As you probably gathered swimming is a major focus while at the cottage. Even though our hosts had their swimming lessons they were happy to swim for hours with us too. Early in the week the Bi-Lake Swim Meet was on and competitors from a neighbouring lake turned up to swim against “our” kids. B6 was too young to compete but all the girls were involved.

During the week we swam for fun, the children made up all kinds of challenges and competitions and were in and out of the water all day. N and I challenged ourselves to swim across the bay each day. We were not sure of the distance but we wanted a swim similar to the laps we do at the pool. Over the weekend, while the dads were still there, Andrew spotted for us and after that a couple of the children agreed to paddle along beside us while we swam. After a few days we increased our distance a bit and found that we were still handling it fairly easily. It was so nice to swim without having to turn around every 25 metres. If we timed it well and swam mid afternoon the top 15cm of the water was warm and it was just when we pushed our arms down and round that we felt the cold water underneath.

On Saturday the club held its own swimming regatta. This was the one everyone had been looking forward to. Although the day dawned cloudy and grey the races began and our girls and boy competed in plenty. The first and second place swimmers in each race qualified for the Tri-Lake Meet to come the following week. I’m not sure how many ribbons our crew won between them but we were very impressed with each of them. Half way through the schedule the rain started coming down but the races continued.

I had done both of mine by then, the front crawl and back stroke for over 35s, so I just stood in the rain and cheered for the girls. The final event was the long distance swim, which all four girls did before the lightning struck and the event was finally called off. Our very wet crew piled into the boat and headed for the cottage where we lit the fire and dried out.