60 degree water this evening, sunny and a stiff breeze out of the WSW so there was a 12" chop that was just breaking over. Getting in the water were Rob, Niel, John Siegel, Mark, Marie and Andy. Andy drove up from Orcutt (did I get that right) to try out swimming at Avila Beach. While this was her first time with us she has a number of open water events, including several Alcatraz escapes, in her resume. Our route was determined by two concerns. In the map the wind and chop was coming from the lower left to the upper right and the County's Monday water quality sample from the West (left in the map) side of the pier was not good, so we avoided that side of the pier and did something different swimming an out and back course that stayed on the east side of the pier and gave us some variation with the direction of the wind and chop. I had some technical difficulties with my GPS (a combination of fat fingers and brain fade) and only have a trace for the second half of the swim, so you should double the numbers on the plot to 1691 M and 41 minutes. Marie stayed on the buoy line. John and Mark headed in from the end of the pier, leaving Rob and I to double back along our route. The leg towards the end of the pier was into the wind and chop and was a good bit of work, but I liked it. I wasn't swallowing much water and enjoyed having to push. Swimming back with the current and waves was actually less fun. There was something about the way the following seas were lifting, pushing and twisting me that made it more difficult to get into a rhythm. Maybe I was just in the mood to be banging my head against a wall.
Thanks to Rob for translating and posting the articles about Dave's swim. He has posted a post swim report on http://thesiljandiary.wordpress.com/
niel
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