Saturday, September 5th, 2020

Teresa, Niel, Brittany and Leslie swam today and had absolutely great swimming conditions;

It was sunny and warm on the beach with clear skies. There was just a bit of ripple on the water's surface from a light breeze. A big surprise was that the water jhad both warmed up and gotten very clear with no redi tide to be found anywhere. The water temperature was 15.5°C/59.9°F and you could almost see the bottom when we were at the buoy line.

There were a lot of seabirds rafting up on the ocean. They were not feeding but they were moving around so we changed our route twice to avoid them. While the birds weren't feeding, which would make things more sharky, they do poop while sitting on the water and swimming where they have recently been is like licking the bottom of a birdcage. Definitely a experience to be avoided. 

We planned to do the up and back along the buoy line and out around the pier route. Our first change was on our first trip along the east buoy line. We stopped short at the 3rd buoy to avoid a large raft of birds. The second time was when we had come back along the west buoy line and were headed out along the pier and found the birds rafted up at the end of the pier, so we turned and swam the east buoy line. 

In spite of the detours we had a wonderful swim and saw dolphins. 

Teresa and Leslie wading into warm and clear water. 

Brittany getting in.

All of us at the 4th buoy on the west side just before we saw the dolphins. 

                             

Taken from the 4th buoy on the west side. There was a pod of dolphins moving east towards the CP Pier and I managed to catch this one in the center of the frame.

Brittany had gotten out early and was watching us form the beach. When we got out she told me that there were two or three dolphins just on my left as I was turning around the first buoy to come in, but I was breathing on my right and never saw them.

Swimming with the seabirds today I began remembering The Birds, the Alfred Hitchcock horror movie with this famous phone booth scene. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D15HPy4x73g&ab_channel=Movieclips

The movie was shot in Bodega Bay.

Birds or no birds, I'm swimming tomorrow at 9AM.

niel