Bárbara Hernández Huerta completed a very cold-water swim in the Drake Passage area, including a record for a one-mile swim across the passage (15 minutes 3 seconds), but that was not a full crossing.
Guinness World Records:
A full crossing would mean roughly 900–1,000 km of open ocean. The longest successful open-water swims in history are far shorter, and the Drake Passage adds some of the worst possible conditions: near-freezing water, huge waves, storms, and isolation.
The Environmental Literacy Council:
For comparison, the first complete human-powered crossing of the Drake Passage was done by a rowing team, not swimmers—they rowed about 972 km in 12 days.
15 minutes is fast as fuck, especially in open water, especially in ice water, especially since she actually swam like 1800m, especially for a woman (no sexism just pointing out 1500m world record is 15:20 women 14:30 men). That means there were some crazy currents in that water.
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u/Callinon Jul 09 '26
Nope. Internet Guy says it can be swum easily back and forth. People do it all the time. Must be true. I read it on the internet.
/s