9/22/08 Monday: YouTube Special

Before I start about swimming stuff...a HUGE shout out to my cousin Marc Turnesa who played an excellent 4 rounds of PGA Golf at the Viking Classic this weekend. He played in an nail biting (no joke) 2-hole playoff and finished his highest yet this season...tied for second!!! Talk about a pressure cooker...holy cow!!! Great job Marc, we are all SOOOOO proud of you!!!

Back to swimming...

Some of the reports about the swim are starting to surface. My AMAZING Channel Observer, Mike Phillips, put this together and placed it on YouTube (THANK YOU MIKE!!! It's great!!!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32u59DMNPVQ

The Rye Record also did an excellent article about the swim (very well written):

http://www.ryerecord.com/html%20pages/hometobey.htm

Note: When he references Force 3 in the article, he really means Force 4.

Many people have commented about my Mother's email out to everyone after the swim. They said it really put the swim into perspective. So I thought I would post it up here in case you weren't on the email list:

I would like to thank everyone for their support. Tobey is an extraordinary soul and it is so nice to see how wonderful her friends are. She fought a great battle. Everything that we were told to expect went right out the window. It was horrid! I apologize to anyone who called and did not get an answer I was hanging on for dear life since each time a wave hit the boat Tobey could see the entire deck and us sideways holding on. I could not move my hands and arms very well after the swim because I spent the last 9 hours hanging from the ropes to stay in the boat.. The ropes took some skin away with them. Tobey never complained. Whatever she was thinking she did not let us know. She is remarkable to say the least. Her sisters were unbelievable as crew. It was very dangerous conditions for them to be moving around the deck. There were times that the water crashed over us from the right side. I would watch that side and call out to hold on. We would get a little on edge when we had the biggest waves (12 foot swells) and lost Tobey under water for a few seconds. The observer thought that I crazy glued the video camera to my hand but there was no time to put it down because I could not get to the bags. I did not know that 52 tons of steel could be tossed around like it was. I kissed the ground when I got on it....it was just difficult because it kept moving on me. Thanks again for being special people.

My last thought.....swimmers are nuts!

Thanks Mom!!!

I know, I know...where is the full update on the swim?? It's coming!! I have been sucked into a Tornado since I got back.

Till next time!