Welcome to my Manhattan Island Marathon swim website. For those of you who don't know me, I swam Lake Ontario the easy way in 1983 and the hard way in 1984 (details on the Solo Swims of Ontario website). I “came out of retirement" to swim the English Channel (EC) in 2011 (www.englishchannel2011.blogspot.com). Last year I become the oldest Canadian to swim the strait of Catalina in California.

This year I will be swimming the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (MIMS) on July 12, a distance of 40 km. This is a tide and current assisted amateur race with a time cut off of 9 hours 30 minutes. http://nycswim.org/Event/Event.aspx?Event_ID=2416 By completing the Manhattan race, I hope to become the first Canadian to complete the Triple Crown of open water swimming. The other 2 swims are the English Channel and the Catalina Strait. http://openwaterpedia.com/index.php?title=Triple_Crown_of_Open_Water_Swimming

I am pleased to be able to use this opportunity to raise money for the Good Shepherd Centres in Hamilton. They run a network of shelters and services for troubled youth, abused women and children, the dying, the mentally and physically challenged, the hungry and the homeless. They strive to support people through crisis and help them re-establish healthy and productive lives. They have been very good to my patients over the years and for this I am grateful. Please support my swim by donating to the Good Shepherd Centres. Thank you. http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1941545&langPref=en-CA

Saturday, 12 July 2014

Harlem River now with no current.  The term is slack water waiting for tide to reverse. Slow progress at the middle of Ward Island 2:34 elapsed time.
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Passing Mill Rock and leaving East River entering Harlem River 67.2 Water temp and now current is slowed to 1.5 mph.Stroke rate 65.
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At 1:18 Elapsed time passed UN current 4.5 knots, 66 strokes, Water temp 67.6. Swimming Strong.
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Elapsed time 1:02. Strong current varies from 2 to 4 mph and have made over 4 miles.Stroke rate varies from 60 to 65.Water temp 68. Just passing UN
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Our official  www.swimandtonic.wordpress.com
Click on GPS tracker to follow our boat. Marilyn and Roman are coming to join us from the starting point then we will be together. They are about 500 m behind.
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Its official start time was 6:06. Water temp 68.7 started from Pier A. Boat is Midnight Sun very apropos for Canadian swimmer. Sunny and calm but forecast for last leg down Hudson is for very large save due to wind from South.
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Friday, 11 July 2014

Manhattan 2014

Greetings from Manhattan!
The first exciting thing that happened was meeting with Marilyn Bell DiLascio. She is such a delightful and inspiring person.
Yesterday, we took the Circle Line "full island tour" in the cruise ship. It was a great view of the whole course. The East River was turbulent, the Harlem river looked polluted, and the Hudson was majestic. We were able to fine tune our strategy.
The race organizers say that the tidal currents are going to be fairly strong tomorrow so the trick is going to be making it to the key spots before the tide turns against me. The first tough spot is fighting the current in the Hudson to get to the East river for half a mile. The next, and toughest spot is "Hell's Gate", where the currents are trying to take the swimmer into Long Island sound and the Atlantic. Then the hard part is slogging down the Harlem as fast as possible to catch the currents at Spuyten Dyuvil in time to be spit out into the Hudson. After that is should be "downhill" (for 4 hours).
Water temp is 68-70. Water quality is "improving".
Thank you to everyone for your good wishes and donations.
Marilyn
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