Ryan and I swam this evening. Rob was off somewhere in the Catalina Channel swimming support for a friend who was attempting his second crossing. It was warn and sunny at Avila. I measured a water temperature of 65, which went along with the large number of people who were still playing in the water. I saw a couple of seals from the pier but no organized flocks of birds. I met Gerry Gross back at the beach. He had finished his swim and was heading home. He said that he had had to wait an hour to get in because of the intensity of the feeding activity that was taking place over near the Poly Pier. Not only was there a huge flock of birds and large numbers of seals and dolphins feeding on bait fish but also several whales were near the Poly Pier about 200m from shore! While we were talking the birds had returned to feed. Gerry said that feeding had been occurring in cycles for several hours in that area so Ryan Na I decided to stay on the east side of the pier where it looked nice and lonely. We swam out to the end of the Avila Pier and angled left to the last buoy. From there we swam parallel to the beach down to Fossil Point, reversed our course and returned along the buoy line to the Avila Pier and came in . We were in the water for 42 minutes and covered about 1-1/4 miles. The water was very comfortable with some very warm spots and one "cold" spot that must have been in the low 60's :). Hey, a sudden 3 or 4 degree drop in the water temperature is still a surprise. Kelp is piling up on the beach and there is a lot of loose pieces in the water, making kind'a trashy swimming conditions. Lot's of tings to hit with your hands and get tangled on your goggles. Yuckie, but the water is so comfortable I can't complain.
For any of you who have not heard Dave VanMouwerik successfully completed a trans-Tahoe crossing on Sunday. He swam the long way, from south to north, a distance of 21.2 miles in 13:51. The water temperature was in the mid 60's. He is the 19th person to have completed this swim. He started at 3AM and finished at 4:44PM. The water became so rough in the afternoon that his paddle boarder could not stay in the water and it took Dave 2 hours to complete the final mile. The dock where he was to land had been closed due to the severe conditions and they had to reopen it to allowed his boat to dock!
Let's all give Dave a huge ATT'A BOY! for a amazing accomplishment.
niel
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