Inasmuch as New York is the city that never sleeps, it is also the city that, possibly due to all this ‘unsleeping,’ seemingly never swims. I could find just one Olympic-sized swimming pool in Lower Manhattan. It was the aptronymically named Hamilton Fish Pond, so-called after former local luminary Hamilton Stuyvesant Fish. The ‘Fish Pond’ as the locals call it is open for lap swimming from 7am every morning during summer.
New York has two open water swimming clubs. I am a member of the Coney Island Brighton Beach Open Water Swimmers (CIBBOWS for short). The other being New York Open Water. On 24th August I swam with 31 other swimmers in the CIBBOW’s annual around Governor’s Island swim at the confluence of the Lower Hudson and East rivers in Lower Manhattan.
We swam the 3.2 km course in a counter-clokwise direction. I covered the distance in about 40 ½ minutes with the aid of some strong currents. Water conditions were bumpy. Air and sea temperatures were each about 23C.
Our sighting during the swim was a panorama of New York landmarks, starting with Battery Park, the New Jersey skyline, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, then as we turned into Buttermilk Channel we sighted to the Brooklyn Bridge, Chrysler Building, Empire State Building and then the The Liberty Tower. I was very tempted to stop swimming and just take in the view. It was truly a swim for the ages!
Watch for my next blog – Swimming the Dardenelles / Hellespont Channel between Greece and Turkey – the oldest open water swim in the world.
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