What a day at the beach. I do not believe that I have ever seen Avila as crowded as it was today. Beautiful hot weather in March, spring break and a large high tide at 10:30 made for a small beach and a lot of people.
Swimming conditions were nice. The water was 55 degrees with a strong east to west chop and current. There was a long period swell that would produce head high sets once in a while. We did two swims today. John Hampsey and Amy swam parallel to the beach, starting out on the left side of the pier, swimming east (right on the map) to Fossil Point, returning and crossing under the pier (in that swell they must have timed it well!), continuing most of the way along the beach towards the creek and returned, again crossing under the pier. Their swim was probably just over a mile. Niel, Duke, Sam and Katie swam over to the Poly Pier, to the end of the Avila Pier, then to where the buoy line would end on the east side if the buoys were out, and returned to the pier. The leg from the Poly Pier to the Avila Pier was some extra work being directly into the current and chop. The next leg was more technical, as the chop and current were coming across us, but we did have a nice push on the last leg. We covered about a mile and a half. Duke, Sam and Niel all had gps tracks of this swim. We meet up at the turning points but do not swim as a pack. The total length of the plots varied by over a tenth of a mile so there was enough difference in our navigation to add up to an extra 160 meters for someone. I'm not sharing who had the biggest number! One of the first things that I remember learning about ocean swimming is that the easiest way to get faster is to learn how to swim straight.
The next swim is Wednesday evening, 3/19, at the same location. In the water at 5:30.
niel
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