My Dear Friends,

At this 16th year of my swim, this has got to be the craziest one. While everything had been going exactly as planned, Wayne and I start driving to Pryibil Beach for the swim. The sky was clear and blue, and the beach was beautiful. Many fellow swimmers and volunteer were there, all in a festive mood. Wayne got his kayak into the water to prepare to guide my swim, and I prepared for the swim. Again, the buoys were properly placed in a rectangle to mark the course. The 5K swimmers were to round the rectangle three times, which will be three miles, or roughly 5K. I also purchased a pair of new goggles because the anti-fog coating only lasts so many times in the water. And that was a big mistake!

Right after I started to swim, the goggle completely fogged up, so I had to stop and wipe it. But after that, water started to seep into the goggle. So I had to stop again to clear the water, and tighten up the strap. When I pulled on the strap, the darn goggle broke! I had to turn back because there is no way to swim 5K without goggles. Fortunately, a volunteer was able to loan me hers. My goggle is prescriptive, but a regular pair is still OK because Wayne’s kayak was supposed to be only few feet away to my left, so when I breathe, I can see his kayak clearly. I was on my way again, and it went smoothly. I was leisurely doing the strokes, soon rounding the third buoy, thinking I am halfway through the first mile.

However, after I completed the turn, I astonishingly found Wayne was missing! I started to franticly search by looking around. However, I could not see anything clearly 20 meters away without my prescriptive goggles! Did he get lost in this vast sea of water in Long Island sound?! Had the 3ft wave swept him outside to the Atlantic Ocean?! Did a giant squid get him?! What am I going to tell my mother?! Am I my brother’s keeper?! All these soul crashing questions drove me to swim madly toward anything that looked like a kayak so I can rescue him from the treacherous sea! After a long struggle, a jet ski rescue team saw my erratic swimming pattern and came over. They then took me on and sped away to look for Wayne.

However, he was nowhere to be found, because I could not see well, and they did not know what Wayne looked like. At the end they had to rescue someone else, so I was just dropped back to the original spot to continue my swim. But I was not able to follow the course, so I decided to just swim back. Fortunately, I just had to follow the sun, about 2 o’clock to the right. So I started to swim back and finished only the first round, plus the crazy chase of kayaks. I finally reached shore, and got my glasses back, and started to see if I can spot Wayne.

At that moment, a very strange scene as in a Sci-Fi movie materialized. It appeared a kayak looks like Wayne’s, and a kayaker looks like Wayne, was guiding a swimmer who looks like me! At that moment I felt we just proved there are parallel universes! But before Einstein jumped out from his grave, Wayne spotted me waving, and he was confused. Then he paddled to shore, and surprised to see me! It turned out after rounding the buoy, he mistook another swimmer to be me, and was stalking a stranger for the whole course two times! Huh?!!! For a brief moment, I thought he was actually trying to replace a brother! I was like, did you ask our mom first?!!!

Ok that was today’s stranger than fiction swim. I shortchanged you guys, but the money you donated is already turned into some cancer curing miracle potion, so it is unable to get refund. However, in preparation for the swim I actually already test-swam 5K, which is 200 laps, in a 25 meter pool, just to make sure my good old ticker is still up to it. So you are not shortchanged by much. Just that instead of sodium chloride, I got chlorine taste in my mouth. Nevertheless, I want to once again thank you all, from the bottom of my heart. We raised over $5,000, and the team close to $50,000, and the event close to ONE million dollars! Untold number of people’s lives will be much better because of your effort! Until next year, please take care, enjoy the rest of the summer! For the late comers who just woke up from the nap, you can still donate at the link.

Wai

Thank you for helping me #MakeWavesToFightCancer.