Days removed from his failed attempt to swim from Navy Pier in Chicago to St. Joseph, Mich., and back, a rested Scott Weston Wolford said Tuesday that he’s not done.
“I’ve already made a final decision that, definitely, I will be doing the swim,” he said, seated outside of his mobile home with friend and trainer Annabel Lavers, of London, at his side. “The final decision of when is leaning toward next year.”
Had he completed the round trip, Wolford would have covered 120 miles in about 60 to 70 hours, he said. The swim would have been a world record, and it was partly designed to raise awareness of the importance of clean water, he said.
“I know I’ll never be the fastest, but I wanted to be the first to do a double-crossing of the lake,” Wolford said. “I know even the 120 miles someone will probably break the distance, but I want to be the first, and that’s where the drive comes from.”
Last Thursday, Wolford, 51, followed closely by a support team in a donated yacht, began his quest from Navy Pier in Chicago. He swam 18.5 miles in under 15 hours, well under what he planned, before unexpected storms and high, choppy waves became too much to handle, he said.
“He’s done a whopping marathon swim,” said Lavers, who led the six-member crew of helpers and observers that stuck close to Wolford during the swim. “He’s covered 18 miles. He should be proud of that. It isn’t failure. The weather’s what stopped him.”
The team faced numerous challenges, from getting a crew together to finding the right day and weather conditions to jump in the water. They decided on last Thursday morning, after weather forecasts seemed cooperative, with some sign of foul weather expected to last only part of the morning, Lavers said.
What they got was a day of pounding winds and steady 2-foot to 3-foot waves that slowed Wolford’s speed from 2 miles per hour in open water to 1.1 mph to 1.7 mph., in effect doubling the time expected to complete the journey, he said.
At one point, the winds and waves separated Wolford and his crew by about 30 yards, Lavers said.
Beginning four years ago, after returning to Chesterton, where he grew up competing in swim races at local public pools and at Chesterton High School, he had to scrape up money wherever he could to do the swim, from doing odd jobs to collecting scrap metal to helping his father, a cement finisher, do side jobs, Wolford said.
“(Wolford) doesn’t live a frivolous lifestyle,” Lavers said. “He’s pretty much living on a shoestring, and everything he’s made he’s poured back into the swim. There’s not many people who’d be willing to do that.”
Wolford wrote an illustrated children’s book, “Gino the Minnow,” about the importance of fresh, clean water, which he sells to make extra money, he said.
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And, he’ll do it again, he said.
“In some ways I wish I’d had the corporate sponsors with all the money, but we relied instead on teamwork, and, with all of us coming together, we were doing it,” Wolford said.
The crew fed Wolford and passed him supplies, like sunscreen and water.
They also kept track of his nourishment, his stroke counts, and the latitude and longitudes of his locations to make sure his swim would be ratified by world marathon swimming federations, Lavers said.
During the swim, Wolford wasn’t allowed to touch a boat or another human being, including his crew, according to rules for non-stop, unassisted marathon swims.
Wolford was the only one in the water, but he was not alone, he said.
As word of his swim spread by word-of-mouth and social media, calls and messages of support came in from around the world.
The number of visitors to a tracking website crashed the site’s system, as they followed Wolford’s swim, Lavers said.
One other swimmer was behind him, Wolford said, even if it was only in spirit.
He and his family spread the ashes of Wolford’s late mother in Lake Michigan when she died years ago, at age 52, because of complications from severe rheumatoid arthritis, he said.
“She was right there, swimming with me in that lake,” Wolford said.
Michael Gonzalez is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.