»In which we wonder about swimming across Lake Baikal in woolen bathing gear

The Google Maps application gets more environmentally-friendly, as these directions for getting from
Chicago to London indicate.

I did not know that a swim across the Atlantic was in any way feasible. I always figured the Strait of Gibraltar, the English Channel, or even the Alcatraz-to-Aquatic-Park to be boundaries of human effort. Benoit Lecomte swam from Cape Cod to Quiberon, France:

"Navigated through the 40th and 50th latitude by two French sailors on a 12m (40 foot) sailboat and protected by an electronic force field, Lecomte swam 6 to 8 hours a day at two-hour intervals. He mainly used the crawl stroke, switching occasionally to a mono fin and using an undulating dolphin kick to carry him over the 5 600km (3 736 nautical miles) of relentless waves. 72 days later, on 28 September, he swam ashore exhausted but heroic at Quiberon, France.

"Lecomte probably could not have done it without the modern techniques and clothing that have helped athletes reach astonishing levels of performance. The latest swimming costumes reduce drag resistance by 8%, resulting in a performance that is even better than when swimming naked. Consider that when Captain Matthew Webb became the first person to swim the English Channel in 1875, his waterlogged woollen swimwear weighed about 3kg (lOlb). By contrast, the new Speedo one-piece weighs just a few ounces, even when soaked."