Wednesday Evening, July13, 2011

It was another warm Wednesday, our fourth in a row when the water temperature was warmer on Wednesday evening than it was on the previous Sunday. This evening the water was an even 60 degrees. Not quite the 65 or 67 of previous Wednesday evenings but still warmer than the 58 we had on Sunday. There was a big change in the conditions this evening as there was a stiff wind blowing out of the SW. The chop was a short foot in height and white-capping all of the way inside of the buoy lines. The only predators in sight were about 3 dozen fishermen on the pier. They were regularly pulling in silver fish about a foot long, possibly smelt. (What do you say Al ?) There were no pelicans, other sea birds or seals to be seen. It was Ryan and I swimming this evening. Given the number of fishing lines that the wind was trailing out far to the east of the pier we decided to go out on the west (towards the port) side. I was thinking of doing a box shaped route; swimming the length of the Avila Pier and then going over to the mid-point of the Poly Pier, back towards shore along the Poly Pier to our usual meeting point at the second set of cross bracing and from there to the creek buoy, along the buoy line to the Avila Pier. When Ryan and I met up at the end of the Avila Pier we found ourselves bobbing around in some pretty rough conditions. The leg to the Poly Pier would be almost directly into the chop and if the wind freshened any amount my original route could become more of an adventure swim than we were looking for. So, we decided to head to Fossil Point and come back along the buoy line. The swim with a following wind and chop was fun, with a couple of chances to surf down the face of a small wave. The leg back to the pier was a good workout with steady water breaking over your head. I found that breathing on alternate sides worked best. I was swallowing the same amount of water no matter which side I breathed on and breathing every third stroke meant fewer opportunities to take on water. This swim was about 1.25 miles and we were in the water for 38 minutes.

niel