密歇根新闻广播 勇士们横跨马基诺海峡

 

More than 300 people braved the Straits of Mackinac Sunday for the 13th annual Mighty¹ Mac Swim.

Michigan Radio's Kaye LaFond rode along on a security boat and got a first-hand look at what goes into herding² swimmers across four miles of the straits.

The day started with a beautiful sunrise at 6:34 a.m. Shortly after, about 340 swimmers were in the water attached to big orange buoys³ for visibility.

An announcement came over the radio on the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa's fisheries enforcement boat: As you can see, the swimmers are underway.

Their boat was one of 12 law enforcement vessels⁴ on the water that day, representing the DNR, four tribes, the U.S. Coast Guard, and others. There were also more than a dozen civilian⁵ support boats.

The straits are closed to general boat traffic during the four-hour swim, so part of the enforcement boat's job was to make sure nobody else got too close to the race area.

Enforcement boats were also on the lookout⁶ for swimmers who needed to be pulled from the water due to exhaustion⁷ or other concerns. The first person ran out of steam within the first 30 minutes.

Swimmer is tired, announced a support boat after extracting them from the water. Swimmer is ok. I'll be transporting to the ferry.

The water started calm, but got progressively choppier. Swimmers had to make checkpoints within a certain timeframe. They also had to stay within a certain distance of the bridge.

Grand Traverse Band Conservation Officer La'Kota Raphael honked⁸ his horn and called out to a swimmer that had gone off course.

Sir, you gotta move over! You gotta get back in the lane.

As the swimmers got closer to St. Ignace, many started to drift too far east due to the currents and had to get pulled out of the water. Some of them didn't go willingly, and support boats asked for advice on how to proceed.

If they don't wanna do it for themselves, please tell them they are putting others in danger, security responded over the radio. They need to get on that boat.

Chris Gates of Grand Rapids said a lot of people had trouble staying on course.

If you weren't swimming kind of at a 45 degree angle, you'd actually kind of get sucked out because of the current. So if you just swam straight you'd be, you know, kicked way out east, Gates said.

At the end of the day, nearly 300 of the 340 or so swimmers were able to finish it, the fastest in an impressive hour and 30 minutes.

1 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

2 herding   

中畜群

参考例句：

• The little boy is herding the cattle. 这个小男孩在放牛。
• They have been herding cattle on the tableland for generations. 他们世世代代在这高原上放牧。

3 buoys   

n.浮标( buoy的名词复数 )；航标；救生圈；救生衣v.使浮起( buoy的第三人称单数 )；支持；为…设浮标；振奋…的精神

参考例句：

• The channel is marked by buoys. 航道有浮标表示。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Often they mark the path with buoys. 他们常常用浮标作为航道的标志。 来自辞典例句

4 vessels   

n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人

参考例句：

• The river is navigable by vessels of up to 90 tons. 90 吨以下的船只可以从这条河通过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All modern vessels of any size are fitted with radar installations. 所有现代化船只都有雷达装置。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

6 lookout   

n.注意，前途，瞭望台

参考例句：

• You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
• It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来，公司的前景可就不妙了。

7 exhaustion   

n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述

参考例句：

• She slept the sleep of exhaustion.她因疲劳而酣睡。
• His exhaustion was obvious when he fell asleep standing.他站着睡着了，显然是太累了。

8 honked   

v.（使）发出雁叫似的声音，鸣（喇叭），按（喇叭）( honk的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I drove up in front of the house and honked. 我将车开到屋子前面然后按喇叭。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• He honked his horn as he went past. 他经过时按响了汽车喇叭。 来自《简明英汉词典》