A strange thought occurred to me the other day regarding Lamma. I can't recall any mention of anybody, gweillo or Chinese, having swum from the island to the mainland or the reverse journey. Suppose it might be too dangerous with the currents, sharks and shipping. But people swim the English channel on a regular basis -- a distance of 21 miles. Which is colder and has more shipping. My thought was prompted by an English man who claimed to have run round the world. His next feat, he said, would be to swim round the world. So I wonder if anybody has swum the gap between Lamma and the mainland, and survived. Suicides don't count.

For starters, the lamma channel is the world's busiest shipping lane.

Secondly, I have swum to work on 73 different occaisions, and only been 'run over' once. it was an OOCL ship, so probably a communist plot.
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TOYOTA S TRANSMISSION

Er, Volley, for seconds, a number articles claimed the Channel to be the busiest waterway, shipping lane, seaway etc. This is because of a recent incident involving a vehicle conveyor which sank to great effect with 3,000 vehicles on board. This led to a plethora of articles on the subject. Of course, the Lamma sealane is much smalller than the Channel also. Perhaps you could expand upon your swimming exploits or are you out of breath at the moment.

Swimming from Lamma to HK Island - Interesting idea indeed! Perhaps a 'Splash Mob' opportunity there...

I would be more worried about swimming in sewage more than anything else.

By the way, is there any legislations against swimming in open sea?

It's not open sea, but part of the harbour. I know that rowboats for instance aren't usually allowed in the western harbour. I doubt there is any actual legislation against swimming there though, so feel free.

I once swam across Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra. Looked safe enough from shore but when I was half way across a lot of small boats appeared and it got a bit stressful, a police boat pulled up and advised me that it was dangerous, but let me continue.

As for the "world's busiest shipping lane", both The English Channel and the Malacca Straits claim that, presumably based on tonnage/hour. But since these are both much wider, maybe we do have the greater density of ships per unit area.

In the old days I suppose the Colonial regime and its navy patrols would be on the look out for Chinese 'illegals' making a bid for freedom by swimming to the 'fragrant harbour'. So there might be restrictions on open sea swimming. I guess an organised charity swim of some sort would be permitted by the current authorities.

Oh... thanks Al, but no thanks Alan


You very brave soul! Jumping into the murky river from the jetty whilst people were jet skiing was too much for me. Were you fleeing from Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter (Crickey!) Perhaps Pauline Hanson was in sight? (That poor love in jail... who's gonna look after the fish and chips shop now!)


I guess we should still keep an eye out for "IIs", since there are the links between Illegals from mainland China and thefts on Lamma/across HK?

An ex-Lamma resident surely, any names (Hasset), given?

I should have of course have mentioned the source of the Cyprus article was the Cyprus Mail. Yes, the deranged swimmer could easily have been Keith Hassett. Well, he has not denied it so far so let us assume it was him and he is now in custody in a Nicosia police station. Which would explain his lack of posts recently.