Frazz creator swims the Straits of Mackinac
Proving Frazz is at least somewhat autobiographical for the artist, this is the strip that ran nationwide on Monday, the day Mallett swam the Straits of Mackinac.
Jef Mallett, the creator of the comic strip Frazz – which appears in some 150 newspapers and Silent Sports – swam the Straits of Mackinac on Labor Day.
The Lansing, Michigan-based triathlete and 49 other swimmers were fortunate to have warm and calm waters in the four-mile channel linking Lake Michigan to Lake Huron.
Jef and his wife, Patty, are all smiles before the epic swim.
Here’s Mallett’s account:
“The swim went beautifully. Even – and I don’t want this to come off the wrong way – easily. That’s not me boasting about my swimming ability, which is decidedly modest, but more a statement about the weather. It couldn’t have been better. The water temperature was a balmy 62 degrees near shore (probably upper 50s out in the middle), the air temperature was nice for the boat crews and the spectators, and there was no wind that I could notice. The current was still pretty strong, left over from the day before when there was a small-craft advisory (need I further emphasize the importance of luck?). But beyond trying to pull us off course, it only translated to rolling swells, which are a lot easier to swim through than choppy whitecaps.
“They sent us off at intervals in six groups of eight or nine a boat towing a smaller inflatable Zodiac boat and an orange buoy. The Zodiac was for feeding and emergencies; the buoy was our backside boundary. Everybody stayed behind the boat and ahead of the buoy. The pace was very mellow. The hardest part was stopping whenever somebody in our group lagged too close to the buoy or we were getting too close to the boat and swimmers ahead of us. That’s when you start feeling the chill, and that’s when you’re most prone to seasickness, behaving more like a passive cork bobbing in the water instead of an active participant in your own direction. In fact, seasickness was my only difficulty, and that dissipated as quickly as barf in a strong current. So to speak.
“But honestly, the swim was over before I knew it, and I dare say well before I was ready for it to be over. I finished feeling like I’d just done a low-intensity, medium-distance endurance workout. But one with a hell of a view! I’ve seen a lot of cool things and will see more, and some equal but none will ever beat looking up those towers, all 552 feet to the top. But right up there is looking up at the roadway, anywhere up to 200 feet above me, with Labor Day bridge walkers shoulder to shoulder whooping at us like we were some kind of rock stars.
“It was amazing. Even more so when you see that 24 hours on either side offered a small-craft advisory and thunderstorms. We finished in about three hours, I think. There was a lot of stopping, sometimes to keep our group together and sometimes to wait for the group ahead of us. But nobody was in a big hurry.
“Would I do it again? I guess that’s a moot point, since a mass crossing like this was a singular occasion. Up until yesterday, I guess fewer than 20 people had made that swim. And I can say that, given the right weather, the obstacles are much more governmental than physical. It won’t be repeated, which is fine with me. It would be tough to improve on it without going for speed, and there’s a lot of difference between swimming long (which I can do) and swimming fast (which I cannot). So, once is enough. Better than enough. Once is perfect.”
A Q&A with Mallett, conducted prior to his big swim, is included in the September issue.