Dear family and friends,
Yes, I will be swimming across the Hudson River again! This year is the 22nd Annual Great Newburgh to Beacon Hudson River Swim, and it will be my third time swimming from Newburgh to Beacon. The swim takes place Saturday, August 1st (rain date is August 2) and it raises funds for the River Pool at Beacon.
The River Pool is a circular floating pool with a netted bottom on the Hudson River, accessible from the Pete and Toshi Seeger Riverfront Park in Beacon, New York. It’s in shallow water, so it’s perfect for kids and families, and it’s free. The funds are used to help operate and maintain the River Pool, and its mission to encourage people to be near or in the river.
As many of you know, I love open-water swimming and have a continuing interest in the conservation and restoration of the Hudson River. This is a noncompetitive, one-plus mile swim. Once we’re in the river, it’s hard to know whether we are going in the right direction, and the waves and current can be challenging. Fortunately, there is a flotilla of kayakers to guide us across.
If you kayak, the swim organizers need volunteer kayak escorts.
An important navigation channel runs through the middle of the river, but the U.S. Coast Guard issues a Special Local Regulation establishing a restricted area on the day of the swim. Good thing—no barge traffic. The swim also takes place at slack tide, which occurs between flood and ebb tides (high and low tides), so the river is mostly calm. Sort of. There always are currents and waves, and for those who know the river well, a true ‘slack tide’ is rare. The Hudson River is tidal estuary for 153 miles from Troy to New York Harbor. The Algonquin-speaking indigenous Lenape Muhheaconneokâ “People of the waters that are never still,” named the estuary Muhheacannituck, “the waters that are never still.”
If you are interested in the mission of the River Pool at Beacon, you can help by contributing to my fundraiser. Any amount, no matter how small—helps. Thank you.
Thank you--Maude
