Sunday, December 13, 2015

This Sunday Avila Beach was gray and windy and I could feel the rain coming. The water was 57.5 degrees at the Avila Pier pier. The ocean was a mess; the smaller 2 -3 foot waves were coming out of the SE while the 3 - 4 foot waves were from the SW with a wind chop on top of it all.   

It was just after high tide and the surf and tide had pushed a lot of trash up onto the beach near the sea wall.  This is half of the plastic that I picked up just around where we sit. I would personally support a ban on detachable lids for disposable plastic bottles.  

It was just Tom and I today. Leslie thought that we looked very impressive getting in.

The bacteria count in the estuary and creek had been high on Thursday ( http://www.surfrider.org/blue-water-task-force/chapter/34 ) so I wanted to avoid swimming near the creek mouth.  To avoid the surfers Tom and I swam out along the west side of the pier to the end, then over to the lone buoy on the east side that is anchored on a reef and from there back to the beach. We covered .88 miles and gave ourselves credit for 1 mile + because of the conditions. 

 Simon says 'get in the water'.

Here we are at the end of the pier. 

Swimming out along the pier we were pushing into a lot of water and during the leg to the buoy I never did figure out which stroke and breathing scheme worked best with the conditions.

When Tom and I arrived at the buoy we meet up with a couple of locals who were hanging out having a very relaxed shell fish lunch. It wasn't easy to get their picture with the swell but that is two otters.

Tom and I doing out otter imitations.
We had the swell behind us on the way back to the beach so the last leg was the easiest and fastest. 

It started raining just as I got to my car. 

niel