Rotto channel swim

Today was one of the longest and most taxing days I can remember. I was supporting a swim to Rottnest. It's 20km and every one of the swimmers must have one kayaker and one motor boat in support of them (unless they are in a team then they can have a boat supporting the team). So there were 1250 boats, more than 1250 kayaks and way more than 1250 swimmers in the water. Crazy event.

The actual paddling was cruisy, 20km in 7hr 15min is no sweat for a kayaker. But I was organising 4 kayakers to support 5 swimmer as part of a group of 30 swimmer that were travelling from Melbourne for the race... You can see how this was a recipe for disaster already. The race started at 620 for my swimmer so I had to get up at 4am (I had already transported the 4 kayaks to the beachhouse on my car the day before). Find parking and prep the kayaks I was ready in no time but had to help the others get ready as it was quite chaotic (they all missed their pre-event meetings with their swimmers).

All ready, I got on the water at 6am and there began the relaxing part of the day. I had 1000m to find my swimmer as he started his race before another 500m to find our support boat. This went so smoothly and without hesitation we were on officially together and on our way (if you don't meet up at the beginning you'll get disqualified). Only another 18.5km to go.

My swimmer never hesitated or looked in trouble, though did lag a bit by the end. Every 30min I had to throw him a bottle on a line and prepare small gels and snacks to hand him from my kayak. Meanwhile the boat was handing me fresh supplies for the swimmer and the occasional bacon butty/kabab as they were barbecuing on the water (picture).

When we got to the end it was a bit of a nightmare to find the swimmer and the boat (we all split up again at the finish so that swimmers don't tangle with propellers/paddles). Having found them I chilled out on the boat and had a little snorkel, much needed after 7hours with my thoughts and sitting in a kayak.

This is when things predictably got hectic. Though we finished at 2, we didn't leave until about 6pm. I had to wait for the other 3 kayakers that I had organised. Turns out one got sea sick, so the two swimmers she was supporting got disqualified... This girl had arranged the boats back, and those boats left before we could find them. The other two were also paddling for a pair, their pair had a falling out and decided to swim separately (one was much faster) and they were disqualified, their boat turned around stranding them too..

Last minute I convinced my skipper to take me and one other back, and found Julia who had found a boat to take her and one other back. My boat was going to Cockburn, hers to Fremantle. On the way back the kayaks were towed behind and they flipped and flipped and flipped, every time we had to readjust and try to solve the problem.

At 9pm we got back, my swimmer gave me a lift to Cottesloe (30ish min up the coast) where I collected my car (the other kayakers car got a parking ticket). I drove back down and collected Ash (who was guarding the kayaks in the dark) then drove back up to Crawley (40minutes) to clean and pack away all the equipment. I dropped ash at his home before driving to mine finishing at 2336.... That was a long day.

Longer for the guys that went to freo though, they were getting assistance from someone on the mainland that could carry their two kayaks, but that failed, so they ended up leaving the kayaks in a locked compound and ubering to Cottesloe and collecting the kayaks the following day.

As awesome as the event was it was an absolute nightmare. I'll swim it next time (in a big team so I don't have to swim very far maybe 4km in the whole day)