The young swimmer plowed through the inky black waters off the Southern California coast at dawn. Back and forth, between the pier and the jetty. She was cold and tired and wanted to finish training so she could go finish her homework, then hang with her friends.
Suddenly, she felt something bumping against her. Then she was being pulled down…
The beginning of another teen-age horror flick? Hardly. It was just the launch of a remarkable odyssey for Lynne Cox, an internationally known long distance swimmer, and now author.
“I was just 17 and training early one morning at Seal Beach to swim the channel from Catalina when I felt what I thought were grunion or tuna brushing against me,” Cox recounted. “The old guy from the bait shop on the pier was waving frantically so I sprinted over. He told me that I was being followed by a baby whale.”
What could have been just a serendipitous frolic with a marine animal ended up symbolizing for Cox a philosophy that has shaped her life.
“Steve, the bait guy, told me that the baby whale had lost its mother and was following me,” Cox said. “If I swam to shore, the baby would follow me and ground himself. I had to stay with him until his mother showed up or he’d die.”
Cox did, indeed, stay with the whale and her experience is recounted in her recently published book, “Grayson.” Having already hit high on the New York Times best seller list, and as high as 10th place on the Los Angeles Times’ list, “Grayson” has been selected for the One Book, One City – Malibu annual event.
Kathy Sullivan, founder of Friends of the Malibu Library and the One Book, One City festival, said she was attracted to “Grayson” after reading reviews in the New York Times.
“We look for titles that will be good for our city,” Sullivan said. “‘Grayson’ is great for people of all ages; it concerns marine biology which affects Malibu, and it is uncomplicated, but very profound.”
Cox’s mission to help the baby whale produced not just an adventure yarn, but also a rumination on how to handle the profound challenges life can throw at you.
“You have this moment where you can just walk away or you try,” Cox said. “And if you try, you conquer it. You can say, ‘I am an individual who can set goals and go on and do bigger things.'”
Cox is no stranger to challenging moments. At age nine, her parents moved their family from New Hampshire to California so the children, all accomplished swimmers, could train with Don Gambrill, the U.S. Olympic swimming coach.
“In New Hampshire, we’d come out of the pool in the winter and our hair would freeze to our head,” Cox said.
Cox thrived training in California waters. At age 12, she won the woman’s three-mile and two-mile Seal Beach Rough Water Swim. At 15, she broke the woman’s record swimming the English Channel. At 16, she broke the man’s record.
In 1987, she swam the Bering Strait in an effort to bring cultural détente between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. When she was 17, she swam 15 miles down the Nile River, passed out and woke up in an Egyptian hospital emergency room.
“Basically, I almost died,” Cox said. “There was so much raw and chemical sewage pouring into the river that it nearly killed me.”
Although her latest book is on bestseller lists, “it took 20 years to get my first book published,” Cox said.
“Swimming to Antarctica” was released in 2003, detailing her experience of jumping into 32-degree waters about a mile off the coast of Antarctica and swimming to shore at Neko Harbor.
“In the test swim, before I actually went to shore, I got in the water and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is going to be hard!'” Cox said.
Navy Seals train in water no colder than 45 degrees.
Many times over the years scientists have asked Cox to participate in cold-water endurance studies to find out how she is able to swim in water that would normally kill anyone else within a few minutes.
The book recounting the Antarctic adventure was started 21 years ago, when she was a student in college. Early drafts about her experiences as a long-distance swimmer were rejected, but Cox believes that the intervening years allowed her to develop a story that was not just about long-distance swimming, but about life, love, hope and belief in one’s dreams.
“After I accomplished the swim to Antarctica, we had a book,” Cox said. “No one wants to swim in 32-degree water, but it shows what you can do if you dream it.”
CBS’ “60 Minutes” accompanied Cox on the journey and ended up reporting on the remarkable swim for its end-of-year episode profiling inspiring people. The Discovery Channel aired a documentary on Cox and the Antarctic swim the following year.
“Grayson” promises to be a story that is equally as engaging and lyrical. Alison Reid, co-owner of Diesel, A Bookstore, which will be featuring the book and sponsoring a creative writing contest connected to it, said, “We have already had book groups read it. Our Mothers-Daughters group loved it!”
Did Cox succeed in uniting the lost baby whale with its mom?
“Well,” Cox said laughing. “You can read the book and find out!”
Cox will appear at the One Book, One City launch on April 7 at 3 p.m. at the Malibu Library.
For the contest, the writing must relate to life in the sea and your relationship to it. There will be awards for the best fiction/poetry and the best nonfiction entries. Entrants should reside in Malibu and the contest is open to people of all ages. Winners will receive gift certificates from Diesel, A Bookstore, in Malibu. Prizes will be announced at the end of the One Book, One City festivities at the grand finale on May 5. Entries should be submitted to Diesel, A Bookstore at 3890 Cross Creek Rd. Malibu, CA 90265, by April 22. More details can be obtained by calling 310.456.9961.