Warren Wallace Completes Historic Mock Alcatraz Night Escape Swim with FOX Weather
With FOX Weather onboard to document the attempt, Odyssey Open Water Swimming Founder and open water swimmer Warren Wallace set out on a swim to bring answers to questions stemming from the attempted Alcatraz escape that occurred over sixty years ago.
After tracking the weather for weeks, there was finally a night where the conditions closely mirrored those of the June 12, 1962 attempted escape of Alcatraz Prison. That night, three inmates successfully escaped from Alcatraz Prison, but were never seen again after apparently entering the San Francisco Bay. The group was said to have a raft made out of raincoats, and planned to paddle to shore. The raft was not likely to hold up, which would’ve left the three to swim their way out of the Bay.
Warren’s night escape attempt took place on August 5, and was not without complications. From battling choppy conditions to maneuvering around oil tankers, there were numerous obstacles that would disrupt the swim and endanger an unguided and inexperienced swimmer attempting to swim from Alcatraz.
Watch the segment from Fox Weather here!
Few people know the swim from Alcatraz as well as Warren Wallace. Odyssey hosts multiple public and dozens of private world-famous Odyssey Alcatraz swims each year, and Warren has successfully made the swim from Alcatraz to shore during the day more times than he can keep track of.
The route each Odyssey Alcatraz swim takes begins at just south of Alcatraz Island to St. Francis Yacht Club or Aquatic Park. This swim was unique. “The prisoners who escaped had told others that they were planning to go to Angel Island, which is north of Alcatraz,” says Warren. “The way the currents were the night of the escape (and the night of my swim), making it to Angel Island would be almost impossible,” he continues. Warren and the FOX Weather team wanted to answer several lingering questions about the attempted escape:
If someone tried to make it to Angel island, what would happen?
Could someone make it to shore somewhere else in Marin County if they swam north from Alcatraz?
Or, would they get pulled out to sea by the current?
Warren, who swam without a wetsuit, cap, or goggles, went into the swim with the goal of replicating the attempted escape, and to make it across the current before getting pulled out under the Golden Gate Bridge.
“I took a very conservative angle, aiming almost straight north until I knew I had crossed enough of the current to safely turn and angle toward shore. This led me to have a longer distance swim, at about 3.5 miles. A route that is more of a straight line for the same start and finish is around 2.7 miles. Swimmers who have completed the Odyssey swim from Alcatraz to St. Francis Yacht Club will be familiar with this balance:Taking an L-shaped path increases your chance of success but leads to a longer swim. Taking more of a straight path is quicker, but risks overshooting the finish as the currents pull you west.”
Warren’s final landing spot was along the rocks north of Horseshoe Bay, meaning reaching shore from Alcatraz under the conditions experienced by Alcatraz escapees in 1962 was not impossible. But to even say the swim was difficult would be an understatement.
The biggest challenge was the uncertainty. I know the normal Alcatraz swim well enough that I always know how my progress is going, where I should sight, and how much farther I have left. With this one, being unfamiliar with the course, the currents, and the sighting points, especially at night without goggles, it was hard to judge. When I started to feel cold or disoriented, I didn’t know if I was almost done or if I had two miles left!
While the fate of the three inmates who attempted to escape from Alcatraz Prison is still unknown, the difficulty of the swim casts even more doubt on the potential of a successful escape.
Additional Tidbits from Warren on His Epic Night Alcatraz Escape Swim
I’d never done a long swim without goggles, and it did increase the challenge, but it wasn't as much harder as I thought it would be.
Swimming at night is fun! Along with not having goggles, it made it a little more challenging to sight, but it wasn’t too bad.