Monday, June 08, 2009

Swimming at Claiborne

My training partner Dave and I did another short open water swim this morning at Claiborne, Maryland. There's a sleepy village which many years ago used to host a bustling ferry terminus. These days there are more ospreys and crabs than people.

You might be able to see a flag in the middle ground which showed the wind to be 8 or 9 mph. The water had a bit more chop than I would like, but the temperatures were pleasant enough and there is no sign of the sea nettles yet. We did, however, pause to let a very large swimming snapping turtle go on his way. Since it's completely open to the west it can get a lot of wind coming off the bay and a lot of chop, making swimming there a bit of a challenge. Plus it's only deep enough to swim there when the tide is out - otherwise it's only hip height out to a half mile offshore. Today that allowed me to stand up and rest and take a breather whenever I felt like it!

The crescent-shaped bay is just to the south of the "A" on the map below, on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay.

3 comments:

ShirleyPerly said...

Hip height to a half a mile out? Wow, that sounds nice to me. Glad no sign of sea nettles.

Herself, the GeekGirl said...

Is that in salt or fresh water?

Rainmaker said...

Lucky you, I wish I had openwater swim options that close to my place. Somehow the Potomac near here just isn't appealing for every day swims...