Phil White reported that 20-year-old Vera Rivard and her younger 17-year-old sister Margaret Rivard began a 80.4 km two-way tandem cross-border swim of Lake Memphremagog between Newport, Vermont, USA and Magog, Quebec, Canada at 6:00 am on August 13th. See photo above by Kathleen Marcil of the sisters as they neared their finish at the Newport City Dock.

They walked up on the beach at Plage de Baie Magog in Canada to complete their first leg at 9:42 pm. They grab a few late-night snacks, re-greased themselves, and re-entered the lake at 9:50 pm.  They swam through the night, into a hot, hazy summer day, and exited the water back at their starting point at 5:34 pm on August 14th to complete their 35 hours 34 minutes two-way In Search of Memphre swim.

White writes, “Lake Memphremagog is known for its unpredictable and often feisty conditions.  But, during this swim, the conditions could not have been more favorable, as Memphre welcomed these two Swimmer Scouts back and expressed her appreciation for the extreme challenge they chose to undertake.  Water temperature ranged from 70° to 75°F.  The air temperature dropped to the mid-50°F/s at night and rose to the mid-70°F’s the first day and the mid-80°F’s during the second day.  The wind that they encountered was a negligible 5-10 mph with occasional stretches of wind at 10-12 mph.  For at least half of the swim, water was like glass.

In completing their swim, Vera and Margaret became the 3rd and 4th to complete a double-crossing of Lake Memphremagog. The first two-way swimmer was Sarah Thomas in 2013 and the second was Stephen Rouch in 2019. They were already the youngest to swim the length of the lake which Vera did in 2018 when she was 14 and Margaret did in 2022 when she was 15. They become the 6th and 7th amateur swimmers to complete a crossing of Lake Memphremagog this swimmer with seven more swimmers scheduled to attempt a crossing during the remainder of August and September.

Margaret and Vera complied with traditional channel crossing rules as published by the Marathon Swimmers Federation and the following Northeast Kingdom Open Water Swimming Association rules for tandem crossings:

• They could not swim with one directly in front of the other (i.e., no drafting).
• They could not touch each other during the swim.
• They could not come within 3 feet of each other during the swim.
• If one member of the team pulls after over an hour of tandem swimming, the remaining swimmer may complete the swim, but it cannot be ratified as a solo swim.

They swam under the banner of Team Rivard. The swim was organized and hosted by Kingdom Games. Escorting Team Rivard was pilot Phil White and Rob Andersen.  Crewing for Vera and Margaret were Darcie Deblois-Rivard, Kevin Rivard, and Joe Orlowski with back-up support provided by pilot Cynthia Needham and photographer Kathleene Marcil. Kingdom Games provided spot tracker services with the support of Evan Morrison of Marathon Swimmers Federation.

Vera and Margaret started their open water journey at Kingdom Swim in 2014 with Vera swimming the 1-mile event and Margaret swimming the 1/4-mile youth swim. Each year thereafter, they swam longer distances at Kingdom Swim and then at NEK Swim Week. After they swam the 25-mile length of the lake, each went on to complete the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming. They are also regular participants at the Memphremagog Winter Swim Festival. When they decided to take on this challenge in May, they decided to do it as a tandem swim. Since then, through the end of May, June and July they have averaged 3 miles a day in their training regimen.

The two sisters keep busy:

• they work this summer as experienced co-pilots escorting other Swimmer Scouts who attempt In Search of Memphre
• they are give swimming lessons at The Swimming Hole in Stowe Vermont
• they serve as swim technicians at Swim Tech Camp with Charlotte Brynn
• they dedicated this swim to fundraise to help adults learn the lifelong, life saving skill of swimming in Vermont. For more information and to donate to the cause, please check this out here.

For more information and to donate to the cause, visit here.

For a link to photos of their swim, visit Tandem Double Cross

Photography by Kathleen Marcil.

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