UPDATE: Melissa Blaustein swims from Bremerton to Alki Point

| West Seattle news | WS & Sports

(Added: WSB photos/video from the end of Melissa’s swim)

12:56 PM: If all goes well, distance swimmer Melissa Blaustein of San Francisco will arrive on shore at Alki Point in 4 hours or so. She left Bremerton as of about 12:30. She’s swimming in tribute to Amy Hiland, who did the same swim in 1958, one year after making history by swimming the Strait of Juan de Fuca. You can track Melissa’s swim here. Updates to come!

3:40 PM: The tracker shows Melissa out of Rich Passage and off South Bainbridge Island. She explains on her “Chasing Amy” website that this is the first of her tribute swims, as she hopes to “undertake the challenge of completing as many of Amy Hiland’s swims as possible.”

4:39 PM: She’s now out in the open Sound between Bainbridge and Alki Point. The Northwest Open Water Swimming Association has posted a few updates, including people on a ferry cheering Melissa on. (And yes, this is the same swim that Erika Norris completed last year.)

She made it! pic.twitter.com/XKOdI9RCY2

— West Seattle Blog (@westseattleblog) July 2, 2017

5:54 PM: She made it! As of a few minutes ago, yelling “That was fun!” Video’s on Twitter and ~~we will add here when back at HQ~~ added above – that’s her brother Billy getting out of the water just ahead of her to record her arrival.

7:02 PM: Local marathon swimmer Andrew Malinak, who tipped us to this swim, says two locals, Jerome and Lauren, are planning to do it in late August, so stay tuned for word on that later this summer. Meantime, according to the list on Melissa’s website, she plans to try the Strait of Juan de Fuca in September.

Space Dust July 1, 2017 (7:08 pm)

Congrats on the swim.

zephyr July 1, 2017 (7:22 pm)

Yes. Congratulations. I went down to see her, but wasn’t sure exactly where she hauled out. Was it near the lighthouse? Thanks.

WSB July 1, 2017 (8:28 pm)

Right on the absolute tip of the point by the lighthouse. We weren’t sure where either – we watched the tracker, walked a ways north from Constellation Park, almost gave up, then figured out which vessel was with her, and hiked over again.

CMP July 1, 2017 (8:24 pm)

Congratulations Melissa! I’d be crawling out the water, you made that look easy!

zephyr July 1, 2017 (9:34 pm)

Well, I was bicycling and expecting to see other watchers, first at Me Kwa Mooks then Constellation. Then for some reason I thought they might be headed to Alki Beach like the tribal canoes each year. But that was a zoo and I headed back. I should have read the announcement more carefully. You did say Alki Point. I didn’t know what her flotilla/support vessels would be either. You all were smart to find them.