This year saw a group of 15 invited swimmers competing in the inaugral Atlantic Dash open water swimming event in Cape Town. It was a tester event in order for the organisers to establish the race route and develop a sense for how feasible a mass participation race could be handled. The race route was a 5.3km swim starting at Clifton 4th beach, heading out into the bay, turning right and swimming parallel to the coast past Clifton 3rd, 2nd, and 1st beaches into Sea Point and finishing at the very small beach at Three Anchor Bay.

Heading to Clifton for the race briefing this morning, we drove into the huge mist bank which was covering the entire West Coast of Cape Town. The visibility was very poor and the water was not very inviting for swimmers nor safety craft. Upon arrival at the beach we realised just how thick the mist was. We were unable to see the rocks just off Clifton, nor could we see down to Clifton 1st beach, normally very visible and an extremely scenic view with all the high rise buildings and big houses along this world famous beach.
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