Finished Cross-Bay Swim--well within goal!

Great job! Sounds like fun. How much of a current is there in the river? I'm not sure, but maybe this will give you an idea: had a 3 hour practice swim w/ my coach before I did the bay swim, and our plan was to swim upstream for an hour and 45 mins. then turn around and go downstream for an hour and 15 mins. However, it turned out that it took less than an hour to go back downstream, so we added another 15-20 mins. out/back. I'm told that the total distance we did--excluding that second out/back--was 3.4 miles, so it definitely took a good deal longer upstream. But my math is... well, let's just say I wisely chose English as my college major. ;) Still, from that, I think you can get an idea of just how much of a current there was. Oddly, I didn't feel the difference while swimming (except in the fact that going back was faster). It didn't feel like a different effort. Yet during the bay swim, I DEFINITELY felt the push/pull of the water--it felt like such a living force. There was a tide assist after the first 15-20 mins. and I felt it pushing me as I didn't feel the river pushing. I'm curious about that, in fact. The river seemed so calm--no chop whatsoever, but even at its calmest, I could feel the movement of the water in the bay. Those with more knowledge of how tides and currents work could probably explain this better, but I just found it fascinating.

Great job! Sounds like fun. How much of a current is there in the river? I'm not sure, but maybe this will give you an idea: had a 3 hour practice swim w/ my coach before I did the bay swim, and our plan was to swim upstream for an hour and 45 mins. then turn around and go downstream for an hour and 15 mins. However, it turned out that it took less than an hour to go back downstream, so we added another 15-20 mins. out/back. I'm told that the total distance we did--excluding that second out/back--was 3.4 miles, so it definitely took a good deal longer upstream. But my math is... well, let's just say I wisely chose English as my college major. ;) Still, from that, I think you can get an idea of just how much of a current there was. Oddly, I didn't feel the difference while swimming (except in the fact that going back was faster). It didn't feel like a different effort. Yet during the bay swim, I DEFINITELY felt the push/pull of the water--it felt like such a living force. There was a tide assist after the first 15-20 mins. and I felt it pushing me as I didn't feel the river pushing. I'm curious about that, in fact. The river seemed so calm--no chop whatsoever, but even at its calmest, I could feel the movement of the water in the bay. Those with more knowledge of how tides and currents work could probably explain this better, but I just found it fascinating.