The Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon is not the top of the worldwide triathlon craze. Participants are checked for health before allowed to participate, yet, as with other similar events, this one also ended with someone killed. A 46-year-old athlete died of a heart attack just moments after entering the water. I never understood why Alcatraz was considered so secure since it is only 1.5 Km from San Francisco port - not even long distance swimming. But the water is cold.
7 comments:
Reminds me of The MythBusters test if prisoners could escape from Alcatraz with a raft made of rain coats:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT6uqdNFjfM
It seems that the secret of the unswimmability is the Cold San Francisco Bay water. Being extra-fat would have given the escapees a chance.
I think there are also currents. In the past, swimming was not as common a skill among the criminal classes. Plus the jailers had every incentive to make it sound harder than it might have been. In order to swim off the island, first you had to break out of the jail, which was not an easy task in itself.
K
The swim has to be in the summer or autumn, with higher water temperatures.
The currents help the swimmer.
Breaking out of prison - dont know. Can be done. Some did it.
Sharks - none.
Probably it was the propaganda. Few dared to try to escape.
Maybe it was not so bad inside.
San Francisco has an unusual climate in that it never gets that warm, even in the summer, even though it is as far south as Lisbon. The Pacific is very cold and stays that way all year and every day a cold fog blows in from the ocean. September is actually hotter than July but even in Sept. the avg. daily high air temp is only 25C -- the water is much colder.
K
I doubt that the average high temp in S.F. is as warm as 25C(77F).
77 is the avg daily HIGH in Sept. Look it up.
K
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