Sunday, February 23, 2020

February at Avila Beach has turned around and we are now enjoying the best of the best; seasonal water temperatures in the mid 50's, as opposed to the basement 50's, and unseasonably clear, warm and dry weather. Just don't mention the drought word.

Swimming today were Niel, Heidi, Duke, Tom, Phil, Teresa, Hillary and Dave with a special non-swimming visit from Chad Iiano, former Avila Dolphin and his 3 year old son, having come over from the valley to visit the beach.

 The plan today was to swim to the end of the pier, to the reef buoy on the east side of the pier, back to the end of the pier, to the 'buoy' at the mouth of the creek, back to the end of the pier and in.  The water temperature was 55.5 off of the pier. Heidi had 54 -55 in the water. There wasn't much surf but a steady wind had been blowing far offshore. There was no wind in Avila but we had a one foot wind chop out of the SW that would make each leg of our route today a different experience. 

This plot is what can happen when you fiddle with the GPS settings on 

your Garmin watch and select 1-second intervals instead of AUTO. 

Tom, Heidi, Teresa, Dave and Phil

Tom, Duke, Phil, Teresa and Hillary at the end of the Avila Pier for the first time.  

A overview of the water conditions: along the pier, bumpy but not too bad; to the reef buoy, a nice push; reef buoy to the end of the pier, directly into the chop, work but not messy; end of pier to the creek, across the chop but some help from the current. Got slapped around; creek to the end of the pier, the worst, across the chop and into the current.

Probably Teresa, Phil, Hillary, Tom and Duke at the reef buoy.

At this point Heidi, Tom and Duke peeled off and headed for home while the rest continued back to the end of the Avila Pier. 

Phil, Heidi, Hillary and Dave at the creek 'buoy'. Heidi had had come parallel to the beach from the reef buoy, under the pier and met up with us.

I got 1.3 miles but I'm not too sure with all of the wiggles in my plot. 

niel