HER OCEANS SEVEN

Her Oceans Seven                          by Holly Marihugh            
https://thewritelaunch.com/2026/01/her-oceans-seven
 The challenge is called Oceans Seven,
and by the time Marcia Cleveland
finished the ginormous feat of swimming
all those channels and straits,
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
she indeed earned ownership.
As in, Her Oceans Seven.
 
The first, the Strait of Dover.
Classic English Channel crossing.
Head down, 30-year-old arms
stroking fast, feet paddling swiftly through
the channel’s salty waves, sucking a breath in,
head down again. Twenty-one miles of movement.
Hearing the shoreline of France calling out to her.
9 hours, 44 minutes
July 29, 1994
 
That snake of water between Catalina Island
and Southern California beckoned Marcia next.
A Pennsylvanian by birth, 41-year-old Marcia
dove into the August waters of the Pacific and stroked.
Bolstered by two friends, Liz and David,
Marcia made up the trio that rippled through this channel.
All three stroking in their own singular lane. Never touching.
Across 20.2 miles, feeling the push of camaraderie
through the currents.
8 hours, 56 minutes
August 2, 2005

Lion’s Mane Jellyfish tormented Marcia through
the North Channel. It’s the frigid seawater between the
Emerald Isle and the Land of the Scots. That’s where
the 54-year-old splashed into the waves
for her third open water challenge.
Sting, stroke, flutter kick, breathe, sting, stroke, flutter kick, breathe.
Bitter cold seas at 53 degrees F shocked and prickled the skin,
along with drifting tentacles of jellyfish. Double-whammy.
No wetsuits allowed. Ever. Triple-whammy.
At the finish of 21.4 miles, an “Angel” kayaker appeared.
Moment of grace after venomous, painful crossing.
15 hours, 3 minutes
July 21, 2018
 
Five hundred meters of garbage strewn across the
Tsugaru Strait greeted Marcia in Japan. Darn those
littering cargo ships! There’s a first time for everything, and
this was the 55-year-old’s first-ever in-water barfing misadventure.
“It felt great to expel,” the plucky swimmer said.
Thank God almighty for her friend, Ted. Japanese words
and phrases roll off his tongue like a native speaker, easing the
way through all the pesky and vital details leading up to this swim.
Ted even hit the waves and stroked alongside Marcia for the
final 58 minutes that clicked by on the stopwatch.
Garbage and barfing be damned, Marcia stroked for 12.4 miles.
Finally stepped her bare feet onto barnacled covered rocks (ouch!),
hanging on while wrestling with a strong sea current.
Nevertheless, triumph at Tsugaru.
10 hours, 11 minutes
August 19, 2019
​
Aloha, Channel of Bones, better known as
Moloka’i Channel in Hawaii. Mercenary Pilot parked
his boat offshore at the start, offered to kayak in
Marcia’s gear, then what the? Not answering his cell phone?
After repeated calls?
In rescue mode, through 6-foot surf, Marcia’s daughter Julia
and friend Terri bravely towed the gear out to her.
What a wet mess! But the show must go on.
Finally, time for blast-off. Dive in. Get into the rhythm of the water.
Five- to nine-foot waves kept the sharks down below Marcia’s kicking gams.
Count any blessing on this crossing, the 57-year-old thought.
Reckless Pilot defied norms and chugged 500 meters ahead
of his precious cargo in the water. Not one boat pilot in the
universe does this, Marcia thought. Darkness engulfed swimmer
and way-too-green kayaker escort. “My headlamp battery is dead,”
the dimwit kayaker cried. Duo stuck in middle of dark, wavy Pacific
with zero rescue plan. To stay on course in the pitch black,
the super swimmer navigated by riveting her eyes to the silhouette
of the kayaker on the horizon. Dimwit was good for something.
Minutes ticked toward 18 hours, the cutoff point for greedy pilot to
demand more fees, but Marcia stroked 28 miles and beat the clock.
17 hours, 45 minutes
March 29, 2022
 
Daughter Julia and friend Lee hopped in the boat to crew for Marcia
as she stroked across the Cook Strait that buffers the
North and South Islands in Lord of the Rings Land, New Zealand.
Those fairies of the seas, dolphins, frolicked around her
and clicked underwater, buoying her spirits.
Pilot and navigator guided the 58-year-old to a teensy beach, where
tears of relief and joy spilled down her cheeks.
14.2 miles of Kiwi waters now under her belt.
“I loved the entire experience,” Marcia crowed.
11 hours, 54 minutes
March 14, 2023
 
The seventh and final Ocean Sevens challenge called
61-year-old Marcia to the Strait of Gibraltar. It’s that
sliver of sea separating España and Morocco.
Took two tries to conquer this strait, but paradoxically,
Marcia says the swim was the easiest crossing of all seven.
Mother nature calls the shots in the strait, and mere human
swimmers must bow down to wind speed and direction,
ocean tides, and time of day. A year before, poor climate
conditions had raised a red flag against attempting the crossing.
But in 2025, Mother Nature waved a green flag. And the rare
mother-daughter swimming duo, Marcia and Julia, stroked 9 miles
in tandem from shore to shore. Their hearts sang.
4 hours, 1 minute
May 20, 2025
 
For 31 years, Marcia felt the pull, allure, and mystery of the seas,
enticing every inch of her body to dive back in and conquer
one more channel. One more strait. Her Oceans Seven.
In the end, the question lingers: what propelled her insatiable drive,
fervor, or just the raw need to keep swimming?