Pat Gallant-Charette, 62, and Miyuki Fujita, 47, can barely understand one another.

Gallant-Charette lives in Westbrook and knows a few phrases in Japanese, Fujita’s language, and Fujita understands a little English, but the two have been relying on hand signals, interpreters, and, seemingly, their mutual love of marathon swimming, to bridge the language gap.

On July 11, in heavy fog, the two were splashing around the ocean water at Pine Point. Gallant-Charette got out her thermometer and showed it to Fujita to demonstrate the careful watch she keeps on the water temperature. Fujita laughed. Then she stepped into the water and made a frightened rabbit squeak due to the unexpected chill. Gallant-Charette laughed.

The two women, along with their mutual swimmer friend, interpreter and Falmouth resident Yoko Aoshima, 47, were training for the annual Peaks to Portland swim, which was held July 13. It was Fujita’s first time tackling the open-water swim and her first visit to the East Coast. Aoshima has participated in Peaks to Portland for the last three years, and Gallant-Charette said she was pretty sure this was her 14th time participating.

“It was fantastic, perfect,” said Gallant-Charette on Monday after the swim. “For me, I don’t look at my time, but it was a great swim. Miyuki said she’d love to do it again. It was Yoko’s third time and she enjoyed it.”

Fujita finished in 1:15:25, followed by Fujita’s hosts, Aoshima, in 1:20:01, and Gallant-Charette in 1:26:46.

Gallant-Charette met Fujita when she was in Japan to swim the Tsugaru Strait, one stop on the Oceans Seven Challenge, where marathon swimmers cross one channel in each of the seven oceans. The Tsugaru Strait is regarded as a challenging swim due to the strong currents and abundance of marine life, including squid that live in the strait between Tokyo and the northern-most island in Japan. Other channels in the challenge include Irish Channel, Cook Strait, Moloka’i Channel, English Channel, Catalina Channel and Strait of Gibraltar.

“I had heard of her [Fujita] several years ago, she’s a very well-known swimmer. When I went for the Tsugaru Strait I was hoping to get to meet her. It just happened she was part of the crew,” Gallant-Charette said. “It was a great honor to meet her.”

Gallant-Charette completed the strait in 19 hours and 33 minutes. Since that successful trip, Gallant-Charette and Fujita have stayed in touch, regaling each other with tails of their love of swimming and how they got started in marathon swimming.

For Fujita, she wanted to be good at something unique. For Gallant-Charette, it was about honoring the memory of her brother, an avid swimmer who unexpectedly died of a heart attack in 1997. More than a year after her brother’s death, Gallant-Charette stood on Peaks Island looking out to Portland, 2.4 miles away, nervously. She completed that first long-distance swim and hasn’t stopped.

Gallant-Charette has since swum the English Channel in 15 hours and 57 minutes. She swam the Strait of Gibraltar in 3 hours and 28 minutes and the Catalina Channel in 14 hours and 11 minutes and the Tsugaru Strait in Japan in 19 hours and 36 minutes. She swam her first Peaks to Portland race in an hour and 15 minutes, while wearing a wetsuit. On Saturday she made it in less than an hour and a half without a wetsuit.

“I haven’t been wearing a wetsuit for the past seven years or so now. I find the water very comfortable,” Gallant-Charette said.

Fujita, after hearing the inspiring stories from Gallant-Charette, decided that she, too, would like to participate in the Maine swimming event and get a chance to see her friends and the East Coast of America for the first time.

“I came to see Yoko [Aoshima] and Pato [Gallant-Charette]. It’s my first time in the East Coast. It’s a nice place,” said Fujita, who first learned how to speak English in school, around the same time she learned how to swim.

The third member of the swimming party, and the glue that holds the conversation together, is Aoshima, a Japanese native who has lived in Maine for several years.

Aoshima has become a very good friend of Gallant-Charette after the two began training together at Casco Bay YMCA and Pine Point Beach. Aoshima learned to swim at the YMCA five short years ago, but Gallant-Charette said now she’s faster than the distance swimmer.

“I can swim further than her, but she’s faster than I am. Sometimes she’ll have to stop and wait for me,” Gallant-Charette said.

After the Peaks to Portland race, Fujita got to try another first and something she had been looking forward to since she arrived last Wednesday, eating fresh Maine lobster. She said it was very good.

Fujita and Aoshima will travel to New York for the Manhattan Island Marathon Relay swim, where the two will represent Japan in the race.

Gallant-Charette is heading to the North Channel, between Ireland and Scotland in August and Cook Strait in New Zealand next January.

Gallant-Charette and Aoshima train most days along Pine Point beach.

Westbrook’s Pat Gallant-Charette and Miyuki Fujita, an international open-water swimmer from Japan, enter the water at Pine Point to spend last Thursday morning training together for Saturday’s Peaks to Portland swim.