List of Swim Ideas
It occurred to me that it might be nice to have a thread for ideas of possible swims. These may be swims that you wonder if anyone has ever done, that you dream about doing, or that may be outside your abilities/finances but look interesting. It might be a way to help make the swim a reality, to give another swimmer/race director an idea, or just gather information.
I was looking at a map of Long Island and eastward to Cape Cod and these occurred to me (distances are approximate and the courses could be reversed):
Single swims
1) Montauk Lighthouse to Block Island, 14 miles
2) Montauk Lighthouse to Fishers Island 14.5 miles
3) Montauk Lighthouse to the northern peninsula of Long Island, 20.75 miles
4) Block Island to mainland, 9 miles
5) Plum Island to Fishers Island, 8 miles
6) Northern peninsula of Long Island to mainland, 9 miles
7) Martha's Vineyard to Nantucket Island, 13.5 miles
8) Nantucket Island to Monomoy Wildlife Refuge, 10 miles
9) Martha's Vineyard to Monomoy Wildlife Refuge, 24 miles
10) Newport, RI to Martha's Vineyard, 25 miles
11) Block Island to Martha's Vineyard, 39 miles
12) Hyannis, MA to Martha's Vineyard (i.e. the ferry route) 20 miles
13) Hyannis, MA to Nantucket (i.e. the ferry route), 28 miles
Stage swim: "The Bays of Long Island"
Stage 1, "Jamaica Bay": Coney Island pier to Rockaway County Park, 11.5 miles
Stage 2, "Not sure what bay": Silver Pt County Park to Bridge @ Meadowbrook State Pkwy, 11.5 miles
Stage 3, "S. Oyster Bay": Bridge @ Meadowbrook State Pkwy to Bridge @ Robert Moses Causeway, 15.6
Stage 4, "Great South Bay": Bridge @ Robert Moses Causeway to Rt 46 bridge @ Mastic Beach, 22 miles
Stage 5: "Moriches Bay": Rt 46 bridge @ Mastic Beach to Beach Lane bridge @ Westhampton Beach, 13.5 miles
Stage 6: "Shinnecock Bay"; Western most point of bay to eastern most point of bay, 9.7 miles****
-LBJ
“Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” - Oscar Wilde
Comments
Cool swims I've thought of, in no particular order:
1) My ideal swim would be to swim to the end of the street I grew up on (north central Ohio) from Leamington, Ontario. Would be about a 50k swim. Issue the last few years would have been finding suitable water temperature, but without running into the algae bloom.
2) Lake Pontchartrain. I tried this in poor weather. I know I wouldn't be the first, but I still would like to do it.
3) Palk Straight, between India and Sri Lanka. Shortest distance appears to be 25-30km. I don't know about the wildlife on this swim, and I'm sure the water would be very very hot, but the diplomacy that would need to surround this swim sounds like it would be quite challenging.
4) Perim Island, Yemen to Djibouti. ~20km. I'm not brave enough, I don't think.
1) Lake Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan. I've heard that one former Soviet Olympian crossed it (eastern end, approx 17 miles) but I don't think anyone has ever done the max width, approx 37 miles.
2) Lake Baikal. I know Lynn Cox did. But I cannot find a reliable source that tells me her start and finish locations.
3) Other Kyrgyz lakes: Son Kul, Chatyr Kul, Sary-Chelek.
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
Cape Charles to Cape Henry, VA. Hasn't been done yet, but I don't care if I'm the first or not. Just wanna. Mentioned it to my family at the beach last week and they FLIPPED OUT. (SHIP TRAFFIC! SHARKS! JELLYFISH! TIDES!) I don't have the heart to explain to them the realities of other channel swims...
The rift valley lakes of Africa are uncharted waters. I alway's wanted to do a LONG kayak trip there.
That sounds like a fun paddle trip.
