Disappointing swim - 6.5 miles on BL

Last night I got a massage cause my shoulder blades and lower back were giving me some trouble. I did that in anticipation of today's planned 13 mile swim. I had a cooler with ice, gatorades, water, sandwiches, cereal bars. Jacob was my support crew. I trained him to stay right next to me and give me feedings every time I got to the Northwest corner of Bountiful lake.

We got in at 7:40am. It felt cold, but soon just felt comfortable. I wasn't chilled and felt great. I checked out the therm dangled at the back of the boat after swimming one full lap. It read 64. After 4 laps I yelled out to thank Jacob for his help. It was the perfect swim. But then the winds picked up. There was some serious chop. Jacob was having a real hard time going in a straight line. At the 5th feeding at the 6th lap I asked for a Buzz bite. But he was unable to control the boat to steer directly to me. After a few more minutes, he was about 150 yards away.

I know how some people are. Some people just don't mind their own business and some people are worriers. I didn't want fishermen (or rather old grandma fisherwomen) worrying about me so I yelled out in frustration for Jacob to come to me. It seemed like he wasn't even trying to stay close to me. For some reason I also started to feel chilled. It seemed like even though the sun was going higher in the sky and no clouds were around, it was getting colder. The wind was pushing the water around and making waves, but that shouldn't actually cool the water. When he finally got close to me I took another look at the thermometer - 61 degrees. It was colder!

I held on to the boat as I had a serious discussion with Jacob. I instructed him to not get more than 10 feet from me. We continued on with a renewed understanding that he needed to be able to reach me with his oars. But for some reason, he wasn't able to abide by that order and again was so far away from me, that I was yelling at the top of my lungs to instruct him to again join me. I was getting really angry.

Jacob was distraught at the struggle he was having with the waves. I was starting to get hypothermia. I was in the water for three hours. The water was getting colder and for some reason even though at first 64 degrees felt great, prolonged exposure was getting to me.

I decided to swim the rest of the lap and then get out. So we ended up going 6 laps (two more than my previous PR) in 3:15, but still far short of the 12 laps I had originally planned to do. I felt like a failure getting out of the water. I had only swam about 1/3 of what I need to do for Bear Lake. The water at Bear Lake will be just as cold. However I won't be doing laps at Bear Lake, and more than likely the wind will be in my favor. Going North to south.

I'm having doubts about Jacob's ability to crew a kayak all by himself in less than favorable conditions. I mean he's only 12 years old. With Bear Lake the support boat will have a motor, but should that motor fail, the swim would be doomed. The boat does have oars, but there wouldn't be a hope that Cathi and/or Jacob could resume the rest of the way by themselves with the oars, the rest of the way. So I'm concerned about that.

Jacob is also my sole support for a couple other swims this year - Deer Creek 10 mile swim, and the 6.2 mile Slam the Dam swim. Hopefully the weather on those days are good and he is able to stay closer to me, than he did today.

I'm planning a swim next Wednesday evening with the motor boat out on Great Salt Lake. Cathi and Jacob will crew that boat on Wednesday. Then on Thursday morning (before going to a family reunion that afternoon), Jacob and I will go for another long swim out on Bountiful Lake. Hopefully at least 8 laps.