Sunday, June 26, 2011

It was sunny, calm and comfortably warm at Avila this morning. The water was almost as clear as last Wednesday and a more seasonable 55.5 degrees. Sylvia and Yvonne went out early and were still swimming when the 11:00 group started. Swimming at 11 were Niel, Rob, Duke, Jerry, Kamber (who was a regular with us last summer and is back), Berto (a tir buddy of Duke's and his first time with us), Dale, Amy (who is a local triathlete but new to us) and her brother Bill, who was visiting from LA and is is also a triathlete. The plan was to do 1+ laps of the triangle route which would allow people to do the distance of their choice. Avila put on a great show for us by having a pod of gray dolphins met us as we swam out to the buoy line. They came within about 10m of our group and swam back and forth along the buoy line as we were working our way down to the last buoy on the left of the pier. We continued to the top of the Avila Pier, on to the buoy at the creek and from there back to the pier. At this point everyone headed in except for Niel, Rob and Bill who decided to go a additional 1/2 lap. We swam back to the last buoy on the left of the pier, to the top of the Avila Pier and in along the west side of the pier to the beach. The main group did about 1-1/4 miles, while the long route was 2800m, about 1-3/4 miles. I had us in the water for 64 minutes, but we spent a lot of of time reforming the group at the turning points.

Rob and I are going to swim Wednesday evening at 5:30. Next Sunday, the 3rd, Rob will be in Monterrey and I will be in Eureka. I wont be back until the 6th but Rob will be back for the 4th. Somebody should organize a Fourth-of-July swim and pot luck.

niel