3 Down 1 to go

Day 3 Done

Right, before we go any further I need to express my Huge gratitude to Audra and all the support crew in this event. They were all amazing, whether they got to the end or not. It will all become clear whilst you read this fairly lengthy Blog as there was a lot that went down so please bear with me

Early start.

The plan was to meet for breakfast – yes, breakfast. This is the first breakfast that we have had since this whole event started. Kayakers and swimmers alike all dutifully met for a breakfast of Egg and ham and other local culinary delights (Burittos and Fruit and the likes), where Kent-The organiser went through the plan for the day and also checked that all Swimmers had a kayaker. Once this was taken care of, all fed and watered, we ventured to the marina to be transported to the Staging point of the start. A small secluded beach just below the dam wall that separates Theodore Roosevelt lake and Apache lake. From the get go there were problems. The first boat that ferried Swimmers and kayakers there lost its propeller – honestly! I thought that rubbish only happened in Africa. We now had a boat stranded in the middle of the lake with about 20 kayakers and swimmers on it.

I was in the next boat and off we roared. The same high powered boat as the day before. Today was a shorter -10 minute ride to the staging beach at 55MPH, sounds good? Until you realised that we had set off from Apache marina – which is near the middle of the lake so we only covered 60 % of the swim journey we were about to embark on. Along the way, we passed Liz Fry. Some of you may have heard of her. She is one of Open water swimming’s more extreme beings. She was doing all the swims that we were doing – except doing them all both ways.

19 miles on day 1,

18 miles on day 2,

today’s stint was a meagre 34 miles and,

If we find her, maybe 12 miles tomorrow

 

We arrived on the staging secluded beach and there was a camp there. Two fisherman had decided to use it for the night. All of a sudden we arrived, 12 people disembarked off our boat and, suffice to say, their tranquillity shattered – they were a bit pissed off! I went up to them and there was a conversation along the lines of – do we not have any respect. I then mentioned what was happening; that shortly, a whole bunch of people about to swim the entire lake distance would be arriving and that we would be gone in about two hours. He then said – “Well, I suppose you want to share my tent and food as well?” at this point I so had to hold back from saying, “with all due respect sir, I think your two man tent is a bit small for 80 people!” Well he got the hump and walked off muttering something along the lines of, well I will leave then, plus a few expletives thrown in for good measure. He started packing up. I did feel for him.

Today was a bit different in that the kayaks travelled by U-Haul trucks – along the African Highway – AKA Dirt road – We now had the envious task of offloading 40 plus kayaks and carrying them down a pretty arduous stony, sandy path to the beach. At this point something pretty ingenious occurred. We formed what we now call the kayak train. One person leads with the bow of one kayak, then the next person picks up the stern of it and the bow of another kayak – next person picks up stern, and bow of next one—you get the picture, and we formed this chain of kayaks that slowly – and carefully – made its way to the beach, taking care not to slip on the arduous terrain underfoot.

Preparations.

The rest of the gang soon started appearing and the boat that had lost its propeller was recovered and the occupants moved to a second boat. Soon, we were all ready – sunblock, balmex etc.., kayaks loaded with swimmers kit, and then it was time for the first wave to go. With kayakers ready, swimmers were bundled into a pontoon boat for the short Journey to the buoys that protected the dam wall separating Roosevelt and Apache lakes.

Wave 2 Started just before 9 am. Now for me this is about a 7 – 8 hour swim. The fastest this swim had been done, to my recollection, is 7 hours 14 min so you do the maths – IT WAS GOING TO BE A LONG DAY! Some people had their prescribed times down as 12 hours.

The Swim

I decided to tweak my stroke quite drastically today from a combination of past experience and the minor aches and pains that I was having from 2 days of swims already. I slowed my cadence down, I swam with my hands wide open – so as not to put pressure on my wrists, elbows and shoulders. I also swam with my head very far down in the water – to try and lift the back end of my chassis up a bit – we were not in salt water so did not have the convenience of added buoyancy.

