Early this morning, under sunny but windy skies, 54-year-old Paul Rekoff of New York, NY, set off from White Horse Beach in Plymouth, Mass., bound for Provincetown and a 20-mile swim to Cape Cod. He’s hoping to complete the P2P crossing today, and on Saturday, August 17, Mo Siegel, 62, of Piermont, NY, will also attempt the long distance swim.
By aiming to swim this stretch of water, sometimes dubbed the “American Channel,” these marathon swimmers are reviving an early 20thcentury swim and are doing so while following English Channel rules, meaning that they many not make supporting contact with their guide boats or support crews, and they may not wear protective clothing. They may only wear a standard bathing suit, cap, and goggles while swimming continuously in the chilly waters. The swim can take upwards of 12 hours or longer to complete.
According to local lore, Harry Kemp, an American writer known as the Poet of the Dunes, first developed the idea of swimming point-to-point between Provincetown and Plymouth to create a symbolic link between the first colony and the first landing place in America. Though three swimmers—Charlie Toth, Samuel Richards, and Henry Sullivan (the first American to swim the English Channel) all attempted the swim in 1915, none were able to reach the other side.
The swim fell into obscurity until the 1950s when several people made unsuccessful attempts during marathon swimming’s golden revival. Finally, in 1968 Russell Chaffee, then 41 years old and from Sayre, Pa., achieved the crossing in 14 hours and 40 minutes.
Last summer, the newly-formed Massachusetts Open Water Swimming Association (MOWSA)—a non-profit organization that sanctions and runs open water swimming events in the Bay State, including the famed Boston Light Swim—revived the swim course for a second time, offering the swim as a solo sanctioned event to a small group of invited swimmers. MOWSA President Greg O’Connor led the charge, completing the swim in 10 hours 22 minutes. Also swimming that same day were Janet Harris, David Barra, Eileen Burke, and Mo Siegel. Harris, Barra, and Burke all successfully completed the swim in less than 12 hours; Siegel pulled out early due to injury. But this summer he’s back for a second attempt to swim from the mainland to Provincetown where he vacations each summer.
The swim features a range of challenges including cold water, recreational boat traffic, variable weather conditions, marine life, and strong currents and tidal flows. At 20 miles and with an average water temperature of 63 degrees F, the swim is comparable to the Mount Everest of open water swimming, the English Channel, a 21-mile crossing in water typically ranging from 62 to 64 degrees F. Siegel completed a solo crossing of the English Channel in 2010 and is a Triple Crown swimmer, so is well qualified to undertake this daunting challenge.
For more information, visit us online at www.massopenwaterswimming.org. For media inquiries, please contact: MOWSA President, Greg O’Connor, at goconnor@
This unedited release was provided to swimswam.
