This morning, my last training day in the bay, things did not go as planned.
Midway through our planned route one of the swimmers in our group became exhausted due to exposure to the cold. He swam away from the group to a nearby boat to rest. When we swam to meet him, he was shivering and disoriented. We decided to swim directly to the beach.
Unfortunately, the tide was against us and the beach was a long way off. So instead, we ‘pirated’ up the closest dock which happened to be private property. You can see the dock on the left side of the photo above near the trees, it has a white building attached to it. We safely negotiated a barnacle covered rusty ladder to the landing. Our goal was to get the swimmer to land and run back to the warmth of the club.
As I mentioned, things did not go as planned.
There was no access from the dock to the beach. The door leading from the dock to the beach was locked from the outside. We were trapped on the dock. We wasted precious time trying to come up with plan B.
Just then, a boat approached and someone screamed, “That is private property!”
Perfect.
The gentleman on the boat became more of gentleman when he realized we had a swimmer in distress. He unlocked the door to the beach and we quickly exited the dock and starting running back. It was difficult to support the weight of the swimmer and continue running. Note the distance, in the photo, from the dock near the trees to the end of the beach on the right side of the photo. At this point we were all quite cold.
As we approached the club I realized we had no way of gaining entry since the Dolphin Club is also locked. I sprinted across the beach and dove into the cold waters of the bay for a second time. The shock of the cold was much greater than when we got in 40 minutes earlier. I swam under the dock beside the club (see the right side of the photo) and ran to the entrance of the club.
Once in the club, the swimmer warmed quickly and fully recovered.
