Another beautiful day

  Yesterday, I went to see Devon off. Unfortunately the waves were a little higher than predicted and she decided to just complete the single crossing in about 16:08.
  I got pictures of Tom's boat, the Ghostrider. I also got to met a few of my heroes from the South End Rowing Club in San Francisco.
  The water and the sun were so beautiful in my afternoon workout, I felt like I could have kept going forever. I'm sure I will think differently about that on Monday after 20 km, but it still is an excellent sign.

Top of the mountain

   Yesterday I did my high altitude training. A high altitude expert told me that the best way to acclimatize to a given altitude is to go up to a higher altitude for a few hours.
   So I took the gondola and then another chairlift to the top of Heavenly Valley, a world famous ski resort.  Then I hiked up even higher past the top of another chair to the very top of the resort, the Sky Express chair at 10,040 feet. I think I huffed and puffed enough to get my body into high altitude gear. The views of Lake Tahoe and the surrounding mountains were spectacular.
  At noon, I'm going to send off Devon Clifford, a lady from near New York City, who wants to do a double crossing of Lake Tahoe. You can follow her on the tracker at the same link that my swim will be on. https://track.rs/tahoe/

Training in Lake Tahoe

   I swam 2 hours yesterday and 1 hr 40 minutes today. The altitude only bothers me when I sprint. The water temperature is gorgeous at 69 to 70. The sun on my back is wonderful too. An annoying chop comes up at around 11 a.m. That is why I will be starting at 9 p.m. to minimize my time in the afternoon chop.
   Last night I went to Camp Richardson to see the start of another swim. I met my captain, Tom Linthicum, and saw the boat, the kayak and the starting spot. It is pitch black here. No glow of lights on the horizon, just surrounded by tall black mountains. Also, the air gets quite cool at night, which I am thinking will be the biggest challenge. I will have to sprint to stay warm and the altitude may put a cap on how fast I can swim.
   I'm staying in a hotel right on the beach the first 5 nights until my crew arrives and then we move to a big rental house. I have a clear view of the first half of the course and I can picture where the finish is by the slope of the distant mountains. It is very reassuring that I can see the whole outline of the lake from my balcony. One of the mountains still has snow on it. So far, from my balcony, I've seen paragliding, water skiing, kayaking and stand up paddle boarding.
   Fun observations about Lake Tahoe: It never seems to rain here, even the boats don't cover up for the night. Overnight is usually calm and the wind blows from 11 am to 7 pm. The forecast is always the same. There are no bugs. Water boils sooner at a lower temperature and it takes longer to cook food at higher altitude.

Greetings from Lake Tahoe

I just posted a picture of the view from my hotel window.
How Lake Tahoe was formed is an interesting story. According to the Washoe Indian legend, an innocent Native American man was being chased by an Evil Spirit. In order to ward off the Evil Spirit, the Great Spirit gave the man a branch of leaves, promising that each leaf dropped would magically produce a body of water that would impede the Evil Spirit's chase. However, the man dropped the entire branch in fright, thus creating the giant lake.

Solar eclipse

I'm all packed and will leave for the airport shortly.
Exciting news.
There will be an 80% solar eclipse at 10:20 in the morning, California time, for 2 minutes, while I am swimming.
As my official observer, Jodi DiLascio, says, "Marilyn will swim from dark to light to dark to light."
I am laughing to myself because I am not allowed to wear a watch and my crew never tells me the time so that I don't get discouraged with my slow progress. But I will know when 10:20 happens!!! The other issue is whether I should take my dark goggles off for 2 minutes or not.

Last swim in Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario had a nasty good bye present for me today. Rather than the 22 to 23 degree Celsius water we have been enjoying for the last 2 weeks, the water near shore was 15 to 16 degrees. The strong south wind blew the warm water out into the middle of the lake. I guess it is good practice if Lake Tahoe decides to do the same thing to me.
A guy jumped off his boat anchored near where I was swimming, presumable expecting warm water like yesterday, and I heard him screaming with the cold.

Less than 2 weeks to go

     This weekend was spent looking at radar in order to dodge thunderstorms as well as trying to avoid busy boating times in order to get my daily swims.
     I did a whole workout in my new Speedo Aquablade suit and it fit well and didn't rub anywhere. It fit so snugly, I didn't even get any seaweed down my suit. It's not very flattering but it is fast. My nickname for this suit is "my saran wrap suit".
     CBC Hamilton interviewed me today. No details on publication or airing times yet.
     Sashbear is busy setting up their facebook page to follow my swim. We are all excited about the posts that they are running. I like to call them "DBT skills with Marilyn".  https://www.facebook.com/Sashbearorg/