Swimming the Hudson River: It's a thing, but avoid the dead rats, other water hazards.

The Hudson River sparkled from the lights of New York City's skyline when a group of open water swimmers first arrived at Pier 25 on a recent morning. The sun was barely peeking through the clouds and fog when they boarded a motor boat, the Melissa Marie, which would accompany the four swimmers as they circumnavigated Manhattan.

Just over eight hours and nearly 29 miles later, the proud and pruney relay team crossed the finish line, a tall wooden piling on a dock just off Battery Park.

“We thought we were gonna have high winds and bad weather, but it just got better and better,” said Derek Yach, a cancer survivor who initiated the swim as a fundraiser for cancer treatment equipment in Kenya. Seeing the sights of Manhattan from the water, he said, is “just spectacular.”

While most New Yorkers might shudder at the thought of swimming in the waterways surrounding the city, these swimmers are part of a growing group advocating for increased access to the harbor, buoyed in part by improved water quality and, perhaps, nerve.