Swimming in the Hudson is it ok?

[Bigmommashouse]

Is it ok to swim in the Hudson my friend just went in and he is starting to rash. https://www.facebook.com/nate.morris...0419651951563/ Link to video

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Bigmommashouse.

The Hudson river is over 300 miles long, so it might make a difference exactly where you propose to swim.

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Bigmommashouse.

The Hudson river is over 300 miles long, so it might make a difference exactly where you propose to swim.

Yes and a boating forum might not be the best place to find this information. Call or contact the local health department in the area where you want to swim.

Or maybe take your friend to see a doctor.

[hellosailor]

It has been OK to swim in the Hudson for over 30 years now.

But that really doesn't matter. You can pick up skin infections anywhere, in the cleanest water, if there's a sewer pipe nearby. Or it has been raining heavily and the storm sewers overflowed with the sanitary sewers. Or there was a bloom of "sea lice" or other misnamed critters.

If your friend wasn't feeling better and looking better after 24 hours? They need to see a dermatologist QUICKLY in order to find out what it is and what to do about it. Or, the can take OTC drugs like antihistamines 9for the itch) and cortisone cream and hope it gets better.

There are some nasty fresh-water ameoba that infect rivers and lakes, which in the worst case go up the nasal passages and cross into the brain with fatal effect. That's very uncommon--but still reason to get professional medical advice QUICKLY when you pick up a water-borne mystery reaction.

AFAIK that hasn't been reported in the Hudson, just further south in warm waters, but you county health department should be able to tell you more about what's in the water there.

Overall though? Yes, thirty or more years, depending on where you are. The Hudson is not the infectious sewer that it once had been.

[zeehag]

we sailed hudson river at hudson/catskill and north. sitting on bow straddling forestay with feet in water, we used to lift our feet for the turds floating by. (infectious sewer)
i would swim in hudson only on a dare with much money paid for the privilege of becoming ill.
the situation has improved with pete seegers clearwater, but......and that was 181 miles north of nyc. and that was 1955-1969. might be slightly better but i would not count on any inland estuarial waterway being immaculate.

[hellosailor]

zeehag, the Hudson is radically changed since 1960. In fact by the 1990's, NYC was having a crisis because the water had gotten so clean teredo worms had returned to the harbor, so the piers and supports for the riverside highways were collapsing from being eaten for he first time in the 19th century.

For the iron man events and the other organized swims, I don't think they even require hepatitis shots any more. (Doesn't mean I would agree.)

I had a dunk in the Hudson down near the Bowery around 1988, Fell in while walking a dockline off the bow. GTF out and onto the dock without taking a breathe and decontaminated with the water hose before I'd open my mouth at all...but survived. Drinking or inhaling it might be more problematic.

But heck, they've had flesh-eating bacteria in Virginia? And the brain eating stuff in Florida lakes. And Miami and Fort Lauderdale routinely close waters...the Hudson is in better shape than a lot of places. None of which are good places to swim after heavy rainfalls.

[SVNeko]

Capsized a J24 in NY Harbor and spent a good 30 minutes in the water. No worse for wear after that.

[mrohr]

warm today in the midhudson kids and adults swimming off their boats....I ,too, spent an hour alongside (and under ) Houdini scrubbing slime off my waterline . Many waterfront towns ,including mine, use the Hudson for drinking.

FWIW: The Bronx is part of NYC and salt.

[zeehag]

glad tto hear the cleanup worked. is such a beautiful river to have been so badly kept back then.
i know north troy used to get drinking water from hudson, as did russell sage college... when you could smell the river you didnot drink the water and held nose to brush teeth., 1966.
we sailed on that river from 1955 to 1969 and didnot die. my cousins are restoring the eleanor for use as a sailing school. eleanor is a historic treasure gaff rigged sloop, raceabout designed by clinton crane. she is being restored in hudson ny by my cousins and will be relaunched hopefully soon.