Searching for a goal.. I think I have an RTA in me if there are favorable tides. What's an RTA? Round Trip Angel Island.. with circumnavigation. It's a tricky swim, one that @evmo has done as well as Cathy D recently.
One swim NOT to do for a while: The Susquehanna River above the Harrisburg area. Recently, a couple (of geniuses) decided to go swimming and take their 6 ft long boa constrictor swimming with them. They were apparently shocked when the snake got away and didn't come back. As we say about Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh in the west, Philadelphia in the east and Mississippi in the middle.
-LBJ
“Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” - Oscar Wilde
Long beach island NJ. I grew up going there and while a circumnavigation is currently out of my league maybe the length along Barnegat Bay may be possible.
Just found this thread when googling the distance between montauk and block island...just dreamin
When I was in Lanzarote (Canary Island, Spain), I asked around and so far no one knew about anyone who would swim Canary Islands to Africa. The nearest seems Fuerteventura. Possibly around 60mi (completely out of my distance) but when I investigated currents, they could be helpful. The water temps are good and I believe there were some unsupported kayak trips done that direction.
And, they don't have hurricanes or crazy storms, bad winds or huge tides.
Lots of swims that have never been done in the Great Bear Sea (Inside Passage, west coast of Canada to Alaska. Happy to share information and resources with any who are interested.
Anyone heard from @Leonard_Jansen lately? Is he ok?
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
A friend of mine did an unsupported paddle from Key West to Dry Tortugas (~65 miles, the straight line distance goes through some other islands). I'd rather do that swim in March or so, but would be an interesting idea.
Always liked the idea of completing a "Triple Crown" of Scottish Lochs - Lomond (done), Ness and Awe.
I have a base in eastern LI and grew up on LI so all of these sound great to me, especially the bay swim. Although I had in mind a multi-stage Coney to MTK ocean swim in 25 mile chunks, or a continuous relay (its about 110 miles). On the nearer horizon, Im considering MTK to Block Island, although Im not quite sure of the currents out there. I know paddlers do an annual paddle between these points but Im not sure whether currents impact swimmers and paddlers the same. Any thoughts on this?
I think MTK to Block would be fabulous! Keep us updated, would be happy to support.
Absolutely J9swim. I might do it for that reason alone.
Done! :-)
Loch Lomond (BLDSA Championship) - Aug 2014 in 13:01*
Loch Ness - July 2017 in 13:44*
Loch Awe - Aug 2017 in 15:03*
*Lomond ratified as part of BLDSA Championship, Ness and Awe times are subject to ratification by the BLDSA Committee
Congratulations! That is a ton of swimming - and such an inspired combination!
(Did you catch a glimpse of the famous Nessie, Awie, and Lolomonda?)
Now I have to find out where those lochs are ...
No sightings by myself but apparently reported sightings of something strange in Ness went up that day... ;-)
It'll probably be years before it happens, but thanks @phodgeszoho for the great concept and a new trio to chase! And congrats on some fabulous swimming! (What's the water temp in Loch Awe like?)
Stop me if you've heard this one...
A grasshopper walks into a bar...
https://elainekhowley.com/
I am from Marquette, in the UP of Michigan and swim in the "big lake" every summer. I have been pondering a swim from Little Presque Isle north of Marquette in Lake Superior to Presque Isle, possibly further south to the main swim beach at McCarty's cove. I suspect it is about a 8-10k+ (?) but am frankly not sure what tools (short of a paper map) to use to estimate distances in open water. What do you all use? I also need to investigate currents which can be pretty serious in Superior. Thinking summer 2018. Anyone have experience with swims in Superior?
@sarah4140 - Google maps has a measure distance feature. Find where you are looking, and right click to start it.
I'm not familiar enough with Lake Superior to know exactly which islands you are talking about.
thanks! I thought there had to be a way to do this in Google maps!
it looks like it is either about 6 miles north to south (from little presque isle to Presque Isle) or a little under 10 miles to the main town beach.