Summer Swelter....Fall Pall...

Just a few scant weeks ago, in mid-July, Long Island was engulfed in a sweltering heat wave, with temperatures soaring well into the 90s one scorching day after another. Even the open water offered little relief, as it felt barely cooler than the still, stifling air -- even in the early morning. By week's-end many of us had shed our customary wetsuits in favor of bathing suits, the "ick" factor succumbing to the heat index....I found that my Speedo was definitely cooler than my sleeveless wetsuit, but its relatively loose fit was a veritable open door to a myriad of tiny sea creatures whose numbers had fulminated in the warm water, and their incessant nibbling was distracting and disconcerting. Not only that, but the gravitational pull of "the girls" was slowing me down even more than the lack of buoyancy, so by Saturday I'd switched over to my "technical suit" which, although far from flattering, wadded everything down so that I felt sleek as a seal.  The heavy rains that were forecast for the weekend never materialized and the relentless heat continued through the weekend, but a light westerly wind on Saturday, followed by an easterly wind on Sunday, drew off some of the surface heat so the water felt almost refreshing, but the weekend was still absurdly hot and the open water was the only sane place to be....

When the heat wave finally broke early in the following week, we rejoiced in what we mistakenly thought was a return to "normality," until Mother Nature --as she had with Hurricane Sandy -- abruptly reminded us that there is no "normal" anymore....We awakened mid-week to find, a'la Rip Van Winkle, that although we had gone to sleep in July, we had awakened in September...The air temperature had suddenly plummeted deep into the 60s, and "August" was but a ghost....

Even today, when the calendar said it was August 6th, the 56-degree air temperature said otherwise...and though it is technically only mid-summer, we swam as if we might not get another chance...

 

 

 

See you in the Salt -- unless it snows!

Mothers' Day Swim

Mothers' Day 2013 dawned rainy and dreary, but by 9:00 the sun was worming its way through the clouds, renewing my hopes for an afternoon swim (Saturday's having been an emphatic washout)....By 1:00 the sun was shining brightly, blotted out only occasionally by passing clouds, and the air temperature was up to 67 degrees when I arrived at West Neck Beach, but a northwest wind was tearing up the water, sending roller after roller onto the beach.  Erstwhile Polar Podder Marc Leahy, on sabatical from swimming since the birth of his son (and first Pod-baby!) Matthew five months ago, was there relaxing on the beach with his wife Cathleen and the baby, but they were soon packing up to leave as the wind picked up even more.  I was glad when Annmarie Kearney-Wood arrived shortly thereafter, because now I had a buddy, and then Paul Coster (accompanied by his daughter Rebecca and their two dogs) arrived to make it a threesome.  The water felt chilly when we first waded in, but only for a moment, and when we submerged for the first time there were none of the usual squeals and screams that had punctuated our April swims....We started swimming easily, and when I removed my gloves to adjust my leaking goggles, my hands felt nearly as warm without as with them.  By the tide table it seemed that the tide was outgoing, but we headed north, reasoning that it would be easier to fight the tide than the wind on the return trip.  The waves were big and oblique and uneven, randomly rolling up and over us, sometimes from both sides at once, making it hard to find a place to catch a breath. Still, we plodded on, energized by the nearly warm water, and swam all the way to the yellow sign -- a first for the season!  We waved to gawkers on the Causeway, then headed back, enjoying the boost from the wind which, although it continued to pummel us with ever-bigger waves, drove us steadily toward the beach against the outrushing tide.  Next time, no booties or gloves!  Happy Mothers' Day -- See you in the Salt!

April Swimming -- The "New Normal"!

The last several days of consistently warmer weather had a predictably salutary effect on the water temperature in Cold Spring Harbor, as Gae Polisner and Marc Leahy discovered yesterday in their Saturday afternoon swim, and Paul Coster, Sharon Hochberg and I confirmed this afternoon when we eased into the now-nearly-50-degree water.  A brisk wind emanating from the south rather than the usual northwesterly direction, and a vaguely unfamiliar underwater landscape -- a remnant of Hurricane Sandy -- were the only unusual features of today's swim, as compared to the "weird" and "disorienting" swim Gae reported in yesterday's Facebook post. She and Marc had faced what she described as an oddly circular current swirling like an eddy on the surface, capped off by an encounter with an unidentifiable headless creature on the beach when they finally made their way back to shore....(https://www.facebook.com/WestNeckPod#!/WestNeckPod).  Happily, all of the creatures Paul, Sharon and I encountered today on the heavily populated beach had heads, most of which were turned incredulously in our direction as we swam back and forth between the fenceline and the dock....Joining the many sun-seekers on the beach today were Pod cheerleaders Marc Leahy and his five-month-old baby Matthew (whose open-water debut we expect imminently!), Sharon's husband Mark, Gae and Carole (accompanied by our three French bulldogs), who walked the beach as we swam, and Joye Brown, whose puttering in the garden kept her from joining us in the Salt....

 

Paul dithering on the beach

Carole with Frenchies, and Paul, Sharon and I in the Salt
 

At the end of what turned out to be a glorious swim, Paul proclaimed himself ready to shed booties and gloves for our next open-water outing, which, if the weather holds, should be next weekend!  Carole and I will be riding in the 5-Borough Bike Tour next Sunday, so I'll be looking to swim on Saturday -- with booties and gloves -- but I predict that next weekend, too, there'll be swimmers hitting the Salt both days...and I'm sure I'll see you there before long! 

(Many thanks to Gae Polisner, who took all of the photos and video posted here!)

The West Neck Pod Goes L-O-N-G...

Scratch...scratch...scratch....One swimmer after another wearily emerged from the water at West Neck Beach Saturday morning after their longest swims ever, and crossed off their latest achievements from their personal "bucket lists."  First-time 5K swimmers Karen Ruth, E.J. Voss and Bonnie Millen, and first-time 5-Milers Gae Polisner and Annmarie Kearney-Woods joined veteran distance swimmers Rob Martell and Rob Ripp -- along with paddleboarders Carole Wickham and Kathy Wickham and a veritable fleet of support kayakers organized by Barry Goldblatt -- in a challenging and memorable long distance round-trip swim from West Neck Beach northward to the point at Lloyd Neck (for the 5K swimmers) and eastward around the point nearly to the Sandhole (for the 5-Mile Swimmers).  After a laptop-aided orientation by Pod-Father and Explorer-in-Chief Rob Martell, who with his training partner Christine K. pioneered the routes the swimmers were about to follow, the swimmers paired up with their designated kayakers or paddleboarders and headed toward the water, which was still shrouded in an early morning fog. One by one they started swimming, and were whisked away by an outrushing tide that virtually hurled the swimmers northward. Kayakers simply rested their paddles on the gunwales and let the current carry them alongside the whooshing swimmers. Rob Ripp, who quickly found the "Gulf Stream" in the center of the harbor, was flung northward as if shot from a cannon, outpacing even Rob Martell, and the two kayakers who were accompanying him struggled to keep pace with his flying body -- and to turn him before he reached Connecticut! 

 

Rob Ripp on the beach...1/4 mile past the turnpoint
("Where are you guys??")

But, alas, for both the 5K and the 5-mile swimmers, this was a round-trip swim, and most of the return trip was against that same onrushing current....For the 5-Mile swimmers, the current was most forceful at the point, and even the strongest swimmers swam, seemingly in place, for long minutes until, inch by inch, and one by one, they all made their way around the turn and into the home stretch while their kayakers hollered encouragement. With "home" still a mile and a half away, though, and arms and shoulders beginning to ache, this was where both the 5K and the 5-mile swimmers proved themselves to be true champions: putting their heads down, throwing their arms forward, and stroking relentlessly toward West Neck Beach and their goals...(and a well-deserved reward of bagels and bananas from Rob Martell and chocolate chip cookies from "The Muffin-Woman" Susan Robinson!).

 

 

Rob Martell posted these Facebook comments for his long-distance novitiates:

"Some passing comments on the 5 Milers.. Rob R- kick ass pace and no wonder you can swim around Manhattan. Gae.. 3hrs 2 yrs ago for 5K.. this year 3 hrs for 5MILES..No more said.. i am seeing at 10K in your future.... AnneMarie.. Never gave up.. 4 hrs swimming. Very few people ANYWHERE can swim that long. .. for everyone.. that last mile from Fort Hill is like those last miles of a Marathon.. Lastly the entrance to the CS Harbor- swimming and getting nowhere. You have to experience it to believe.

"Some passing comments on the 5Kers..40 minutes out to the turn point. sweet.! When I planned the 5Mile route, I never imagined early turn backs. The tide plan was set up to help the 5miles swimmers as they swam longer - 3+ hours , the tide would turn and help them the last mile or two. BUT For the 5kers , it was full against the tide going back ( at least not full moon tide ). Extraordinary endurance for all three of you. That was no easy 5K, its was very tough and you all accomplished it , like other things, without giving up when the conditions could have easily been seen as too hard. !! :)"
 

Congratulations, Rob R., Rob M., Gae, Annmarie, Karen, E.J., and Bonnie -- See you in the Salt (once you've all recovered)!