first woman to complete the Oceans Seven

It started as a blog post written by Steven Munatones and then grew into the ultimate goal for marathon swimmers. The Oceans Seven challenges swimmers to cross seven channels: The English Channel (England to France), the Gibraltar Strait (Spain to Morocco), The Cook Strait (between New Zealand’s South and North islands), the Tsugaru Strait (in Japan), the Molokai Channel (Hawaii), the Catalina Channel (California) and the North Channel (between Ireland and Scotland).

Some are warm, most are cold. Jellyfish stings are common. Swimmers have been bitten by sharks. Conditions can be brutal and the currents baffling. To get through, swimmers need determination, support, luck and funding – this is not a cheap hobby.

Swedish swimmer Anna-Carin Nordin caught the Oceans Seven bug early and became embroiled in a race to become the first woman to complete them all. Her book is a swim-by-swim account of how she tackled each one, including her first failed attempt at the North Channel, and then her successful attempt in 2013. This was her final swim, with two other swimmers in Ireland at the same time, all vying to be first.

The book is a personal journey rather than a how-to guide. However, if you’re interested in marathon swimming, it will give you an insight into what’s involved, from the level of preparation needed to problems you might encounter along the way. You’ll also learn how Anna-Carin evolved from pool sprinter to endurance and cold water athlete. Along the way, we meet several key figures in marathon swimming.

The book is occasionally affected by minor spelling and grammatical errors and would have benefited from a more thorough proofread, but this is a relatively small niggle.

Ultimately, Conquering the Straits is both a record of extraordinary athletic achievement and a reflection on what you can achieve through sustained determination and mental resilience. Swimming the Oceans Seven is a psychological and logistical puzzle as much as a physical one. Every swim requires dealing with physical hardship, but to persevere over years requires incredible determination and self-belief. Readers will be inspired to see what they can achieve.

Available on Amazon.