The mighty lead battleship U.S.S. Iowa, which is 270 meters in length and carried U.S. President Roosevelt across the Atlantic to Casablanca en route to a crucial 1943 meeting with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin, was scheduled to depart from San Francisco Bay.

But due to a storm off of the California coast, her departure was delayed. But it was still a go for Joe.

Unfortunately, it is precisely that storm system that Joe Locke is smashing into at this moment in 52°F (11°C) water as he passes the 12-mile mark en route to the Farallon Islands this morning.

Despite waves constantly thrashing him on all sides and large ocean swells smashing into his escort boat, the former Harvard water polo player forges on to the Farallones 30 miles (48 km) to the west of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. His patient, powerfully efficient strokes are taking him over the home waters of the Great White Sharks, through the Potato Patch and the Red Triangle, to a desolate group of islands described as the Devil’s Teeth.

His progress can be seen on the Night Train Swimmers website (here).

UPDATE: Locke got pulled a bit past halfway (14 nautical miles or 16.1 statute miles). Mother Nature won this latest round…again.

Copyright © 2012 by Open Water Source