NORDLAND — A cool, clear and windless day set the stage for the 21st annual Mystery Bay Polar Bear Plunge, when about 130 people jumped off the dock into bone-chillingly cold water to celebrate the new year.
“I’m doing this so I can feel alive,” said Ray Nak of Port Townsend, who jumped in twice.
“If you jump in once, you might as well do it again.”
For many jumpers, such as Jefferson County Commissioner David Sullivan, once was enough.
Sullivan said that he had always wanted to take the plunge but had never gone through with it, and was then challenged by his friend, Veda Wilson, who also jumped for the first time.
In Port Angeles, some 100 recreational adventurers scampered into Port Angeles Harbor from Hollywood Beach on the first day of the year, while six jumped into the Strait of Juan de Fuca at Neah Bay and three ventured into the chilly water of Lake Pleasant near Forks.
At noon in Nordland, as a starter pistol went off, jumpers moved out onto the floating dock, portions of which sank about 6 inches under the weight of those gathered on it.
Organizer Tom Rose said the water temperature was about 42 degrees and the air temperature about 38 degrees.
Rose, who founded the event when he bought the Nordland Store 20 years ago, has participated every year except for the last two.
“It’s an incredible, indescribable feeling to jump in,” Rose said.
“You can’t describe it, and when you get out you feel that you are almost high.”
Michelle Moriarity of Chimacum was taking the plunge for the second time even though “when I hit the water last year it was a lot more shocking than I thought.”
Port Townsend Swim Team members Lizzie Krajewski and Madisyn Boyd, both 10, took the opportunity to hold up a sign advocating the reopening of the Mountain View Pool.
The city closed the pool, the only public pool in Port Townsend, on Nov. 14 with plans to reopen in a month, but extended the closure until after Jan. 1 because a circulation pump unexpectedly failed.
The plan now is to reopen on Monday, said Port Townsend City Councilwoman Catharine Robinson on Thursday.
It was Krajewski’s third New Year’s Day dip. She keeps coming back because “I like to be cold.”
The plunge was finished after about 20 minutes, although some stragglers took a last-minute or second dip after the crowd dispersed.
As in previous years, more spectators than jumpers attended, with about 170 people on hand to watch those taking the plunge — and commenting that the ones who got wet were either brave or crazy.
Christmas colors of red and green turned to chilled blue and fish-belly white Thursday as plungers scurried in and out, most three time, and came out with many invigorated and all of them cold. Very cold.
Participants in the 2015 edition of the Port Angeles Polar Bear Plunge said the air temperature was 26 degrees when they ran into the water although a nearby auto thermometer registered 33 degrees and Fairchild International Airport measured 36 degrees.
But that’s splitting hairs that stood on end in the cold. No one complained it wasn’t chilly enough.
“I was going to see if I could get our public health officer to declare the beach unsafe today,” joked Dr. Ed Hopfner, 82, a director of the Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County.
At times, the harbor has been declared off limits to swimmers due to pollution from sewage and runoff overflows into it after heavy rains.
The hospice will benefit from challenges some plungers issued to each other for monetary amounts, although the total of the contributions wase not immediately available.
Hopfner, possibly the oldest of those taking the plunge said he jumped into the water “to see if I could challenge my body to do something I don’t want to do.”
One man rushed in and out carrying a Seahawks flag, and one woman made her trips with walking poles.
Three spectators watched from the water in kayaks, and about 100 more people — all bundled up against the cold — looked on from the shore.
Possibly the youngest plunger was 6-year-old Jaycyn Greis, a student at Roosevelt School, who described his dip as simply “cold.”
Each received a certificate from this, the 27th New Year’s Day event, that said, “Congratulations. You just did the craziest thing you will do all year.”
Lake Pleasant
Lake Pleasant plunge organizer Carin Hirsch said, “I guess 23 degrees was a little too low. We had more watching than went into the water.”
Attendance at the Forks area dip one year reached as high as 31, Hirsch said.
“It gave me a lot of energy,” she said from her home after her swim.
“I’m putting all my Christmas stuff away.”
Neah Bay
June Williams, organizer of a plunge in Neah Bay, said six people — including a little boy — ran into the surf at Front Beach in Neah Bay.
That’s way down from the 20 who braved the cold water in 2014.
“A lot people are wintering in,” she said.
Williams, who started the event in 2001, had said that the only requirement was to go under so that participants get their hair wet.
The Neah Bay Polar Bear Club awarded certificates to plungers and afterward some enjoyed hot soup and games.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter James Casey contributed to this story.
