Jamie Patrick became the second person to swim across Clear Lake in northern California this weekend.

Jamie, wearing a wetsuit, swam 17.68 miles (28.4K) in 7 hours and 34 minutes. “I hope that my story motivates others to strive toward their own goals that they may initially perceive as out of reach.”

The swim was part of a 2-year step-by-step plan to complete the Tahoe Triple, a three-way crossing of Lake Tahoe (66 miles or 106.2K) in in the high Sierra Nevada mountains bordering California and Nevada – at 6225-feet (1897-meter) altitude in the summer of 2011. As part of the build-up to this extremely difficult Tahoe Triple, his schedule calls for a one-way wetsuit crossing of Lake Tahoe this June and a two-way wetsuit crossing this August.

With filmmaker Martin Sundberg producing a documentary on the Tahoe Triple, Jamie got off to an excellent start on his 2-year aquatic journey.

With a 5 am start in darkness with the air temperature 44F and the water temperature at 59F, Jamie wore a wetsuit, but he was happy with the conditions, “The water was glassy and the swimming was smooth and fast.”

His speed was only punctuated by a feeding every 20 minute where his support team provided him with Snickers, M&M’S, pieces of a turkey and cheese sandwich on wheat bread, energy bars, power gels, bananas, and a Cytomax sport drink. “One of the things my crew kept commenting on is that they did not realize how beautiful Clear Lake is. We can show the rest of the world [what] Lake County has to offer through our film. We all must be proud of Clear Lake and do all we can to protect such an incredible resource.”

But the filming has just begun. Jamie has scenes 2, 3 and 4 coming up in Lake Tahoe.

Quotes obtained from the interview of Jamie Patrick by Katy Sweeny of the Lake County Record Bee.

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