Bárbara Hernández Swims For Another Record In Cape Horn
Ice swimmer Bárbara Hernández, whose nickname is the Ice Mermaid or Sirena de Hielo, has lots of goal – many of which she has achieved under mind boggling arduous conditions.
La Sirena de Hielo was the 2020 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year and the first person to swim 5.5 km between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean at the bottom of South American continent. The current on that swim that pushed her, enabling her to complete an ocean mile in 15 minutes 3 seconds. “I am happy and grateful for the opportunity to swim in such complex and significant waters. I thank the entire crew of the PSG Isaza, part of the Chilean Navy, also my team that allowed me to be safe and all the people who have been present during the swim. I love the region of Magallanes. It means a lot in my career and this swim is one more way to show that nothing is impossible, that dreams are always worth working for,” she said.
The Magallanes Region, officially the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region (Spanish: Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena), is one of Chile’s 16 first order administrative divisions. It is the southernmost, largest, and second least populated region of Chile that comprises of four provinces: Última Esperanza, Magallanes, Tierra del Fuego, and Antártica Chilena.
Magallanes’s geographical features include Torres del Paine, Cape Horn, Tierra del Fuego island, the Strait of Magellan, and the Antarctic territory claimed by Chile. Much of the land is rugged, unsuitable for settlement, and one of the main hubs for Antarctic exploration.
Because the pandemic forced her to postpone her swim to Antarctica, she is now focusing on Cape Horn as the stage of her next record-breaking swim. She explains her steps to achieving her goal. “In an unprecedented way, the Chilean Navy facilitated the navigation of a ship to sail to Cape Horn. The most favorable time window for this challenge, considering that the climatic conditions in the area are among the most adverse in the world, was February 27th. Their journey began in Punta Arenas in a Beechcraft King Air 100 plane; we flew to Puerto Williams. Then the team set sail at dawn on February 27th to swim between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m., after 7 hours of navigation as the ship reached Cape Horn.
I trained in the south of Tierra del Fuego, in glaciers in 2°C water.”
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