Lake Swim 2006

Carole and Jay Furr took part in the 2006 shore-to-shore Lake Champlain lake swim, sponsored by and held on behalf of the Greater Burlington YMCA's aquatic programs. No, we didn't swim the lake -- Jay's never, not in a million years, going to be that good a swimmer, and Carole isn't sure she'd have the endurance. Not yet, anyway. But we did take part, volunteering to serve as kayak escorts to whomever needed us to accompany them across the lake and have whatever refreshment was required close at hand. While there was originally some doubt that our big Perception Carolina 16' sea kayaks would fit on the deck of the trawler Nancy Ann which was taking the swimmers and a lot of smaller kayaks across to the starting line, in the end they did fit and we didn't wind up serving as the mid-lake welcome party.

Our swimmer was June Melia. We met June for the first time at the pre-race dinner and meeting the night before the swim. June, shown in the photo gallery below, completed the swim in 4 hours and 45 minutes, winding up swimming a little more than 8 miles on a 7.5 mile point-to-point course. Jay's deck-mounted GPS receiver recorded (see the track, above) a total distance of 8.5 miles from start to finish but that included various points where he had to paddle backwards in order to meet up and raft with Carole while June was taking a refreshment break. Carole and Jay were very impressed with June, who swam a straight forward crawl all the way across and never switched to a resting backstroke or breaststroke or anything. June was the 10th finisher out of 37 swimmers (including, if memory serves, two multi-member relay teams who finished somewhat later than June did). According to WCAX, the first to finish was Lisa Neidrauer, of Toronto, Canada, who finished in three hours and 51 minutes.

The Nancy Ann led the way to Willsboro Point, New York, a mile or so from the far western shore of the lake, accompanied by various other small motor vessels that would be serving as escort vessels for some of the swimmers. Rather than actually starting onshore, the swim started a few hundred yards off the point. This led to some pulse-pounding excitement when it came time to lower the kayaks off the back of the Nancy Ann in very choppy water. Carole and Jay managed to get aboard without capsizing or losing any gear overboard and it wasn't long until everyone was ready, kayaks milling about and swimmers all treading water waiting for the starting horn.

When the horn sounded, everyone took off. There was some concern at first that folks were heading on a course too far south which would take them to the south side of Juniper Island, Vermont and into difficult currents, but for the most part there didn't seem to be any severe navigational difficulties. Jay preceded June, using the GPS to keep his course straight toward the ending spot, Blanchard Beach at Oakledge Park in Burlington, Vermont. It was a bit tricky, trying to keep far enough ahead that June could simply sight on Jay without veering all over the place, but not so far that he was out of sight. Carole kept close to June from behind and at times was there to say "a bit over to the right, you're going a bit far north" (or "a bit far south"). June kept to a pretty good course, though, and rarely needed much correction.

It was a pleasure to take part -- although the following day Carole and Jay both felt a bit stiff. Both had done paddles of that length on Lake Champlain, so it was open to question why they ached so. One theory was that they weren't used to paddling, stopping, paddling, stopping, instead of settling into a good rhythm and zooming across the lake in two hours. Regardless, it was fun and a good workout for everyone involved.

Photos from the Lake Swim

GBYMCA Lake Swim 2006

Photos from the Lake Swim