Here’s some info that might be of interest for those competing in Eagleman…
First, we’ve been swimming in the river for a few weeks now and it is pretty nice. Last week with warm weather water temp approached 70 degrees. One mile swim without a wetsuit was not a problem, although a little choppy.
Second, currents will be an issue to think about for the race. High tide in cambridge is at 8:25 - and tidal currents (flowing upriver) will be at their highest around 7am. Max speed is about 0.4 kts. This current speed will decrease to slack just before noon. This means that the earlier waves will have a stronger current, which will assist you on the way out to the turnaround buoy and hinder you on the way back. The current will also tend to push you off course on the way out (to swimmer’r right) - as the swim goes diagonally into the river. It will be just about head on coming back.
So - the current will assist on the way out and hinder you on the way back… does this produce a net gain? Possibly, considering the current will not be as strong as the swim progresses. Not really sure about this - any ideas?
I have posted a tidal current prediction chart for race day in the choptank - the red bars are the strong current flowing upstream when most of us will be in the water - check it out at
http://www.hpl.umces.edu/~japple/misc/tidalcurrents.pdf
Good luck!
Jude