Lewis Pugh is getting closer and closer to his finish at Battery Park in New York City on September 13th.
On his 23rd day on his 507 km stage swim down the Hudson River, he swam with 9-year-old Kaya and 11-year-old Mika. They all swam 5 km. Pugh recalls, “They had no trouble keeping up. I was blown away.”
Today, the former British SAS soldier had a memorable day swimming past West Point to his finish at Garrison Yacht Club. Along the way, two Chinook and two Blackhawk helicopters swooped low in some training maneuvers above Pugh’s course.
With high humidity and water temperature at 79°F (26°C), you could tell the heat was getting to the famous ice swimmer from Plymouth, England.
The entire expedition stage swim is something to behold. His entire team has their own specific roles and by the fourth week together, their teamwork is a wonder to behold. Sally Burns, the expedition chief, coordinates a lot of moving parts, from media requests to swimming with locals.
Pugh has been inspiring and meeting all kinds of people along his swim. The president of Marist College, Kevin Weinman, and the Maris swimming, water polo, and crew teams joined Pugh. “The Hudson is part of our campus. Our students study it; our athletes compete on it.”
“The Marist students’ efforts in environmental science and policy coursework like capping are leading to a reduction in the amount of visible trash entering the Hudson River,” said Dr. Richard Feldman, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Environmental Science at Marist. “We are excited to have environmentalists like Lewis Pugh bring more awareness to the Hudson River because, with so many environmental issues needing to be addressed, we don’t want to forget that our dear Hudson River needs continued advocacy and attention for improvement.”
Pugh is doing two stage swims per day, trying to capitalize on the strength and pull of the tidal flows twice each day. Today, that meant swimming between 10:45 am and 1 pm, and then again from 12 midnight to 2 am as he swims the length of the Hudson from the Adirondacks to New York City.
Tomorrow, Christopher Swain will join him. In 2004, Swain completed his own 506.9 km stage swim down the Hudson River that were chronicled in the public television documentary, Swim for the River, which was released in the United States in April 2007.
#HudsonSwim2023 will end next week – but Pugh’s real work will then just begin.
© 2023 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“