CAPE SWIMS

FALSE BAY

General & Swimming Info | Facts & Distances | Records | Links

GENERAL INFORMATION

False Bay is a natural bay that stretches along the peninsula's eastern coastline from the Cape of Good hope Nature Reserve at Cape Point to Cape Hangklip.  It was named "False Bay" when early navigators mistook Cape Hangklip for Cape Point, which resulted in many shipwrecks in the bay with its strong cross winds and rocky routes.  It is the largest true bay in South Africa and one of the great bays in the world. The water body covers approximately 1000km^2, and the coastline, which makes up the Southern portion of the breathtaking Cape Peninsula, and includes the area from Muizenberg to Cape Point, is about 32km in extent.

FALSE BAY LONG DISTANCE SWIMMING

Crossing False Bay remains a daunting prospect for most hardened marathon swimmers, and an achievement that has eluded almost 90% of those who have attempted it. It must be said that the crossing has been attempted no more than 20 times, with the first success achieved by world-renowned Belgian swimmer Annemie Landmeters in 1989, only to be repeated fifteen years later in 2004 by South Africa's own distance swimming ace, Steven Klugman. In February 2006, Cape Town's Carina Bruwer became the third swimmer to successfully cross the bay.

The difficulty of the swim of about 35km can be attributed to strong and unpredictable currents and winds, icy and often inconsistent water temperatures (ranging from 12 to 20 degrees), and the fact that False Bay has one of the highest populations of Great White sharks in the world. While Landemeters and many swimmers who attempted the crossing in earlier years (including international legends such Kevin Murphy, and South African Channel swimmers such as Peter Bales, Hugh Tucker and Theo Yach) swam without a cage or any protection whatsoever; the Cape Long Distance Swimming Association has since 2004 been making use of the "Shark Shield" - an electronic shark repellent device attached to the swimmer's support boat

Shorter False Bay swims have been very popular amongst South African long distance swimmers. The water is usually considerably warmer than on the Atlantic side, and swimmers of different abilities are able to swim the different distances on offer quite comfortably. Several Mile events are held over the summer season, including the Fisk Hoek Mile on 16 December, and the Simonstown Miles which normally take place in November and February. The False Bay Iron Man Swimming Challenge which takes place in mid-January every year, is an 11km swim from Simonstown to Muizenberg, a cossing that has been done by many swimmers as part of the annual event, or as a solo challenge. The double crossing (Simonstown - Muizenberg - Simonstown) has also been achieved on a couple of occasions.