At its narrowest point, the channel is 13 miles wide and connects Ireland and Scotland. In an Instagram post, Lea said the water is just over 50 degrees Fahrenheit and has the largest jellyfish in the world, the Lion’s Mane.
He pushed off from the Irish coast at 1 a.m. Mountain Time wearing nothing but a pair of swim trunks.
A social post around 1 p.m. MT showed him and his crew tending to jellyfish stings on a boat with the caption, “covered in jellyfish stings and generally shattered but ultimately no worse for wear, the legend touches land.”
Considered to be one of the hardest swims in the world, less than 200 people have swam the channel. According to the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association, which ratifies all North Channel solo swims, the fastest solo crossing of the channel was set in 2021 by Irishman Jordan Lecky who completed it in 9 hours, 9 minutes and 30 seconds.
In March, Lea swam across the 14-mile Cook Strait off the coast of New Zealand. The feat took him just over eight hours.
