On the foggy fifty degree morning of October 15th in Wilmington North Carolina, I jumped in the steaming 70 degree harbor at around 7:40 am, and started warming up for the 1.3 mile race in the harbor. The average age of the people there were fit, ready to kick me in the face 40 year olds. Yay. I’m 12.

SO, they blow the whistle at ten minutes to warn people, then at five minutes, but as it turned out they were two minutes late. So, with three minutes till the starting whistle, people got frantic, all scrabbling and splashing to be at the front of the pack. You would think all these 40 year olds were a bunch of kindergarteners. Finally,the starting horn blasted across the foggy morning harbor, and the whole beach where we started from erupted in foamy frothy, foam, and no one could see anything. I waited exactly one minute until most people had gone so I did not get kicked to death, then I swam out into the still dim bay.

There were problems immediately. About a quarter of the people in the race had the same idea, so I almost got kicked to death anyway. So far, so good. About half way through the race, jellyfish decided they wanted in on the race. Eventually, there were so many that I thought we were swimming IN them. Because they were moon jellies, they don’t hurt a lot, but once you have six dozen, you start to feel them a little. Just a little. (To give you a little perspective, I sounded like a dying rooster at the end.)

To add insult to injury,(literally) fate decided to add fish to the equation. Nice cute minnows right? NO NO NO NO NO NO NO…NO NO NO. When I felt one touch me, I jumped about a mile.(I admit I have an active imagination, but the jellyfish did not help.) Obviously, they wouldn’t let us swim if they even thought there was a slight possibility that there was a shark, but still, SHARKS!!! To top it off, the wind tripled in strength and I could barely get my arms out of the water for waves. Eventually, I thought I would die of dehydration because of the amount of salt water I was drinking. I probably had a couple gallons in my by the time I finished the race. Finally, I saw the finish line and took of like a sword fish, scorching through the last tenth of a mile, racing like my life depended on it, which it probably did.

I was shell shocked scared half to death, stung a couple dozen times by jellyfish, and I had a serious issue with chaffage. I though things couldn’t get any worse. I thought wrong. 50 yards from the finishing dock, I felt something odd. I looked up and I was no less then 20 feet to the right of where I was ten seconds ago. The tide had started to go out, taking me with it, moving alarmingly fast. I was about ready to throw a temper tantrum, but I thought is wasn’t quite the right time. I put my head down and swam as hard as I could. When I looked up again I was still 30 yards from the dock and about 30 feet to far right. I once again put my head down and swam as hard as I could, which at this point is about the speed of a dung beetle. I did not look up because I knew it would be demoralizing.

I swam head first into the dock.

YAY!! what a way to conclude my race!!!!

Finally, after what seemed like a millennium, I stepped out of the water, and on to the dock, a changed man.

Well, there you have it, that’s the story of my 1.3 mile swim in Wilmington, NC.

Here is the rout I was supposed to take through Mott’s Channel.

At least I was supposed to. I did plenty of zigzagging.( that Photo is from google earth)

Here is me warming up.

Here is me standing in front of the camera smiling, completely oblivious to the terror that was about to befall me.

So that is the eventful story of my swimming adventure in Mott’s Channel.

THANKS FOR READING MY POST!!!!!!