When Chicago police officer Nial Funchion swam across the Straits of Gibraltar recently, he was joined by some unexpected guests: a family of killer whales.
“I was so focused on making it through that I never even noticed the whales were there. I knew everybody was looking at something else, but I figured it was a boat,” Funchion said.
“I didn’t find out until after I finished that a family of whales had been following me. They were only about a hundred yards behind me, and the pictures my team took look really cool, but I’m glad nobody told me at the time.”
Funchion, who has been swimming all his life, made the 12-mile swim Oct. 6 from Tarifa, Spain to Morocco in an impressive 3 hours, 50 minutes, to raise awareness for the non-profit police organization, The Brotherhood of the Fallen.
Swimming Gibraltar
Officer Funchion has some other big swims coming up in the next two years. We wish him luck in all these endeavors.