without immersion gear. Boston Harbor water temp hovering around 40-41 degrees.
How long would he have lasted were the rescuers just tag along side but not pull him in?
sing
Such an irrational act, one has to guess he was high on something. Perhaps that allowed him to not fully feel the effects of 40F water for 25 minutes?
Props to the first responders for getting him out and to a safe place.
What an idiot. Hopefully he was high on something. at least that is a decent excuse for acting irrationally.
On the other hand, props for treading water for 25 mins. I do not think I could do that in 40* water. He’s pretty lean too, not much blubber to insulate. An impressive feat, in spite of being extremely ill advised.
is he wearing a bra or a wife beater?
Water shoes and light clothing. So he intended to get wet. Second on MCImes first sentence.
Looking at the second picture, he appears to be pretty fit, not like a junky. Very strange.
Charlie Dugan took a dip
for February thrill,
he weren’t for wintry headlines grabbed up
by tawny punx named Phil,
and good will hunting our harbored Chuck
would toss side shadowed chill,
else six more weeks be needed not
to float a fresh Charles kill
Grandfather lived in Boston and swam for exercise. One year, I’m guessing around 1920, he was intent on swimming every day, in the Charles River. There was a blizzard on George Washington’s Birthday, which used to be a holiday. Grandfather swam, and according to Grandmother, caught a terrible cold that kept him out of the water, thwarting the “every day” ambition.
Then you have the story of Grant Hadwin, recounted in the book The Golden Spruce. Hadwin practiced swimming in cold water during winter in Whitehorse, Yukon. He carried a ladder across the ice to where the water remained open so he could get in and out of the water. The air temp was -35.
Apparently, people can train to extend their cold water tolerance.
Then there are folks that aren’t quite right. My bow paddler in one of the duckheads’ canoe orienteering events voluntarily swam across the Transquaking River in March, when the water temp was about 40. She was a competive rower, those wackos that early in the spring are out at 5am on cold water. She didn’t even look cold when I caught up to her later. Not quite right.
I’m sure cold water will still kill them, it just might take a little longer.
To your point Booz, I remember reading somewhere that a relatively few but consistent exposures to cold water increased the thickness of the fat layer beneath your skin, thus increased cold water tolerance.
I imagine swimming in ice cold water daily increases the effect even more
Grant Hadwin was NUTS. A fascinating, strongly principled man with, evidently, an ironclad will, though not a rustproof mind. The Golden Spruce should be on the Must Read lists of anyone with an interest in the PNW.
@MCImes said:
To your point Booz, I remember reading somewhere that a relatively few but consistent exposures to cold water increased the thickness of the fat layer beneath your skin, thus increased cold water tolerance.I imagine swimming in ice cold water daily increases the effect even more
Sitting around watching it rain and snacking has done the same to me.
Perhaps he was trying to commit suicide.