Lara Gibson of the Dartmouth Whalers Masters is preparing to swim the Northumberland Strait on July 23.

Gibson, 34, has been learning about tides and currents and slipping into the relatively warm waters of Chocolate Lake just outside Halifax to train. Over the next few weeks, she plans to start swimming in the ocean to start acclimatizing herself.

The swim will be at least 14 kilometres long, depending on tides and currents and other weather conditions on the day of the swim. She has not fixed a specific landing point. "If we end a little off course, we're not going to worry about it," says Gibson.

The Northumberland Strait separates PEI from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Its relatively shallow waters can warm up to 25 degrees Celsius. The Confederation Bridge now spans the Strait between New Brunswick and PEI.

Gibson jokes that she is not entirely sure why she's doing this, except for the chance to have a goal, "and wanting to accomplish it. It's the challenge and what you have to learn to get there." One thing she has learned is how to read tide and current charts.

A former age group swimmer, she was always attracted to the distance events. She recalls being happy to swim the 1,500m. Eventually she switched to life guarding and then stopped swimming for 15 years.

But the sport seems to keep a hold on its swimmers. Last September she returned to swim Masters in Dartmouth, "and remembered that I loved it."

Gibson is a Masters of Science student who recently completed teaching on line biology at Dalhousie University.

During a swim meet earlier in the season, several swimmers were talking about another Master who had swum the English Channel. They began talking about long swims, including Marilyn Bell's crossing of Lake Ontario.

But the English Channel is too far away and "it doesn't really mean anything to me," says Gibson. The Northumberland Strait is more familiar.

She has been working with Jen Alexander, a long distance swimmer who is preparing to swim the English Channel. "She was very much the one who said it's time to get in (Chocolate) Lake," says Gibson.

Gibson is now swimming around the lake and occasionally finding things: "like plastic toys, a penny and many balls. So that is sometimes exciting. I even swam over a turtle two weeks ago."

Gibson is following international rules for her swim. That means she can only wear one bathing cap, a pair of goggles and a bathing suit. No wetsuits. Since the Northumberland Strait swim may be used as a qualifier for the event around Manhattan Island in New York, Gibson wants to get used to swimming according to international rules.

While she does plan to use Vaseline, Gibson mentions that current research shows that Vaseline helps only with chafing, not with keeping the body warm. The solution to keeping warm is drinking hot tea. After every kilometer, Gibson sips a warm drink. "It's quite possible it's just psychological," she laughs.

CBC Coverage of previous Strait swims: P.E.I. swimmer crosses Northumberland Strait Diabetic to swim across Northumberland Strait