Sunday, November 25, 2012

Avila Beach was sunny, calm and warm this morning.  There had been some pretty good sized swells lining up when we arrived but they were laying down as we got ready.  The water temperature was 56.  Niel, Rob and John were swimming today.  Kris would accompany us in her kayak.  Rick, Dale and Sylvia were happy to enjoy our Californian winter weather soaking up the sun on the beach.  I was feeling kind'a creaky from too much driving for the holiday so I was interested in doing some distance to stretch me out.  Rob, as usual, was interested in just about anything.  John was going to swim the buoy line.  So, Rob and I went out to Avila Rock and back.  This is a 1.5 mile swim.  The water felt warmer once we got outside of the surf zone and the swimming conditions we great.  When we were close to the rock we slid through a gap in the kelp and swam up close the the rock before turning back.  The swell was coming back up  but we did not really notice it while swimming.  John swam the length of the buoy line and got out 5 minutes before we did.  With our stops along the way Rob and I were in the water for 52 minutes.
The weather this coming week could be very wet so Sunday's swim may be canceled.  Keep an eye on the group e-mail for updates.

niel

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Swimming was rained out today.  Too much uncertainty abut how the storm flows coming out of the creek would degrade the water quality at Avila. 
There is a big group planning on joining rob for a Black Friday swim at Lopez Lake.  Distances will be up to 6K. to join in contact Rob at Google Groups CentralCoastOpenWater or  https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/centralcoastopenwater/aXbY3f0KgjU
There will be no deck entries.

niel

Sunday, November 11, 2012

At Avila today it was sunny, very clear and as long as you stayed out of the breeze, warm. There was a light offshore breeze that had a nip to it that would get your attention.  The water was clean and empty except for one or two pelicans, a small pod of dolphins and one seal.  The water temperature was 55.5 degrees, 3 degrees lower than the reading over at the port.   We had seven swimmers and two paddlers today; Allison and Kris were out in their kayaks with Duke, Casey, Lee, Sylvia, Rob, Amy and Niel swimming.  We agreed to head out to the first buoy on the left of the pier, turn left and to make up our route as we went along.  We wound up doing what could be called the Big Triangle; we swam the last buoy in the line and continued to Fossil Point.  From there we swam to the end of the Poly Pier.  Amy turned in along the pier and the rest of us continued to the end of the buoy line at the creek.  We swam back along the line, under the pier and in to the beach.  As we left the end of the pier the breeze had turned in to a wind that was coming directly off of the shore and pushing up a small close chop which required a bit of extra work on the swim to the creek and turned out to be surprisingly troublesome to swim across on the way back to the pier.   The complete route was about 1.5 miles and we were in the water for 51 minutes.
After the swim it was nice and warm up against the wall, in the sun and out of the wind.  

niel