Catherine Breed, a 33-year-old Mill Valley resident and extreme endurance swimmer, is nearly a month into an attempt no one has ever completed: swimming all 900 miles of California's coastline from the Oregon border to Mexico.
On Tuesday, July 28, Breed paused her expedition long enough to address more than 100 people at the Noyo Center for Marine Science's Noyo Field Station in Mendocino County, Local News Matters reported. The crowd filled every seat on the outdoor deck overlooking the Noyo River, with latecomers standing and pressing close to hear, as seagulls circled overhead and harbor seals swam nearby.
Breed entered the Pacific at Crissey Field State Park near the Oregon border around July 1 and has been swimming south five to eight hours each day, covering roughly 10 miles per session, according to a New York Times profile published June 9. The full expedition is expected to take 80 to 126 days.
"No one's been crazy enough to try it," Breed told Sports Illustrated in a May 31 profile previewing the swim.
A former UC Berkeley distance freestyle specialist who competed from 2011 to 2015, Breed already holds several open-water records. She became the first person to cross Lake Tahoe's 21 miles in under nine hours, swam more than 25 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge to Half Moon Bay, and set the speed record for the 30-mile Farallon Islands-to-San Francisco route.
The 900-mile figure is roughly 100 miles farther than driving directly between the state's northern and southern borders. The coastline's jagged shape adds the distance.
Conservation mission
Breed is using the swim to support her nonprofit Sea Dreamers, which connects women and girls to the Pacific Ocean and promotes ocean conservation. The expedition includes 10 planned community stops from Eureka to San Diego, where Breed speaks to local audiences about protecting the coast.
Conservation partners include the Nature Conservancy and Reef Check California. Two days before the Noyo Harbor talk, on Sunday, July 26, Breed visited Fort Bragg, where Tristin Anoush McHugh of the Nature Conservancy explained the Noyo Center's purple sea urchin "ranching" and removal project aimed at restoring local kelp forests. Richard Millis, the Noyo Center field station manager, was also on hand.
A five-person crew aboard a 52-foot Beneteau sailboat accompanies Breed, captained by Matthew Sessions, a water-safety specialist with more than 25 years of event management experience. To have the swim officially ratified, the crew uploads a daily observer's log to the World Open Water Swimming Association, recording air and water temperature, wind speed, stroke rate, wildlife encounters, and geotagged photos every 30 minutes.
Residents can follow Breed's progress through Sea Dreamers on Instagram.
