By Jessica Kieras
Since her first Lake Tahoe swim in 2015, Robin Rasmussen Rose has racked up an impressive resume of marathon swims, ranging from classics such as the triple crown to off-the-beaten path events, such as the Apolima Strait. She has completed nine Lake Tahoe swims, including the “Five Tails of Tessie” challenge. Her consistent love and appreciation for the water has wound its way through each swim. “Whatever swim I plan, I feel like the water is with me, surrounding me sort of like a big hug,” she told me as we discussed her approach to swimming in general.
This year, she added another rarely swum route to her list: Madeira to Deserta Grande. First swum in 2010 by David Yudovin, Robin completed this 25.4 km route in just over nine hours on May 4, 2024, pending ratification by the MSF review team.
Madeira is an autonomous region of Portugal and is an archipelago that includes the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo and Desertas. Although the culture is closer to European, the islands are geographically closer to Africa, so much so that Robin noted that some days the view of Deserta Grande from Madeira is entirely obscured by sand blowing off of the Sahara Desert.
An advantage of doing swims that not everyone else is doing, is that you can choose a swim that really speaks to you and celebrate the reasons you love swimming the most. “I think there is a special excitement about finding a swim that speaks to me,” she said. “It kind of lights a little fire inside.”
When Robin first vacationed on Madeira in 2023 she fell in love with swimming there. She remembers a swimmer named Oleg Kovalchuk completing the route with support from local accomplished swimmer and organizer, Mayra Santos, and says that stuck in her head.
“I fell in love with the island of Madeira for the history, the landscape and the people. I fell in love with the water by seeing the people who live there enjoy the daily dip or swim,” she told me. Planning a swim for 2024, she reached out to Mayra Santos, who helped her organize the swim through her organization, “Madeira Open Water Swim”. Robin was welcomed with exceptional hospitality and positivity. “It felt as if there was a whole community rooting for me!” she wrote in her swim documentation.
Conditions were favorable with winds at 1-2 mph, water temperatures between 19.6-21.6c and water she describes as “a beautiful blue turquoise”. Robin dedicated the swim to her cousin, Dane, who was killed two months prior in a hit and run accident. She wrote his name and a heart on her inner arms, and thought of him as she swam, repeating a special mantra given to her by a Buddhist monk years ago. Like all of her swims, she took some time to clear her head and remove any mental obstacles before beginning to swim and describes the swim itself as meditative, quiet and “almost all alone out there with my support boat, except for the occasional airplane, ferry boat and a big Italian warship.”
She ended the swim at a rocky beach, where she carefully but confidently pulled herself from the water, as her observer and crew called out to be careful from the boat. “I knew it was doable in my head as long as I wasn’t in a hurry,” she said. She’d been watching the ocean during her swim and noticed the swells were intermittent and waited for a lull before exiting the water.
She describes the swim as one of no expectations and a focus on gratitude. “I didn’t have any expectations other than to be grateful and happy and thankful. So knowing that I loved the water and that I had crew that I trusted and my heart was full, that was fulfilling enough. No stress involved.”
Read full documentation of Robin Rose’s swim here.
