Avila Beach was performing at it's best Wednesday evening. The Central Coast's typical summer marine layer had reestablished itself during the day and all of the west facing beaches were fogged in. But Avila Beach is one of our few beaches that faces south, so at 4:30 it was bright and sunny, sitting in a big hole in the fog that was wrapped all the way from the hills behind Port San Luis, out and around all of the way to Shell Beach. There was a light breeze out of the West, enough to put a ripple on the water and set up a right to left current along the beach. The water temperature was 62, continuing our summer of yo-yoing temperatures. the water was 53 degrees last Sunday and 61 on Wednesday of last week. In truth, compared to the beaches south of Pt. Conception where summer water temperatures will edge into the 70's, the water here is always cold, but 62 has a lot less cold in it than 53. I saw no seals, there were no fishermen on the pier and I saw only a dozen pelicans, who were disorganized and only occasionally diving on a fish. It was Rob, Pete and I tonight. We decided to do a long buoy line swim; out at the pier and left, continuing past the last buoy all of the way to Fossil Point. Then reversing all of the way back along the buoy line, under the pier to the last buoy at the creek, then back along the buoys, under the pier a second time and in to the beach. Our total time, with stops to regroup and enjoy the view, was 48 minutes.. The distance was 1.25 miles. When we were picking up our towels and getting ready to head to the showers we noticed a huge bait ball about 3/4 of a mile straight off of the beach with 100's of birds diving on bait fish. I'm glad this was after we got out, because I prefer to not be in the water when everything else in the vicinity is either eating or being eaten.
niel
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