Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

50 Degrees! The last two days of wind had caused the water temperature to drop to an even 50 degrees on Sunday. The air was clear but cool and the wind was picking up and showing signs of strengthening as the day went on. Some chop was starting to build up but so far there were no white caps in the bay. We had Sylvia, Niel, Brittany, Chad, Duke and Dale on the beach. Rick Marina took a break from his rid to chat. Dale watched our stuff. We did four different swims. Sylvia, who has Alcatraz coming up, went in without a wetsuit and swam her own workout. Chad, Brittany, Niel and Duke swam the left side of the buoy line at which point Brittany went in. We swam under the pier to the buoy at the creek. The chop was building up and making us work hard. At this point Chad headed back along the buoy line while Niel and Duke swam over to the Poly Pier. That leg into the chop was a lot of work. From the Poly Pier we came directly back to the buoy line at the Avila Pier, occasionally getting to surf the bigger waves in the chop, under the pier and in. Duke and I were in the water 50 minutes and swam about 1.5 miles.

Next weekend is Memorial Day Weekend. We will swim on Sunday as usual. We will also swim on Monday at 11 and have a pot luck lunch afterwards. Swim long and earn that first piece of cherry pie.

The Martini Swim - We will be doing the Martini route on Sunday, June 27th. This is a 2.4 mile swim. The route is out along the Avila Pier, from the end of the pier to the end of the Poly Pier, from there to Avila Rock, (this leg in itself is .93 of a mile), from there back to the end of the Avila Pier and in. The route is in the shape of a Martini glass, hence the name. We will have kayak support. Rob, Niel and Duke will be going and anyone else who is comfortable at this distance is welcome. If you have not done this distance before I would recommend that you first try 2-1/2 or 3 laps of the buoy line. Since this swim is a circular route route it does not offer any good 'bail out' options. For those that do not care to go long you can group up and do any of the shorter swims


niel