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RSASouth AfricaSport:SwimmingCarina Bruwer is a South African open-water swimmer, professional flautist and founder of Swim for Hope. Based in Cape Town, she has combined an international music career with solo swims across channels, straits and bays, using many of those challenges to support charitable causes.
Her English Channel crossing took place on 1 August 2005. She left Dover at 08:30 and completed the England-to-France swim in 12 hours and 3 minutes. The final approach became a prolonged struggle against the current. Recalling the crossing twenty years later, she described missing her intended landing at Cap Gris-Nez and reaching Wissant Beach instead. Peter Bales, a mentor and member of her support crew, helped her continue when her original time target slipped away.
That season also included a Strait of Gibraltar crossing in 3 hours and 35 minutes. In 2006 she crossed False Bay, and later projects took her through the Strait of Messina and along the coast from Nice to Ventimiglia. Her swimming has continued alongside performances with Sterling EQ, the instrumental group she founded.
Through Swim for Hope, Bruwer connects endurance swimming with fundraising for children’s health, education and opportunity. Her work links the discipline of sustained performance in the water with the practical needs of the communities and organisations she supports.
English Channel in 12 hours 3 minutes · Swimmer, musician and fundraiser
Crossing details, recordings & verificationSolo swim
Monday, 1 August 2005 (start)
England → France
Elapsed time · 12h 3m
Start clock · 08:30 · Time zone not specified
Finish clock · Clock time not confirmed
Ratification reported by source · See the crossing record for qualifications and supporting evidence.
Open-water swimming · Solo swim
2021 · exact day not confirmed
Walker Bay, South Africa
Completed the crossing; her official account identifies it as the first successful swim across Walker Bay.
Elapsed time · 6h 12m
Published distance · 21 km
Published account checked · Details and qualifications are in the career evidence.
Open-water swimming · Solo swim
2006 · exact day not confirmed
False Bay, South Africa
Completed the crossing; her account identifies her as the first South African woman and third swimmer to do so.
Elapsed time · 10h 58m
Published distance · 34 km
Published account checked · Details and qualifications are in the career evidence.
2004
Completed open-water routes around Cape Point and near Bizerte, Tunisia.
2005
Swam from Spain to Morocco in 3 hours 35 minutes.
Monday, 1 August 2005
Finished England-to-France in 12 hours 3 minutes.
2006
Completed the South African bay crossing in 10 hours 58 minutes.
2014
Completed a quadruple crossing as part of her expanding open-water programme.
2018
Completed a 21-kilometre coastal swim from Nice to Ventimiglia.
2021
Completed the 21-kilometre South African route in 6 hours 12 minutes.
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Selected swimming performances appear in the English Channel record above.
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