When she looked ahead, Florence Chadwick saw nothing but a solid wall of fog. Her body was numb.She had been swimming for nearly sixteen hours.

佛羅倫斯·查德威克向前方望去，除了綿延無盡的大霧，她什么也看不到。她一直在游泳，已經(jīng)游了幾乎16個(gè)小時(shí)，身體都麻木了。

Already she was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. Now, at age 34, her goal was to become the first woman to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast.

在那之前，她已經(jīng)是第一位從兩個(gè)方向游過英吉利海峽的女子?，F(xiàn)在，她已34歲，她的目標(biāo)是要成為第一個(gè)從卡達(dá)琳納島游到加利福尼亞海岸的女子。

On that Fourth of July morning in 1952, the sea was like an ice bath and the fog was so dense she could hardly see her support boats. Sharks cruised toward her lone figure, only to be driven away by rifle shots. Against the frigid grip of the sea, she struggled on—hour after hour— while millions watched on national television.

1952年7月4日的那個(gè)早晨，大海就像一個(gè)冰浴盆，霧是那么濃，她甚至連救援她的船只都看不到。鯊魚游向她孤單的身軀，只能靠來復(fù)槍來擊退。她迎向冰冷的海水，努力向前游，就這樣一小時(shí)一小時(shí)過去了;無數(shù)觀眾則坐在電視機(jī)前觀看這一情景。

Alongside Florence in one of the boats, her mother and her trainer offered encouragement. They told her it wasn’t much farther. But all she could see was fog. They urged her not to quit. She never had . . . until then. With only a half mile to go, she asked to be pulled out.

在佛羅倫斯旁邊的一艘船里，她母親和她的教練不斷地鼓勵(lì)她。他們告訴她離海岸已經(jīng)不遠(yuǎn)了，然而除霧以外，她卻什么也看不到。他們激勵(lì)她不要放棄，事實(shí)上，她一直在堅(jiān)持，然而在距離目的地只有半英里的時(shí)候，她卻要求，將她拖出水面。

Still thawing her chilled body several hours later, she told a reporter, "Look, I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen land I might have made it." It was not fatigue or even the cold water that defeated her. It was the fog. She was unable to see her goal.

幾個(gè)小時(shí)后，她一邊暖著身體，一邊對(duì)著記者說：“怎么說呢，我不是為自己找借口，但如果我能看見陸地的話，我會(huì)成功的。”瞧，在這次游泳中，擊敗她的不是勞累和冰冷的海水，而是霧。因?yàn)橛徐F，她根本看不到自己的目標(biāo)。

Two months later, she tried again. This time, despite the same dense fog, she swam with her faith intact and her goal clearly pictured in her mind. She knew that somewhere behind that fog was land and this time she made it! Florence Chadwick became the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, eclipsing the men’s record by two hours!

兩個(gè)月后，她又試著游了一次。這一次，盡管霧還是那樣濃，但她始終帶著必勝的信念，頭腦中始終有一個(gè)清楚的目標(biāo)，她知道霧后面的某個(gè)地方就是陸地，這一次她成功了!佛羅倫斯·查德威克最終成為第一個(gè)游過卡達(dá)琳納海峽的女子，并且以快兩個(gè)小時(shí)的速度打破了男子游過該海峽的記錄，這讓男子記錄黯然失色。