Happy Fourth of July!

The parking lot at West Neck Beach was chock-full of cars when I arrived there shortly before the scheduled 8:00 group swim on this "Fourth of July" Thursday morning. A large flock of early-birds had already finished their swims and were off to run or ride, but there was still a record-size crowd gathered under the overhang of the lifeguards' station and spilling onto the beach to suit up for the 8:00 swim. In addition to the "usual suspects" there were a number of Pod returnees, here for their first open-water swim of the season, as well as a new crop of "newbies" joining the Pod for the first time....Because it was the Fourth of July, before we headed into the water we assembled on the beach in a solemn circle to honor the memories of the three children who drowned last July 4th in a tragic boating accident here in our harbor: Victoria Gaines, Harlie Treanor and David Aureliano....

Ceremony over, we unceremoniously jumped into the water,which was delightfully warm and clear, the surface only slightly ruffled by a westerly wind. As the "Big Dogs" again set out northward to the Sailboat while the main group headed south to the buoy and "New Beach," dozens of pairs of churning arms and beating feet inaugurated the West Neck Pod's 2013 "Froth of July" swim....

Happy Independence Day, everyone! See you in the Salt tomorrow!

A solemn, somber swim...

It was a solemn group that gathered on the beach at West Neck this morning, our 8:00 swim overshadowed by the overwhelming sadness of the news that three young children, ages 12, 11 and 8, had drowned in the dark waters off Lloyd Neck Wednesday night when their overcrowded boat capsized as it was leaving the harbor after the Dolans' annual Fourth of July fireworks display off  Cove Neck. Thankfully, 24 people were saved, plucked from the water by other boaters who rushed to the scene, and by the firefighters, police and divers who responded from all of the local emergency agencies and departments, but their lives will be forever changed by this tragedy...and even to me, that channel marker in the middle of our harbor will now always seem a headstone to the three children trapped in the boat's cabin, whose lives ended there in our beloved harbor, within sight of the route that we traverse routinely in our daily swims.  As we stood this morning on the beach looking northward, we could see the two police boats still anchored over the area where the boat came to rest on the bottom, in 70 feet of water, and before we entered the water for a healing Sailboat swim, we stood together on the sand for a long moment, heads bowed, offering silent thoughts and prayers for the lost children, their friends and families, and the would-be rescuers who were unable to save them....See you in the Salt. Amen.