The Mercer family of North Battleford thought they would go out for a distance swim, and went a lot farther than they thought. In fact, they swam all the way across Jackfish Lake.
Dennis Mercer says he's really never heard of anyone ever doing this before, and in the beginning the swim was intended only to be a "distance swim." They were thinking "30 minutes out ... 30 minutes back."
What Dennis, his wife Bonnie and their daughter Meghan ended up doing was swimming seven kilometres, about 300 lengths of the Battlefords Co-op Aquatic Centre pool, across Jackfish Lake. They completed the swim in four hours.
"We did not train for the lake swim," says Dennis, "but had always talked about the feat of swimming from our cabin on Tobey's Point to Cochin."
Following along in the family sailboat for safety was their son Dex and their other three kids.
"Both Bonnie and Meg are lifeguards at the aquatic centre," says Dennis, a teacher at John Paul II Collegiate, "so we are fairly strong in the water."
