Last July, for 7½ hours, nine swimmers from the Island completed the first-ever relay swim across Nantucket Sound through Muskeget Channel — from Eel Point Beach to Chappaquiddick — as a feat of endurance and teamwork and as a fundraiser for various initiatives. No one ever made the trip before — only in the reverse direction.
And they plan to make the 18-mile open ocean trek again, later this month. But this time, on top of two Martha’s Vineyard relay teams, each with four to five swimmers, two teams from Nantucket may join.
This year’s event hopes to raise funds for underserved youth on Martha’s Vineyard and grant access to swim lessons and water safety programs through the Island’s YMCA, a press release from Doug McConnell, a seasonal Island resident and co-founder of A Long Swim, wrote. A Long Swim is a nonprofit that designs and manages open-water swimming events to raise funds to research amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. McConnell lost his father, Dr. David McConnell, and sister, Ellen, to ALS; he started open-water swimming in 2009 and has crossed the English Channel and the Catalina Channel, as well as swam from Molokai to Oahu in Hawaii, and circled Manhattan.
Swimmers comply with traditional English Channel swimming rules, which include use of only a standard swimsuit, one-hour swimming rotations, no physical contact with the escort vessel, and no physical assistance from another person during the swim. Participants are supported by a companion escort powerboat, Capt. Eamonn Solway, a U.S. Coast Guard captain and nationally registered paramedic, and an official observer documenting the swim according to English Channel rules, and Dana Gaines, an experienced Vineyard kayaker.
The tidal window between July 22 and 24 was chosen as the best conditions for the swim, and the event should take place one of those days. A press conference at Nomans Restaurant in Oak Bluffs will take place after the crossing, at approximately 6:30 pm.
