Swimming: Blewett gives up after 12 hours

By Suzanne McFadden

Exhaust fumes last night snuffed out Sandra Blewett's chances of breaking the women's endurance record for swimming in the sea.

Veteran swimmer Blewett, aged 49, aborted her swim from Great Barrier to Takapuna after 12 hours in the water.

She had been vomiting for the last three hours of her swim because of the fumes from an inflatable support boat driving alongside.

Her pilot, Bob Gilbert, said Blewett left her decision to stop until she was too ill to continue.

"She got to the stage where she was totally debilitated," he said.

"She is so disappointed because things had been going so well. We had covered 17 miles since we started at 6 am - we were more than a third of the way there."
Blewett encountered three thunderstorms during her swim.

As well as the Great Barrier-Takapuna crossing, she had been looking to break the record for swimming more than 50 hours in the sea.