After about 1.5 hours I was feeling VERY comfortable but did not want to use too much power as we still had – I put it, in my mind, about 6 hours of swimming ahead. Conditions were fair, with a slight headwind making the kayaking a minor challenge but things were about to change – and not for the better.

Mother Nature has her say on the whole affair

The wind started picking up, there were now white caps appearing on the waves and the kayaking conditions were becoming more treacherous. Bear in mind, these were mostly sit-on-top kayaks and Stand up paddle boards, thus exposing a vast area of the boat and body of the kayakers and stand up paddle boarders to the now relentless head on wind that lashed down the lake. We now started having situations where the swimmers were travelling faster than their support teams. Even the likes of me, with my broad shoulders and African backside did not offer enough surface area to the wind to slow me down. So, with safety being our primary objective, I had to turn off my legs and slow my swim down even more so as to stay with my support crew. Harry and Audra were taking flack above water.

There was little or no chance for respite for them so Audra could take very little footage of the amazing scenery that we were inching past. The first to succumb – that I could see, was the stand-up paddle boarder – they have their entire body as Wind resistance and staying on the board was becoming a challenge. A support boat had to pick him up and then had to stay with his swimmers as they were not allowed to carry on without support. This took one support speed boat – thankfully with the propeller still attached out of action.

I saw all this and was getting a bit battered myself – God only knows what Audra and Harry were feeling. I then stopped and told Audra to head for the shoreline and we could try and garnish what little shelter we could from the shore. It worked for a while and off we went. Soon many kayakers opted for a similar modus operandi.

As we carried on up the lake, feeds were now dictated by the respite that one could get from the wind – if any. The problem being – if the kayakers stopped for a second, they started drifting backwards – at a far more rapid pace than the swimmer. Preparing food became an activity of just throwing anything to the swimmer that the kayakers could grab and despatch before disappearing back towards the start line. Swimmers fed, we then carried on – only to have to slow right down to let the kayaker catch up again. I would often disappear up ahead about 200m then wallow whilst waiting for my support crew to catch up then do Breaststroke arms and no legs to stay with them- constantly trying to feed positive words to keep Audra motivated. Her lips were getting thinner – that is not a good sign by the way.

We all struggled on like this and at about 6 hours, other problems started to occur. The lake sides were becoming shear walls extending out of the water so the kayakers could achieve very little – if any respite from the shore line as the wind continued to pump down the lake. More worrying for me, I now had my own problems creeping up on me. As I had been expending very little energy during the swim so far, my body temperature started to fall.

At this point the organisers switched to another plan. Latch the kayaks and their occupants to the pontoon boats and motor them up ahead of the swimmers and let us catch up to them. They did this once to Audra. Now another problem reared its ugly head. Travelling like that next to a power boat, you get soaked. Having done this with Audra and another support crew, they deposited them in a sheltered rock formation for us to catch up, which we rapidly did. It was so good for me to expend some energy and get my body temperature normalised, no matter how brief the burst of speed was. I took on a big feed Audra changed into some dry clothes but for Audra, the damage was already done.

We carried on, me slowing right down again and Audra struggling – as was every kayaker out there. I told her, “the next time they move you forward please get a rope” – no, not to hang myself! But to tie her kayak to me and I would tow her up the lake for the remaining 7 miles. Do not quite know how that would fit in with the Rules, or what it would do to me, but the key here was adaptability.

Now at this point, I realised that Audra is not a very good accomplice when it comes to the art of subtle persuasion. I told Her “Please, if you want to give up we will; in those conditions there is nothing wrong with throwing in the towel.” The conditions were bad, made worse by the fact that she was now freezing due to being soaked and pummelled by the relentless wind. My body temperature had dipped again. Her response – “We have not come all this way, and spent all this money for me to stop now!” In reality all I wanted her to say was “yes let’s call it quits.” I then saw another Kayaker whom had left their swimmer for the same reason huddled against a rock. I told Audra to pull in there for a rest.

Another Swimmer – whose kayaker had already been swapped out – Mathew Hill, from the UK then appeared. I asked if I could tag on with them. They agreed, I took a last feed from Audra and told her to wait to be moved ahead of me when a speed boat was available.

