After a long wait for permission: the extreme swimmer swam across the Strait of Gibraltar in a great time.

It took Paule Kremer six years to receive the authorisation to swim the length of the strait of Gibraltar. It enabled her to complete the third leg in her journey of completing the “Ocean’s Seven” project.

Her first step was in 2017 when she swam along the English Channel, followed by the Catalina Channel, both of which measured 34 kilometres. The strait of Gibraltar is the shortest of the seven legs, at “only” 14 kilometres, but that doesn’t mean it is the easiest. To be allowed to swim between the Spanish mainland and Morocco, an authorisation is needed. Paule Kremer had already asked for one in 2018, and she was finally granted it to complete her swim between the 4 and 9 August.

The biggest difficulty in the crossing of the strait is the wind. If the wind is too strong, one isn’t allowed into the water because of the risk of being swept away by waves. The allocated slot was supposed to expose strong winds, but then on Wednesday 7 August the endurance swimmer’s time had come: Paule Kremer swam the length of the strait of Gibraltar in an astonishing time of 3:55 hours - “a time I would have never thought I could achieve”, as the swimmer explains on her social media.

For now, Paule Kremer is taking a well-deserved break until she tackles her new goal. In August of next year she wants to conquer the North Channel, which links Ireland and Scotland (34 kilometres). If everything goes according to plan, Paule Kremer will have swum across four of the seven straits all around the globe by 2025.

Afterwards, the 26-kilometre-long Cook Strait, which links the North and South islands of New Zealand, the 44 kilometre Kaiwi channel between the islands Moloka’i and O’ahu, and lastly the Tsuguru Strait connecting Honshu and Hokkaido in Japan, are still left for her to conquer.

At the moment, Paule Kremer has secured the Ocean’s Seven certificate. Until now, only 27 people have succeeded in completing the challenge. Paule Kremer would be the first Luxembourger in history.