Haines man plots 92-mile protest swim
From the docks of Skagway to the shores of Juneau, it's 92 miles through the Lynn Canal - the longest glacial fjord in North America. The water is more than 2,000 feet deep at some points, making this one of the deepest stretches in the Inside Passage.
Steve Vick, a 35-year-old club swimming coach in Haines, hopes to set off Aug. 1 and swim the distance in 10 days, or, at most, two weeks. He plans to swim five or eight miles at a time with the tide out and the current in his favor. When the tide starts to come in, he will jump back into one of his support boats to eat, rest and recuperate.
He's swimming to protest the proposed Juneau Access road.
Though he's swum competitively since he was 5, Vick (5-10, 170 pounds) has been swimming in open water for just over a month. And while many people have told him he's crazy, no one has said his journey is impossible.
"He definitely has his work cut out for him, but he's physically capable of doing it and I'm totally confident that he's going to make it through," said Juneau contractor and adventurer Mike Miller, who went on a 212-mile training swim with Vick in Tee Harbor on July 4. "If he does, it's just 100 percent by nature's consent."
"I don't know of anyone who's ever done it, but I just think no one's ever thought of doing it," Vick said. "The point of this expedition is to get as much information as possible. The naysayers are the ones I want to talk to. What are the dangers?"
Go to www.lynnswim.org if any jump to mind.
Vick, a Haines resident since August, hopes his ambitious swim draws attention to the proposed 68.5-mile Juneau Access road from Juneau to Skagway. He's against it, as is most of Haines and much of Skagway. Vick was driven to act in May, when the state announced it would take away the fast ferry Fairweather from Upper Lynn Canal this fall and winter and replace it with a slower day boat.
"Around here, whenever you mess with the ferries, people are pretty suspect," Vick said. "People know that the overwhelming support within the government is to build a road, and the overwhelming support of the people is to have better ferries."
"The idea really came out frustration," he said. "In my head I thought, 'Gosh, if they keep this up I'm going to have to swim to Juneau."
He needs to raise about $10,000 to pay for fuel, supplies and his support crew, but the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and the Haines-based Lynn Canal Conservation group have jumped aboard to recruit volunteers and raise money.
Vick hopes to have two boats, a Zodiac and three to five kayakers follow him on his trek. The support crew was the first piece of advice from legendary open-water swimmer Lynne Cox, the first person to swim across the 38-degree Bering Strait. Cox swam in the Gastineau Channel and across Glacier Bay's 44-degree Muir Inlet as part of her training. Vick read her book, "Swimming to Antarctica" and e-mailed her to see if the swim was feasible.
"She e-mailed me the very next day and not only said that it could be done, but outlined a whole plan for me," Vick said.
Vick moved to Haines in August after four years in Fairbanks. Up there, he was a coach for the Midnight Suns club swimming team and an adjunct professor, teaching graphic design and Web programming at the University of Alaska. Down here, he's the full-time coach for the Haines Dolphins, a club team comprising more than 50 kids.
Vick grew up in Lakeland, Ohio, and was a good enough high school swimmer to earn a scholarship to NCAA Division II Ashland College in Akron, Ohio. But he's always been a sprinter.
"Anything over 200 yards was intimidating to me," Vick said.
As part of his distance training, he's had to overhaul his technique to streamline his body and reduce the amount of resistance he creates in the water. In the afternoons, he trains intensively for at least two hours at the Haines public pool, building up his aerobic threshold so he can swim longer, and stronger.
"I've lengthened my stroke. I've deepened it, and I've narrowed it," Vick said. "I can't tell when I swim that it's smoother, longer and stronger, but I can improve my speed by 70 percent by making myself less resistant."
Since early June, he's slipped on a wetsuit each morning and begun his regimen with a workout in Lynn Canal to acclimatize himself to cold, open water. His first swim lasted 30 minutes. By last week, he had built up to an hour and 40 minutes.
"The big thing right now, and I'm actually doing better with this, is I have a fear of the ocean," Vick said. "I can see about five feet below me, but the other 1,995 are a complete mystery."
Vick has practiced in Lutek Inlet, at Battery Point, at Mud Bay and at Tee Harbor with Mike Miller. Vick is still experimenting with different gear and accessories. But he will swim in a triathlon wetsuit, a full hood to cover his head, gloves, neoprene swim socks and competition goggles. No flippers.
"Sixty percent of the time when I get out of the water, I'm hypothermic," Vick said. "On a cold day, it will take me an hour before I get warm. But hypothermia has many stages and usually I'm in the middle, which means I'm shivering. Ninety percent of all people have experience in mild hypothermia."
Vick's crew will monitor his condition. A 29-foot catamaran pilot boat will likely lead the charge, looking for the optimal current and the best tide, searching for marine life and fisherman's nets, communicating with other boats and the Coast Guard. A crew boat will hopefully trail, serving as a mobile camp with enough room to sleep eight.
One kayaker will serve as Vick's guide, following the pilot boat and directing him where to veer. The kayaker will also be his first line of communication, speaking to him with five different hand signals. Another kayaker will act as a roamer, scrambling around to search for distractions in the water. The crew will include at least one emergency medical technician.
"Orcas are going to be a problem in some sense," Vick said. "If I see them I should get out of the water. There's never been a case of an orca attacking a human, but they do eat mammals, and I'm a mammal in a seal suit."
The journey will begin August 1 at the Skagway dock, where Vick hopes to have a send-off barbecue with assorted dignitaries. At some point, he'll walk into the water and head off on the 16-mile jaunt to Haines.
"That's going to be the tricky part," Vick said. "It's very narrow. It's not even a mile wide. If the wind picks up, there's nowhere to go."
Vick hopes to swim into Haines' Lookout Park for another barbecue on Aug. 3. From there, he will continue down the west side of Lynn Canal, past the ice-cold entrance of the Katzehin River, on the opposite side of a popular Stellar sea lion haul-out and down to Seduction Point.
"The tricky part after getting to Seduction Point will be crossing back over to the east side," Vick said. "I'll be going through the channel that all the boats go through. Once I get to Sullivan Island, it'll be a day before I get to Berners Bay. And in between Sullivan Island and Berners Bay there are no safe pullouts."