The Day the Whale Came

The real-life story of how the world's most famous female long-distance swimmer encountered a grey whale separated from its mother - and how she helped to reunite them. Lynne Cox is the author of 'Swimming to Antarctica', a memoir of her life as a swimmer. From the age of fourteen she has been breaking records for long-distance swimming, culminating in a mile-long swim in Antarctica, in zero degree-temperature water. When Lynne was 17, and on a training swim off the California mainland, she found herself swimming with a grey whale that had lost its mother. For the next seven hours, she swam with the whale - through pods of dolphin, and schools of sun-fish, between the pilings of a pier, and out to the base of an oil-rig, diving down as deeply as Lynne was able to, losing sight of the whale for minutes only to have it return and listen to its strange clicking and singing - in an increasingly desperate attempt to locate its mother. The whale was too young to survive by itself, and Lynne's account of the hours she spent swimming with it, and of the moment when they finally found its mother is remarkable. Heartwarming, beautifully-written, atmospheric and sparkling with descriptions of the ocean and the behavior of the magnificent creatures that live in it, 'The Day the Whale Came' is an unforgettable story of human resilience and natural wonder.