Swim for Christchurch

Pre-event meeting and safety briefing, following two minutes of silence

Friday. Phew, the weekend was ahead and I had no plans.  It had been a hard week.  The earthquake in Christchurch was so devastating, so close, and yet I had nothing to offer. Because the city was bereft of water, housing, and the bare necessities, that they asked people to stay away.  Many people at Middlemore Hospital, where I work, volunteered to travel to Christchurch, but no help was requested.  Instead,  patients were to be brought to Auckland days later.  In the immediate aftermath, I felt my useless.   That is, until I got a text message from Brandon to check the downsoundracing.com website, a forum for all my friends in the Whidbey area.  There, a fellow swimmer and dear friend, John de Wit, had posted notice of a swim in Auckland to benefit the victims of the Christchurch earthquake.  John challenged me to swim and offered to drum up some Whidbey support if I did.  It was a small gesture, in the scope of things, but one that I happily participated in.

Look at the guy behind me :) Simon says touch your ear...

Brandon braved the water sans wetsuit, but the water was a lovely 72 degrees or so

Saturday was lovely. Sunny, warm, and the air was not humid; the water, clear and warm.  Over 600 swimmers gathered for an event that had been devised, planned and executed in the space of 2 days!  The rules were simple: this was not a race.  Be gentle with each other, round the buoys, enjoy the water and each other.  It was intended to be a 1km swim, but in the end, we each swam 1400m.  It was my favorite swim by far. 
$38,186 was raised that day.

The surf lifeguards that volunteered to provide water safety for the event (as they do for all the ocean swims)

A week later, the contributions from Whidbey ($650 NZ) have been added to the pot.  Thank you  all who contributed.  The people of Christchurch may not know you exist, but your kindness stretches across the oceans to their community.  You all have my deepest respect and my heart.

People gather for the swim