Sunday, November 28, 2010

Except for the chill in the wind, and the easy parking, this could of been a summer day at Avila Beach. There was a mild offshore wind, very few clouds and no animals of any kind in or above the water. The air temperature was about 60 and, the water was 55 degrees, very clear and was only rippled by the wind with no chop or whitecaps. Nothing much to speak of in the way of surf either. It was just Rob and myself today. Neither of us wanted to commit to a distance so we opted for a route that would provide several bail out or double back opportunities. We swam what I'll call the big right triangle. Our route actually had four legs but who said swimmers were good at counting? We swam out to the buoy line, turned right and went under the pier and down to the last buoy at the creek. We could of doubled back but the water felt good so we continued from there over to the crossbars that are about 1/3 of the way out along the Poly Pier. We could of doubled back from there but decided to head to the end of the Avila Pier. At this point we declined going over to the sea wall or the last buoy and came in along the length of the pier. During the legs to and from the Poly Pier we had the experience of suddenly swimming out over what seemed to be very deep water. It was actually just us swimming into the shadow from a small cloud moving across the sun and shifting the water color from bright to deep blue. The water around her is not usually clear enough to get that kind of a sense of depth. Our total swim was about 1.3 miles and took us 40 minutes, including idling at the stops to regroup and to let Rob grab some photos. (Check out robaquatics.com). Out of the wind up next to the seawall it was t-shirt and shorts comfortable so I hung around and had lunch. Duke stopped by on the tail end of his bike ride. We got caught up on stuff and we should expect him back in the water in January.

Speaking of which, we will be having a New Years Day swim on Saturday, the 1st (duh?) at noon. The route will be determined by the conditions. No wetsuits encouraged. There will be a pot luck lunch afterwards. Last year the weather was beautiful and the water was 59 degrees. This year, who knows?

niel