Dear Swimmers,

This is update #2, concerning escort boats and the finish of the race.

I have a few boaters, not quite enough for the swimmers that have told
me they don't have escorts.  So far, Sebastian Neumayer, Gil Sharon,
Joel Lanz, and Fred Knight have told me they do not have escorts.
Kellie Joyce has only a kayak so far.  If you have not responded with
your boater's credentials (name, boat type, CB/cell #, and email
address), please send the information today to me (fred@knightway.org)
and John (johnwerner@citizenschools.org).  Tomorrow I will match
boaters that I have with swimmers.  As I said, we may still be short
1-2 boaters.  I remain active in searching for boaters; not all
contacts have been exhausted. (I'm not exhausted yet either.)

One other point. Dori Miller, last year's fastest woman in the swim,
suggested that each swimmer have a bag of stuff for the end of the
race.  What she suggests sounds very good to me, and I will add it to
the on-line information for next year.  Dori says:

> I would also suggest that you have each swimmer pack a bag for after the
> swim and transport it for them to the finish. That will take care of the
> problem of leaving your clothes on the boat and not being able to get to
> them until your crew swims ashore.
>
> Swimmers should have the following:
>
> Warm hat
> Wool socks
> gloves
> sweatshirt, fleece
> sweatpants
> extra layers of long sleeve shirts
> Towel for deck change
> Warm beverage in a thermos. I drink sweetened tea.
>
> Immediately after finishing the race, swimmers should put on their hats and
> socks as quickly as possible. They need to change out of their wet suits.
> Open water swimmers usually don't bother with the locker room and deck
> change on the beach. Put on as many layers as you can. Swimmers will
> probably be shivering at good clip. Drink hot beverage--have someone else
> pour as it can be quite a challenge to get any in the cup. It could take up
> to 20 minutes for shivering to stop, depending on how well swimmers are
> acclimated to cold water conditions. I believe that hot showers is not the
> recommended treatment for hypothermia.
>
> Channel swimmers know this drill. Pool swimmers usually are not prepared for
> this environment.

Again, get me that boater information today.

Thanks,
Fred


--
Fred Knight, fred@knightway.org, 508 358 0834