Liverpool man-about-town Sean “Josey” Wells wanted to be the first person to swim across Onondaga Lake since 1940. He’s been talking about it since the ice melted in April.
When the 40-year-old finally got the opportunity to make the mile-long swim, however, he fell short less than halfway across.
With the sun shining and a strong easterly wind kicking up at about 5 p.m. Monday, July 16, Wells jumped into the lake from a small motorboat. The vessel was piloted by Onondaga Yacht Club member Bill Pease, who agreed to accompany Wells across the lake as a safety precaution.
After approximately 25 minutes of front crawl, breast strokes, butterflies and back-floats, Wells called out, requesting a rest at the motorboat’s aft.
Pease immediately called off the attempt. He’d noticed that Wells, as he tried to reach the lake’s western shore, had begun to struggle against the two-foot waves.
“When the skipper says, ‘It’s over,’ it’s over,” said Wells, a U.S. Navy vet and a 1994 Liverpool High School graduate. “I failed. It’s no excuse, but the water was choppy and the wind was in my face.”
July 16 just wasn’t Josey’s day.
An ambitious dredging program was completed late last year by Honeywell International, Inc.
In April, the Upstate Freshwater Institute declared the lake clean enough to open a public beach. The Onondaga County Department of Water Environmental Protection specifically pointed to the lake’s northern shores as the location of the safest swimming.
Six months earlier, the state Department of Environmental Conservation had issued a similarly positive report on the lake’s water quality.
Honeywell is continuing to “cap” or cover over 425 acres of less-contaminated lake bottom with a sand mixture.
“We’ll also continue habitat restoration through 2016,” said John McAuliffe, Honeywell’s Syracuse program director. “More than 110 species of fish, birds, and mammals have already returned to restored wetlands and nearby areas.”
Shortly after his attempt, he learned that another local man, Yacht Club member Lee Hidy, swam across the lake back in 1987. He was monitored by Pease and former Syracuse University crew coach Bill Sanford as he splashed his way from the Yacht Club to a point on the western shore from which he could access the State Fairgrounds. Hidy, who lives in Camillus, was participating in a benefit fund-raiser for the Arthritis Foundation taking place at the fairgrounds.
Swimming in the infamously polluted water had been banned since 1940, but Pease said much of the lake had cleaned itself up about three decades ago. “The north end of the lake, near the Seneca River, has been swimmable for 30 years,” he said. “The south end, near the city of Syracuse, is still pretty polluted.”
In any case, Wells hopes to try again. “Summer’s not over,” he said.
He plans to join a group of celebrities and politicians who plan to swim off a boat near Willow Bay, sometime after 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 22. Organized by Believe in Syracuse advocate Paul Colabufo, the July 22 event will celebrate the recent cleanup of the lake.
It is still illegal to enter the lake via land because there’s no “beach,” per se, located anywhere on its perimeter. That’s why Wells went in via boat, as will the swimmers who dive in July 22.
Before his swim, Wells had checked in with Deputy John O’Neil, who represents the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Navigation Team. O’Neil confirmed that swimming is permitted as long as the swimmer does not enter the lake directly from the shore.
Wells thinks a windless day might help him make it all the way across.
“Maybe I can find a time when the lake is really calm,” he said. “That would make the swimming much easier.”
