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The 2011 Olympic Club Trans Tahoe Relay swim; a different view

By:  Jack Leth,  Sierra Division Operations Officer

 

On Saturday, July 23rd, the Olympic Club of San Francisco ran their annual Trans Tahoe swim event on Lake Tahoe. As usual the CG Auxiliary provided support to the event. This year it was four boats, a PWC, and a remote radio facility to coordinate the Auxiliary assets.

The boats patrol the perimeter of the swim and warn approaching boaters they are entering a major event with many swimmers in the water. They are asked to slow down and proceed with caution.

The boats are owned by the volunteer members of the Auxiliary and provided to augment the CG in their many missions. This is a typical one on Lake Tahoe.

Yule Tide  Flotilla 11-01 North Lake Tahoe

The Auxiliary Communications Unit used to handle all the radio traffic during the event is located on an overlook on the NE part of Lake Tahoe. This commanding view and antenna height above the lake level makes for outstanding radio communications and keeps our radio traffic off the main Coast Guard channel during a busy summer weekend day.

North Lake Tahoe Mobile 4 (AUXCOM); Bill Leoppard Flotilla 11-01

For those of us who do this on the lake the view is pretty much a lot of boats at the same level we are.

HOWEVER, this past Saturday a passing tourist saw Bill's SUV and stopped to investigate. He not only was interested but had a camera with a large, powerful telephoto lens.

He graciously provided us with some of the shots he took. So, now we know what it looks from up there.

Actually, when you look at this shot it just looks like some boater ran along dumping his trash overboard. What you don't realize this is about 136 entrants and their individual chase boats. They swim over 8 nautical miles and get stretched out pretty quickly.
Here's a little closer look:
Now you can start making out individual boats.

 

This is an even better view.

 

This is the final view. It shows a swimmer with the accompanying chase boat (each team has it's own boat).

For those of you interested in this sort of thing, the water temperature was about 62°F.

Our special thanks to Chuck Coxe who stopped by and then provided us with some of his pictures.

We're always looking for new members, so if this sort of boating is of interest to you, get in touch with us.

Permalink 07/26/11 11:31:03 am, by jleth Email , 406 words, Categories: Sierra C.G. Auxiliary Division 11 News ,