Off we both went with his kayaker. It was good for me to get my swim going again and some much needed heat into my near lifeless legs and get that body temp up again. I carried on like this for a while. I then could only hope that Audra had seen a bit of sense and had gotten onto one of the support speedboats. Thankfully she had. The kayaker I was now with mentioned that this had been going on most of the day with swimmers now doubling up with new kayakers. He had spare food for me, not my usual – but at this point I did not care.

Audra was now on a boat, getting Hypothermic and worried that I was without food and then came looking for me. When she eventually found me, I told her I was fine.

I proceeded with Matthew and his kayaker until about 1km from the end. Matthew is a bit slower than me so I still was not using my legs as I did not want him to pace off me, I wanted him to swim his own swim. My body temperature was a lot better although I had lost feeling in my legs. For this last kilometre, I told the kayaker that I must let the dogs off the leash and have a bit of a blow out to get feeling in my legs again, he said that was fine and if I ran into trouble just drift back to him.

I sped off for the last stretch passing two other swimmers and I was finally there. I had done it. Rubbish time of 8 hours 45 minutes but I had done it for 17 miles.

Now, to get back and find Audra. The keys for the car and the room were on the finish boat. The last two days Swimmers had ended up at the cars before the kayakers so I had them with me. She would be soaked, hypothermic and likely grumpy. Luckily, if there is any place you want to be experiencing hypothermia, it is with this community, most, if not all of them have been there, done it and got the t-shirt.

When I finally arrived back, I hitched a lift form the car park to the room passing a couple of people on the road with, what looked suspiciously like my kit. I got to the room to see Audra’s hat hung on the door – it was not for the reason most of you think. Then those folks arrived – it was my kit and Audra was fine and at the car park. I threw on something warm then ran up to the main resort area and there she was – still cold but safe and wrapped up in other peoples clothes.

We were both safe albeit a bit shaken. It was now time for a HOT bath and dinner and Bed. At the evening meal, I got chatting to the young gent who won today’s race. He had had his kayaker swapped out 4 times as each of them succumbed to the relentless conditions.

Now, as usual for me, wake up at 2 in the morning. For some reason my body thermostat is still a bit broken and I cannot for the life of me warm up so I am awake, sat in the room with the heating on IN ARIZONA and writing this blog so when I do have internet access it can be posted immediately

Sorry it was a long log but a lot happened today. A great day, many dramas but we all live to tell the tale. A brief word from Audra now before we sign off:

Audra – well. I think Graeme’s covered the nuts and bolts of it all – as you guys will have gathered, it was a long relentless day for us kayakers, with such conditions. Granted, I have only been doing this a short time, but I have to say, it was really hard. Not only was the wind so strong (up to 20mph in places I believe, according to the weather report), but the conditions it created with the waves were brutal. The wind started up early, but it was still manageable. By the time I was pulled out though, it was just silly – and impossible for me to make any headway at all, after 5 hours of hard kayaking. Graeme was a star the whole way through though, even though he must have been very frustrated by my slow pace. But he was right at the end; there was no way I could carry on, especially as once I was soaked, I found it hard to get warm again. Hypothermia and I became well acquainted for a bit there! I was so grateful for the support of the pontoons that helped me but especially to Walter and Suzie Dodds who helped me once off the boat – I was a zombie, and I confess, a bit emotional after such a hard day and Suzie got the brunt of it! Still – I am stiff today, but we are both fine – and on the positive side, Graeme did not have to be pulled because I couldn’t keep up, which had been my biggest nightmare. I was also relieved to find out that I was not the only kayaker that had struggled; I kept Lillian, my accomplished ‘mentor’ kayaker for this swim, company for a while, while we waited for the pontoon to move us on, so I was in good company. To all those who did manage to kayak to the end, RESPECT!! It was a tough day for all. So now to recover for the final swim; I believe we can expect some wind again on that one, so I’m off to catch some more rest! We’ll be back tomorrow with another update – from Apache Lake, signing out!