Ferry Captain goes to North Haven and back without a boat
Phil Dunne during his South Ferry channel swim on September 24.
For 36 years, Phil Dunne, a chief engineer and senior pilot at South Ferry, has plied the waters between North Haven and Shelter Island on a regular basis.
But every fall for the past 15 years, he makes at least one of those round trips without a boat.
Each September after the summer crowds have gone, Mr. Dunne, 65, picks a nice warm day, wades into the water near the South Ferry slip on Shelter Island and swims the quarter mile or so to North Haven where he comes ashore just west of the ferry landing.
Then he gets back in the water to make the return swim to the Island.
“I’m smart about it — I do it on a slack tide when I have a 20-minute window,” Mr. Dunne told the Reporter this week. “I always have a spotter boat to keep the yahoos away on their power boats, so this time it was a guy on a kayak.”
For Mr. Dunne, the annual swim is an affirmation, not only of good health, but of a sport he loves.
“Back in my high school days, I was on the swim team and swimming has always been a part of my life,” Mr. Dunne said. “I picked it up again in my late 40s by swimming in the bay.”
And when the waters of the bay get too cold, Mr. Dunne heads over to the East Hampton YMCA to swim laps at the indoor pool there.
“I’ve beaten myself up over the course of my life,” he said. “This is one exercise I can do.”
This year, Mr. Dunne’s South Ferry Channel swim took place on September 24, and he admits that after making a slight tide miscalculation, he had to deal with a strong incoming flow during the return portion of the trip. He had to change course and swim almost due east,but made the round trip without any interference from boats.
Mr. Dunne is primarily a free style swimmer. While he noted that when he was in his 50s, his crossing times seemed to improve from year to year, “now in my 60s, it’s going the other way. This time because of the current, it took me a little bit longer — 27 minutes — to do it.”
After more than three decades of working for South Ferry, once a year Mr. Dunne looks forward to getting a new perspective on things.
“It’s nice to get across a different way,” he said.
