The Maggie Fischer Memorial Great South Bay Cross Bay Swim went down yesterday, July 24th, with 95 swimmers and 95 kayakers taking to the water. It is a 5.3 mile swim from the Fire Island lighthouse to Gilbeak Park in Bay Shore — a great event put on by an amazing family.
For me, this was my first attempt at the swim and the nerves were there, but
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- The start
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- to late to back out
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- The finish 3 hours later
I had done too much trash talking not to finish. The 15 mph NW wind didn’t make the swim any easier, and it also put a healthy chop to the water in the middle of the bay.
I finished in 3 hours 15 minutes, and the best part was my 57-year-old father (my kayaker) finished too. Over all it was a beautiful day to be out on the water out on Long Island.
If you think yourself a waterman, you should swim the bay.
What temp was the water out there? Must have been pretty warm to spend over three hours in it, right?
The water had to be in the 70′s I wore just a bathing suit some people had spring wetsuits on. It was a cold start, you had to be at the beach by 6 am the sun was just coming up
wow!! that’s awesome