June 8, 2003

Is it something I said?

We only had about 28 kayakers to watch the 500+ swimmers crossing the Bay. Thankfully 12 of the one mile swim supporters made the crossing to help us out because we were spread pretty thin.

Compared to the Potomac Swim, this was somewhat uneventful, at least for me. I pulled 2 swimmers out at the beginning, but after that I had to sprint to catch up to the front of the pack. I was assigned to a team to watch the last 4/10 of a mile of the swim. The plan was to follow the lead swimmers across until I got to the last 4/10ths of a mile and then take up station until all the swimmers made it across. But taking two people off the course in the first mile (one person within the first 200 feet) really slowed me down and I had to hoof it to catch back up to the front. (according to print articles, over 60 people were pulled from the 4.4 mile swim this year)

Once past the 4 mile marker I paddled a little further down and took up station near the bridge painting barge. This was a maze of lines and ropes and I wanted to make sure no one got swept into that mess.

On the way across, it was a constant battle to keep swimmers from swimming outside the bridge spans, but once I parked by the barge I placed my cockpit even with the southern bridge span and kept my bow pointed toward the northern bridge span. This forced the swimmers to swim away from the bridge pylons, which was good since I saw a few people come by with blood on their arms from tangling with pylons further up the course. It was interesting that swimmers easily saw my kayak and swam around it, but many couldn't see the huge concrete pylons sticking out of the water.

As time went on and the pack of swimmers went by more people started taking up station , with their bows pointing out past the pylons. It seemed to work well, at least from where I was sitting, at keeping the swimmers away from the southern span.

Swimmer after swimmer passed and finally I saw the end of the pack. Two swimmers came by, each with a kayak escort, and another kayaker told me anyone behind them were being pulled from the water. I stuck with the last swimmer with another kayaker, who had picked her up farther back on the course. This kayaker, who I'm embarrassed to say I don't recall his name, did a great job of encouraging this last swimmer and guiding her the last 1/2 of a mile to the beach.

Once on shore I called my grandmother in Florida. She turned 90 today and I called to wish her a happy birthday before it got too late.

After the phone call I grabbed a few bagels (a drawback of coming in last is there isn't much food left) and then headed back across the bay to where my car was waiting. Before I got far I hooked up with David, Cyndi, and a few others. We were paddling fairly slow but soon caught up with 2 people in white water kayaks and 1 person in a sea kayak. I dropped back to stay with them, but one of the ww boats fell even farther behind, finding it difficult to fight against the current.

Dave fell back and I noticed before long the ww boat was moving along nicely. I didn't realize till we were almost back that Dave had hooked a tow line to the ww boat and singlehandedly towed it from the bridge to the wind surfer beach!

The ww boat I escorted made it back under her own power - a strong paddler with much more energy than I had.

By the time my kayak was on my car and we said our goodbyes, it was nearly 7:00. It was a long day and I made it home a little over 13 hours after I had left.

I was impressed with how this swim worked out. Mike and Alan did a great job of organizing the kayakers, and Brian chipped in with a good plan for the best coverage with such a small group. My hat's off to all of them. And also to Dave who helped bring that ww boater back across the bay - she would have been in trouble without him; to Andy for escorting the blind swimmer, and the unknown kayaker for sticking with the the last swimmer to the end.

If anyone who reads this had planned to support the swim but backed out after the list discussion on the Potomac River swim, I would appreciate a comment to this trip report below. I do want to know if last weeks discussion deterred folks from attending. I think in the future I need to be more cognizant of the timing for my reports...

Other things of note:

1) Know where you are on the course. I was probably asked a dozen times "How much further?"

2) If you don't have the skills to keep yourself away from the pylons, don't risk putting your boat between a pylon and a swimmer. They are briefed ahead of time to stay clear, and although the pylons were somewhat clean, they can eat through your boat in a second if you are not careful. No one is going to reimburse you if you hole your boat. Yell at them and try to get them to swim clear before they get there.

3) Someone suggested they put a banner on the food boat so people know what it is. Great idea.

4) You won't need your tow belt until you put it out of reach. I had stashed my tow belt after the race because I was expecting to paddle back alone. It was only a 4-5 mile paddle back, right? Thankfully Dave had put a bit more thought into it than I did.

5) I had one swimmer vehemently complain to me about the current. Not sure what I was supposed to do about it?

6) Crossing the channel back to the wind surfer's beach can be a bit tricky for novice paddlers. We should arrange to make sure they are escorted by paddlers who are experienced in crossing shipping lanes.

Woody