"It's finished for me," the smiling swimmer told a crush of reporters on a beach in southern Barbados. "I will do another thing now."
Delage, 42, battled depression, fatigue, loneliness and the occasional shark in his journey from the Cape Verde Islands off Africa to this easternmost Caribbean island. On the last day of the journey Delage lost his high-tech kick-board, which he had used to help him glide on the westward ocean currents since he started his journey seven weeks ago, on Dec. 16.
As Delage swam his final freestyle strokes toward dry land, he received cheers from hundreds of people gathered on Barbados' Miami Beach, and his two sons sprinted into the water to meet him. He hugged and carried Thomas, 9, and Clement, 5, to shore.
Although touted as a first, Delage's feat was not exactly the average man-against-the-elements odyssey.
Delage, a pilot who has previously traversed the Atlantic alone by boat and by ultralight aircraft, made his latest journey outfitted with everything from flippers and a wetsuit to a 5-meter raft. It was on board the vessel that Delage cooked his meals, slept, spoke daily with his wife via satellite radio and gave news interviews. He also had equipment allowing him to make observations for marine scientists.
Indeed, it sometimes seemed a wonder that Delage had enough time to swim -- but that might have been just as well. His support team -- funded largely by companies that provided gear for the journey -- acknowledged that Delage made more progress at night as he lay on the wind- and current-propelled raft than when he was moving himself with his flippers. In the end, they said, he will have swum substantially less than half the distance, while spending as much as 10 hours a day in the water.
Despite his on-off relationship with the waves, Delage was quoted by support staff as saying that after seven weeks he was developing a bond with the fish. Not all encounters with marine life were friendly, however: One meeting with a three-meter gray shark sent the swimmer onto his raft for refuge. Other mishaps over recent days included two-meter waves that swept away Delage's kick-board. As a result, the Frenchman has had to resort to, well, swimming, adopting an overhand crawl technique.
Earlier in the trip, Delage suffered from sea-sickness and severe depression. He also feared initially that the end of his trip would require him to manuever through coral reefs and waves near shore.
As well as battling the elements, Delage has had to contend with a degree of public ridicule in France that at times seemed almost as treacherous.
French swimmer Stefan Caron, who won a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics, sniffed at Delage's labors, dismissing them as little more than "bathing." Other critics predicted he would drown or need to be rescued. The French newspaper Le Monde, in a generally positive piece that ran before Delage left, nevertheless described him as a "man who takes himself for a fish," referred to the attempt as "crazy" and even made mention of the swimmer's "portliness."
But as Delage finally splashed ashore, his wife, Katherine, could not hide her relief that he had returned safely. "I'm just delighted that the trip is over," she said.
Delage made it clear, however, that not all his troubles are over. "The return to humanity risks being a bit tough," he said. (AP, Newsday)
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