Sitkan Dean Orbison on his way around the 5K course between Whiting Harbor and Battery Island. (Angela McGraw photo)
There were three events: a 1K, 5K, and 10K race. Each of the participants was accompanied by a kayak for safety. For the first time this year, there was a Youth division, with two competitors, and a so-called “naked” swimmer who braved the 58-degree water without a wetsuit.
Recent arrival Patrick Williams won the men’s 10K swim in 2 hours and 27 minutes. Heather Saline, also of Sitka, was the women’s 10K winner in 3 hours and 26 minutes.
In the 5K women’s event, Kristin and Lisa Jones, a daughter/mother combination from Juneau, were #1 and #2, in 1 hour 7 minutes, and 1 hour 33 minutes respectively. Brothers Leif and Kris Calvin were one-minute apart in the men’s 5K, at 1 hour 7 minutes, and 1 hour 8 minutes
16-year old Trevor Jones, also of Juneau, won the youth 1K in 15 minutes. And Grant Turner — the one swimming without the wetsuit — won the adult 1K in 17 minutes.
Race organizer Kevin Knox and his sister Erika think Change Your Latitude is the northernmost open-water event sanctioned by US Masters Swimming. The pair took a few minutes to talk with some of the competitors after the event, and sent this audio postcard:
