By Vladimir Brezina
On Sunday a week ago, August 18th, I found myself once more in my kayak accompanying a long-distance swimmer through New York Harbor.
It was the day of this year’s Ederle Swim, a 17.5 -mile open-water swim from Manhattan to Sandy Hook, New Jersey, organized by NYC Swim. This year’s swim was in fact the centennial swim, since the first successful swim over that course, after a number of failed attempts, occurred a hundred years ago almost to the day, on August 28th, 1913.
My swimmer this year was Barbara Held, from San Diego, California. Having completed her Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming—the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, the Catalina Channel, and the English Channel—Barbara was looking for new challenges!
It was a near-ideal day from a kayaker’s point of view—cool, overcast, with even a few sprinkles at times, and calm winds and seas. The swimmers may of course see it differently. Barbara did complain afterward about the wind-against-current (:-)) chop that we encountered in the Lower Bay, and the little squishy things—“like implants”—that she swam into there, probably small moon jellyfish. But mercifully none of the other hazards of the harbor—no big floating debris, or buoys, or barges, or container ships.
This was our course, more or less (click to expand the map):
Given the correct timing of the swim relative to the tidal cycle—worked out in advance by Morty Berger of NYC Swim, this is what determines, pretty unforgivingly, the day and hour of the swim—it’s possible to catch a strong ebb current almost all the way down the harbor. (It was interesting to see how many swimmers—guided, of course, by their kayakers and motorboat crews, who should have known better—nevertheless wandered considerably off the course in places, losing the optimal current.) There are just a couple of tricky bits, one at the start and one at the end.
At the start, as the swimmers leave the Battery for the Buttermilk Channel to the east of Governors Island, they are relying on slipping through the narrow time window of slack current between the end of a strong flood current and the beginning of an even stronger ebb current in the East River. If the swim is delayed for some reason and the ebb in the East River has already started (see the blue arrows at the top of the map above), the swimmers will find it difficult, even impossible, to make their way across the current into the Buttermilk Channel. One year the ebb current was already so strong that we had to reroute the swimmer, Liz Fry, on the fly to the west, rather than to the east, of Governors Island. This year, as we made our way across that same stretch of water, we were already beginning to feel the pull of the ebb current. I think we were all relieved to make it safely into the Buttermilk Channel.
At the end of the swim, when the beach of Sandy Hook is already, tantalizingly, in sight, the current changes direction to flow strongly—at two knots or more—across the tip of Sandy Hook. Earlier in the ebb phase of the tidal cycle it flows eastward, and later, as the flood current begins, it flows westward (see the blue and green arrows on the map above). In either case, the swimmers must angle into the current to land optimally on the tip of Sandy Hook. This means that the faster swimmers must swim westward, and the slower swimmers eastward, even as they make progress south.
This feature of the tidal currents has played a significant role in every Ederle Swim that I’ve kayaked with (see here, and here, and here). This year, too, at least three of the slower swimmers failed to counter the flood current that had already started across the tip of Sandy Hook and were swept westward into the lonely wastes of Raritan Bay, to miss Sandy Hook entirely.
But that was more than an hour after Barbara had already finished, fourth overall and just 16 minutes behind the winner, in 4 hours, 56 minutes. A great swim!!
Accompanying a swimmer over almost five hours, there is plenty of opportunity to take photos. Here are some of them (click on any photo to start slideshow).
The individual photos are here. Additional articles about several of the other Ederle swimmers and their swims are here and here.
Vladimir Brezina (RIP) 
Johna Till Johnson
Wind Against Current 
Wow! Just 16 minutes. Swimmers are amazing and following them in a kayak must be exciting. Have you ever read the book: Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer by Lynne Cox? One of my favorite books of all time! Great post and photos!
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Leading them in a kayak… They complain when you follow them, because they are relying on you to show them where they are supposed to go! ;-)
I haven’t read Swimming to Antarctica, although it’s becoming very familiar—several people have mentioned it to me just over the last few days. I’ll definitely look at it—thanks!! :-)
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:) You are welcome!
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A very cool thing to do!
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Most certainly so for the swimmers! :-)
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For the swimmers it would be an icy cold thing to do!
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:-)
Actually not this late in the season. Earlier, in June, there was real reason for the swimmers to fear becoming hypothermic. But now in August, the water temperature was above 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and Barbara actually worried about overheating. Fortunately that didn’t happen on the day…
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Incredible! What an amazing woman…how cool that you are part of this experience!
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Yes and yes! :-)
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Gosh, you may be the guy I’ve been looking for to help me swim across Mobile Bay. Only the bull sharks, jelly fish and gators are holding me back at this point. Intriguing account – thanks for sharing!
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Of those, the jellyfish might be the biggest factor… See Nyad, Diana, et al….
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Wow, those look vicious. I couldn’t find them in reference to Mobile Bay, but not sure I want to take any chances!
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Not sure about jellyfish in Mobile Bay specifically… but in tropical (or semi-tropical) waters you have to anticipate them…
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What a wonderful way to spend the day. Barbara was lucky to be paired with you as a leader – someone who really knows the water there. (Great map too!)
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Yes, for this swim, it’s actually kind of useful to know the currents… the hard part is always keeping in mind what a swimmer (even a world-class swimmer) can manage across or against the current versus what a kayaker can…
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Looks awesome.
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And it was!
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I thought this would be a great time to use a very narrow paddle like a Greenland Paddle to keep up a decent cadence when kayaking for the much slower swimmers. When I did swim support for another event I found it funny how often the swimmers would skew to the left from pulling harder on their right side.
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Depends on the swimmer, it would appear. Left to her own devices, Barbara would swim distinctly to the right….
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Reblogged this on The Quotidian Hudson and commented:
Some amazing stuff here.
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Thanks for reblogging, Robert! :-)
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Reblogged.
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this is one incredible adventure!
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It is!
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Very impressive stuff! Tough people!
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Indeed! :-)
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Fascinating story and photos, Vladimir! I am always amazed at the way people can push their endurance.
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So am I—it’s quite amazing to watch, from a comfortable, close-up seat! :-)
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the swimmers are amazing! thanks for the ride!!
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You are most welcome! :-)
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I can’t imagine kayaking on the NY harbor, much less long distance swimming. All so very impressive and fascinating. Love your photos of the event!
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Kayaking in NY Harbor I can understand; swimming in it, not so much… But people come back every year to do it ;-)
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great photos… we just had the “Ironman” here in Louisville…Running…Swimming and Cycling…Pretty awesome!…NO!>>> do none of that and never will…Kayaking may be in my future…just to try!
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Go for the kayaking! You can leave the Ironman for later ;-)
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very funny!!
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Loved the map.
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:-)
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What a fabulous Blog! WOW! I saw this Blog and thought of both of you. Most likely you already know about it but you never know with you Kayakers : ) http://quotidianhudsonriver.com/2013/08/29/8-29-13-a-small-victory-publishing-edition/#comment-9440
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Yes, Robert has long been on our blogroll! But as you say, you never do know, and it never hurts to point out great blogs! :-)
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Great achievement by the swimmers what a challenge they had with the current. Exciting report and pictures.
All the best,
Hanna
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Thanks, Hanna!!
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Very impressive feat! The shots are great too :)
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Thanks!! :-)
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You’re welcome :)
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What you NYC folk do to amuse yourselves! ;-)
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Actually, it’s folk from all over the world who come to amuse themselves and we NYC folk have to make sure they don’t get into trouble ;-)
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Tremendous feats these marathon swimmers accomplish.
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They do indeed! :-)
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