Improbable
the
A
Dream
Open water swimmer Laura Goodwin eyes the Atlantic Ocean
south of Johnnie Mercers Pier, her training waters for an upcoming
attempt to cross the English Channel.
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com 35
WBM
SK a child what they want to be when they
grow up, and the answers are usually
ambitious and exotic. Astronaut.
Paleontologist. Professional athlete.
When you are young and blessed with a vivid
imagination, anything seems possible.
Laura Goodwin’s childhood dream was equally
ambitious, to be sure, but a tad unusual.
“I remember learning when I was a kid of about
9 that it was possible to swim from one country to
another,” she says.
Specifically, young Laura had read about someone
swimming the English Channel, wading into the
water at Shakespeare’s Cliff or Samphire Hoe, just
down the coast from Dover Harbour in England,
and getting out at Cap Gris-Nez in Calais, France.
“My question was, ‘Why wouldn’t you want to do
it?’” she says.
AFTER TRAINING IN THE
WATERS OFF WRIGHTSVILLE
BEACH, LAURA GOODWIN
IS READY TO ATTEMPT AN
ENGLISH CHANNEL SWIM.
By Simon Gonzalez