Mill Valley’s Catherine Breed celebrated at Coronado Beach on Monday, Oct. 19, after completing a roughly 900-mile staged swim along California’s coast.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that she completed the coastal route Sunday, Oct. 18. Monday’s ceremonial finish capped a 111-day expedition that began July 1 at the Oregon border, according to the Marin Independent Journal.
Breed, 33, completed the journey in separate swimming sessions with a boat and crew supporting her. GPS waypoints connected the stages, and observers documented her progress. The IJ described the expedition as the first believed completed staged swim of California’s full coastline, with formal recognition subject to review of its records.
“For months, I measured my world in the next few miles,” Breed said in the IJ report. “This was harder than I expected, and there were days when I was exhausted and overwhelmed … So many people helped me keep going.”
A former NCAA champion at the University of California, Berkeley, Breed stepped away from medical technology sales to undertake the expedition. She founded Sea Dreamers, a nonprofit that connects women and girls with ocean activities and conservation.
Her previous swims included a record-breaking 21.3-mile Lake Tahoe crossing, the English Channel and the Farallon Islands-to-Golden Gate Bridge route.
The California expedition carried her along the remote North Coast, across Monterey Bay, past Big Sur and around Point Conception before continuing through Southern California.
Breed told SFGATE that she spent about five to eight hours a day swimming. Unexpected currents sometimes prompted her to reverse direction, completing segments south to north.
Josh Willis, a senior research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told SFGATE that El Niño can cause a nearshore coastal jet to stop or reverse. He offered that as a possible explanation for Breed’s observations, while saying the offshore California Current had not changed direction.
The expedition also required daily attention to food, navigation and recovery. A pacer supplied protein shakes while Breed swam, and the crew accompanied her aboard a 52-foot sailboat, the Chronicle reported.
Breed described encounters with whales and dolphins along the route. On the expedition’s 89th day, drone footage captured a juvenile great white shark near the support boat, according to SwimSwam.
Water pollution presented another concern near the Tijuana River. Breed told SFGATE before that stretch that her medical team had advised her to take preventive antibiotics. The IJ reported that she swam more than two miles offshore.
Monday’s ceremonial swim covered fewer than three miles. Women’s Health reported that she finished at 11:25 a.m. Pacific time.
Through Sea Dreamers, Breed also connected the expedition with coastal community gatherings, including a stop at Bodega Harbor, where she shared observations from the water and highlighted conservation work.
