Swimming California - 111 Mile Open Water Journey

August 19th, 2011 - 12:00pm Pacific Time

After becoming the first person to complete a double crossing swim (44 miles) of Lake Tahoe this summer, I have been looking for a new challenge. I began down the road of doing an unprecedented swim from Africa to Italy - 88 miles. After a few months of planning, it became clear that financially there was no way to raise the 40 plus thousand dollars by the beginning of 2011 that was needed. Because of this, I have decided to push my Africa to Italy swim out to the summer of 2012. Once this decision was made, I still had the desire to do something big. Something no one had ever done. After much thought, I have created my new adventure.

In August of 2011, I will begin this historic swim in the small town of Princeton and swim 111 miles south to historic downtown Sacramento. My crew will guide me through 34 hours of non stop swimming. The Sacramento River's flow is determined by the amount of flow released from the dam. Historically, August has a mild release but the amount of rainfall is a factor as well. Based on calculations during this period last year, if I were to float and not swim at all it would take close to 3 days to reach Sacramento. The temperature of the river varies from the start to the finish by as much as 10 degrees (60 to 70).

Based on my predicted swim pace, we estimate that this swim will take between 30 and 34 hours. I will go without sleep. This will be the ultimate test. This swim will be close to one and a half times the amount of time I spent in the water in Lake Tahoe, where I became the first to swim the lake two times. I will finish at the bridge on HWY 275 near downtown Sacramento.

Swimming in a river has a number of hurdles to overcome. I will have to navigate 170 plus turns of more than 30 degrees. This is much more di!cult than swimming in a straight line. Navigation is very important, especially at night. I plan to start this swim Friday August 19th and finish Saturday August 20th. My crew of 14 will help guide me down the river.