Wednesday Evening, May 2, 2012

Warm and Bumpy -
At 5 o'clock the wind that had been blowing all day had not yet laid down so the water at Avila was  choppy, just short of forming whitecaps and had a strong current running west to east along the beach.  The water temperature was 56 degrees.  The wind was out of the SE, pushing the water onto the beach, and it was just before high tide, so this may be why the water temperature was up.  It was just John and I this evening.  We decided to swim the triangle counterclockwise, starting on the west side of the pier, which would be about a mile.  Getting in was easier and the water was much more comfortable so my water temperature reading must have been accurate.  Swimming counterclockwise had us going into the chop and current on the way to the creek, across it while swimming towards the end of the pier, with it following us on the third leg and back into the chop and the setting sun on the last leg back to the pier.  The largest waves were big enough to break over my head no matter which direction we were going so I was always trying some breathing or timing changes to minimize my sea water intake. We finished in 34 minutes, which is about 5 minutes longer than normal for this route so the chop and current must have taken more than it gave back.  


niel