OCEAN CITY — Despite some late traffic delays, a group of beach enthusiasts called the Aquanuts who began their quest to take a swim at a saltwater beach in eight states from Maryland to Maine between dusk and dawn on Wednesday successfully completed the mission.
The six Aquanuts, all from Massachusetts, called their latest adventure Eight the Hard Way for their attempt to swim at an ocean beach in eight states in a single day. The trek began in the early morning hours on the beach in north Ocean City on Wednesday and concluded at a beach in Maine late Wednesday evening. In between, the Aquanuts completed brief swims in Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
While the swims were somewhat brief for the most part, the travel in between presented challenges for the Aquanuts and included long vehicle rides and even a trip on the Cape May-Lewes ferry. Event organizer Ned Daly, who was also one of the swimmers, said this week travel issues between the locations presented some issues, but the team arrived in Maine late Wednesday evening just before the amended deadline.
“We got wet in all eight states,” he said. “The end of the trip had some schedule slips due to traffic delays, but we managed to get in the water at York Beach, Maine just before ‘nautical twilight’.”
A driver transported the swimmers, often in wet bathing suits, to their next destination after each leg of the mission was completed. The itinerary included an ocean swim in north Ocean City just after sunrise on Wednesday at around 6 a.m., followed by a swim in Fenwick Island shortly thereafter at 6:15 a.m. The Aquanuts then departed Fenwick around 7:30 a.m. and arrive in Lewes by 8:15 a.m. where they will catch the ferry to Cape May, N.J.
The group swam in Cape May at around 10:45 a.m. and quickly departed for New York shortly thereafter. The next stop was an ocean swim in Rye, N.Y. at 2:30 p.m., after which the Aquanuts departed for Sherwood, Conn. The swimmers planned to take a dip in Sherwood around 3:45 p.m., then get back on the road for the next leg of the trip to Salisbury, Mass.
The next leg was the longest in terms of road mileage. The Aquanuts planned to depart Sherwood, Conn. at around 4 p.m. and arrive in Salisbury, Mass. at 7 p.m., where they will took a quick dip at 7:05 p.m. The swimmers then took a quick trip across the Massachusetts border into New Hampshire, where they completed the second-to-last leg in Seabrook, N.H. at 7:10 p.m.
The swimmers planned to depart Seabrook, N.H. around 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday and make the final leg to York, Maine, arriving in York Beach in Maine shortly before sundown at around 8:30 p.m.