Rob and I did a extra swim Tuesday evening. At 6 PM we swam from Avila Beach to Olde Port Beach which is west of Avila towards the port. The occasion was the annual meeting on the beach of a trade group that he belongs to and Rob wanted to make a special entrance from the water. I came along to accompany him and to rack a minor personal first as I have ever been swimming on the West side of the Poly Pier. We started out along the east side of the Avila Pier to the end and turned right towards the second set of cross bracing on the Poly Pier. I didn't get a temperature before we got in but the water felt warm, about 63 to 65 degrees. There was a slight wind and small chop from the East which I didn't notice once we turned towards the Poly Pier. Rob and I both towed our rescue cans behind us as we were going to be on our own on this swim. From the Poly Pier we angled towards the middle of Olde Port Beach. There was a large group of pelicans working a ball of bait fish out among the moored boats off of the beach and we wanted to stay well clear of them. We had watched them while we were leaving a car at Olde Port before driving back to Avila and we never saw any seals or dolphins and it seemed safer without them. We swam parallel to the beach for about about 100m before we came abreast of Rob's friends. He made his entrance and we walked to my car on the bluff and drove to Avila. I dropped Rob at his truck and he headed back to the party. We had covered 2200m in 34 minutes including stops for photos and reconnaissance. Rob is swimming support for a friend's Catalina Channel crossing Wednesday and again on Sunday for a crossing from Anacapa. I'll be at Avila tonight and on Sunday.
niel
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