'Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity': Here's what it takes to be a Lake Geneva mailboat jumper
LAKE GENEVA, Wis. (CBS 58) -- It's a summer job that takes specific skill. Mailboat jumping tryouts took place Tuesday morning, June 13 through Lake Geneva Cruise Line.
This will be the 107th summer that mail will be delivered by boat on Lake Geneva.
More than a dozen teens joined Tuesday's tryouts.
My second try mailboat jumping was as close to a success as it could be!! ? Glad I at least got back on the boat this time…. It’s WAAAY HARDER than it looks!!! ⚓️ @CBS58 pic.twitter.com/hJA56IegS8
— Jenna Wells (@JennaWellsNEWS) June 13, 2023
"It's kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to try out for the mailboat," said applicant, Gina Weis.
Only four spots are open to be filled.
"Very few amount of spots, but we have a lot of people this year," said current jumper, Sid Pearl. "There are going to be some cuts at the end of the day."
The objective is to jump off the moving mailboat onto a pier, put mail in the mailbox, grab outgoing mail, and jump back onto the boat, which never stops moving.
"We deliver mail six days a week, newspapers seven days a week, about 50 to 60 deliveries on a given day," Pearl said.
Only a few places in the world receive daily mail by boat.
In Lake Geneva, the mailboat is also a tour narrated by the jumpers.
"The only place I've heard that also does a thing like this is also Geneva Lake, but in Switzerland," Pearl said.
The perfect jumper has to be agile, and their timing has to be just right.
"That was so much fun. I thought i was going to fall at first, but I just kept going," said applicant, Michaela Fletcher.
It's not as easy as it looks.
If you want to see the jumpers in action, Lake Geneva's Mailboat tours open to the public on Thursday, June 15.