Orcas visit inaugural race in their name

PORT ANGELES — The inaugural Orca Bait Swim from Ediz Hook to Pebble Beach on Saturday drew 12 registered participants and three surprise guests — the event’s namesake black and white marine mammals that cruised along the north side of Port Angeles Harbor.

First-place finisher Doug Winter, 54, said he was unaware of the orcas or anything else as he swam the 1 1/2-mile course.

“I saw no life whatsoever,” said Winter of Sequim, whose time of 35 minutes was 10 minutes ahead of second-place finisher Katie Blose.

The Orca Bait Swim, sponsored by the Port Angeles Nor’Wester Rotary Club, was one of a number of activities at the Port Angeles Maritime Festival, which was organized by the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the Port of Port Angeles and the Port Angeles Yacht Club.

Events at the city pier and Port Angeles Boat Haven included maritime industry displays, live music, tours of a U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat and Port of Port Angeles facilities, and open houses at the Port Angeles Yacht Club and Elks Naval Lodge.

Orca Bait Swim participants were guided from the start near the Coast Guard boat launch on Ediz Hook to Pebble Beach by kayakers and paddle boarders. Everyone who ran into the chilly water made it to the other side of the harbor.

Prizes of a $300 gift certificate to Moss, a $100 gift certificate to Kindred Collective and a $50 gift certificate to Welly’s Real Fruit Ice Dream went to the top three finishers. The final finisher received a $50 gift certificate to Foghorn Coffee.

Winter, an experienced open-water swimmer, said swimming in the ocean is “all about attitude.”

“Find your pace and stick with it,” Winter said. “Don’t think, ‘Oh, I’m cold,’ or ‘I wish I was done.’”

Blose, 30, is a member of a masters swim program Winter coaches at the Sequim branch of the Olympic Peninsula YMCA. She said she swam in college but had never done it in the open water before.

“It was a blast,” said Blose, an occupational therapist at Olympic Medical Center. “I would love to do it again.”

Mackenzie Marmol, 33, learned about the swim only that morning when a friend had posted about it on social media with the comment, “These people are crazy!”

Marmol signed up and, an hour and a half later, was in her wetsuit.

“It was so nice,” said Marmol, who often joins a group of women in Port Townsend who go for open-water swims. “It was calm and the visibility was great.”

Rob DeCou swam 31 miles across the Strait of Juan de Fuca in 2019, but swimming across the harbor in his hometown was just as special.

“I’ve wanted to do this since I was a kid,” said DeCou, a business instructor at Peninsula College, who, along with Nor’Wester Rotary, organized the event.

Like DeCou, Sam Zwenger also works at Peninsula College. Unlike DeCou, however, the 43-year-old biology instructor is not a swimmer, but thought, ‘Why not?’” when DeCou encouraged him to participate.

“I’m just glad I made it,” Zwenger said when he got out of the water. “I think I got my annual salt intake.”

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached a paula.hunt@soundpublishing.com.