I fucking hate the way Facebook changed how the site works so that clicking on an image no longer puts it in your browser history. Earlier today I saw a post where the swimmer whose track was shown in this specific image responded to the comments. It was actually quite an amusing interaction and I wish I could go back and share it here.

But also: the swimmer was a she, not a he.

edit:

wait I found it:

Sophie's link: https://sophie-adaptive-athlete.com/2023/01/18/2023-channel-swim-introduction/

They probably did swim "straight" but it took them a really long time and this was the tidal flow during her swim, ergo they went straight but the water they were in moved back and forth.

Tbh I think this is a perfect example of "there are no stupid questions"

Person didn't know or didn't think about currents, bet you he still got roasted though

For roughly six hours the tide will take the swimmer 'up' the Channel, and then as the tide changes direction, the following six hours will take the swimmer 'down' the Channel. This up and down movement of the water is relentless and unavoidable.

When traversing the English Channel, the boat pilot pays respect to the aformentioned tides when heading for France, which means the tidal affect will be perpendicular to the direction of the swimmer. It is incredibly rare for a swimmer to ever be swimming with or against the tide.

The moon's position relative to the earth and sun changes, creating different strengths of tide. The smaller tides are called neap tides, and the bigger ones are spring tides. Historically, swimmers have made their attempts on neap tides, as the belief is that this reduces the effect of wind against tide. It also reduces the risk of the swimmer missing the land target of Cap Gris Nez in France.

Source: Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation

The curious thing is that from her perspective, she was only swimming straight the whole time, and only expending energy going straight. It was the 'gifted' energy of the tide that caused the oscillation (from our perspective).

Just struck me as interesting to think that from her point of view she was swimming as straight and as efficiently as was possible.

Because it's not called "English Strait"

She had to go around all the minefields we laid to keep the French out.

Tide comes in, tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

These flat earthers are getting out of hand. The shortest path is this line because the earth is curved.

Because he’s swimming the English Channel and not the English Strait, duh.

Wait, I'm dumb. Is it water currents or map projection, or what?

Oh, I looked up a bit more about this — apparently the woman who swam this particular recorded route is disabled. As in she cannot physically use her legs.

Really cool stuff, but it's also a little misleading — look up Sophie Etheridge for more.

So, given that the line is the tides? currents? If they adjusted their swimming angle to make the GPS line straight, I wonder if it would affect their time or energy expended. I think it wouldn't but whatcha think?

Her sexual orientation has no effect on swimming skill, sir!