Eleuthera, Bahamas is named after the Greek word for “freedom,†Eleuthera is 110 miles long and just a mile at its widest. To the east is the occasionally wild Atlantic, to the west a shallow, usually calm Caribbean Sea. The waters on both sides are ideal for swimming. Unless, of course, you don’t know how to swim, which is the case for 80 percent of the Eleuthera islanders. Taught to fear the ocean, even some of the fishermen who make their living off the sea can only dog paddle. A pair of young American women are trying to erase that aquatic inability, founding Swim to Empower, an organization that teaches people of all ages to swim. Read this interesting article about the efforts, and watch out for the documentary Free Swim.
