Brownski
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2020
At least it was sunny
On September 8, I showed up for my second year as a kayak escort for the Lighthouse Swim. If you’re a front page reader, you might remember that I wrote about doing this last year and that I also kayaked with the Newburgh to Beacon Swim (which Ripitz swam). My intention was to do both again this year but I had to pull out of the Newburgh Beacon because I had a scheduling conflict.
It rained the day before but I had been hoping for good weather. I got a nice early start and got my kayak ready to go. Then we got a briefing from the organizers at our launch site in Tarrytown
We launched individually or in small groups and paddled over to Nyack, where the swimmers were waiting. Right from the start, I felt like conditions were on the rough side for an open water swim. I made it across the river pretty quickly myself but I could see others were having a little bit more difficulty with the wind and waves. It is on days like these that a long, seaworthy kayak and a skirt makes a big difference. The shorter boats and paddle boards had big problems. It was blowing hard from west to east and I reflected that it would make for a fast return trip if it kept blowing that way.
I could hear chatter on the radio about some of my fellow escorts making very little headway.
Then we could hear some back and forth between the coast guard and the swim organizers about conditions. Somebody suggested waiting a half hour to see if the wind would die down but somebody else pointed out that waiting would cause us to miss the tide, which the whole swim was planned around.
Listening to the radio as I sat and looked at all the swimmers waiting to get in the water, it became obvious to me that it wasn’t going to work out this year. Word finally came that the swim was cancelled and we could head back to Tarrytown. I agreed with this decision completely. It was one of those days. The swimmers would have been scattered far and wide by the winds and currents.
Most of the paddleboarders got a ride back to Tarrytown on one of the motorboats.
The wind continued to blow hard but it had shifted direction so we didn’t get the fast ride back that I was hoping for. Conditions were worse if anything. I heard on the radio that a few kayakers needed to be picked up as well. It was a skirt-on, two hands on the wheel situation so I didn’t get pics of the return leg. There was a lot of zig zagging to avoid getting hit broadsides by the chop. I landed and stuck around a bit as more escorts arrived.
Everybody made it and the swimmers get a credit towards next year’s entry fee. It was an exciting day, to say the least.
thehudsonindependent.com
On September 8, I showed up for my second year as a kayak escort for the Lighthouse Swim. If you’re a front page reader, you might remember that I wrote about doing this last year and that I also kayaked with the Newburgh to Beacon Swim (which Ripitz swam). My intention was to do both again this year but I had to pull out of the Newburgh Beacon because I had a scheduling conflict.
It rained the day before but I had been hoping for good weather. I got a nice early start and got my kayak ready to go. Then we got a briefing from the organizers at our launch site in Tarrytown
We launched individually or in small groups and paddled over to Nyack, where the swimmers were waiting. Right from the start, I felt like conditions were on the rough side for an open water swim. I made it across the river pretty quickly myself but I could see others were having a little bit more difficulty with the wind and waves. It is on days like these that a long, seaworthy kayak and a skirt makes a big difference. The shorter boats and paddle boards had big problems. It was blowing hard from west to east and I reflected that it would make for a fast return trip if it kept blowing that way.
I could hear chatter on the radio about some of my fellow escorts making very little headway.
Then we could hear some back and forth between the coast guard and the swim organizers about conditions. Somebody suggested waiting a half hour to see if the wind would die down but somebody else pointed out that waiting would cause us to miss the tide, which the whole swim was planned around.
Listening to the radio as I sat and looked at all the swimmers waiting to get in the water, it became obvious to me that it wasn’t going to work out this year. Word finally came that the swim was cancelled and we could head back to Tarrytown. I agreed with this decision completely. It was one of those days. The swimmers would have been scattered far and wide by the winds and currents.
Most of the paddleboarders got a ride back to Tarrytown on one of the motorboats.
The wind continued to blow hard but it had shifted direction so we didn’t get the fast ride back that I was hoping for. Conditions were worse if anything. I heard on the radio that a few kayakers needed to be picked up as well. It was a skirt-on, two hands on the wheel situation so I didn’t get pics of the return leg. There was a lot of zig zagging to avoid getting hit broadsides by the chop. I landed and stuck around a bit as more escorts arrived.
Everybody made it and the swimmers get a credit towards next year’s entry fee. It was an exciting day, to say the least.
Gusting Winds Force Cancellation Of This Year’s Lighthouse Swim
By Barrett Seaman– It was a crystal -clear September day—perfect for an outdoor athletic event, even a swim, except for one thing: the wind. It was gusting over 20-mph, raising white caps on the Hudson, which at mid-channel felt more like the Atlantic Ocean. That was enough for the Coast Guard...
thehudsonindependent.com
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