Saturday, August 7th, 2021

 Tom's Route With Fog

I was planning on swimming Tom's usual route today but at 9 o'clock found Avila Beach to be a very small hole in a bank of fog. Tom's route is out to the end of the Avila Pier with possibly some buoy line thrown in, from the end of the Avila Pier to the end of the CP Pier, in along the CP Pier to the second crossbars and back out to the end of the pier, then back to the end of the Avila Pier and in, again adding some buoy line if desired. Without the buoy line this route is 4000 M. With the buoy line on the in and back it is closer to 5000 M. There was blue sky above but horizontal visibility was limited. While taking the water temperature I could see an anchored boat near the end of the Cal Poly Pier but I couldn't see the end of the pier itself. The air temperature was 59° and the water temperature was up to 58°. The sea was nice and flat.

I met Jodi and Phea, her friend who is accompanying her on her training swims on a SUP and got a swim report from her. She and Leslie had swum earlier. They thought that the water was colder but Jodi did fine. She is planning on swimming a single Martini lap tomorrow and thinks she is ready for her 10K. I hope that the fog clears early for her tomorrow.

The fog had not cleared when I got in so I swam to the end of the Avila Pier to see what kind of plan I could come up with.  I couldn't see anything of the Cal Poly Pier, so I thought about alternate routes. I've swum between all points and in all directions between these two piers and have a good sense of where I am so I lined myself up with where the end of the CP Pier would be, checked the direction of the swell and the position of the sun over my left shoulder and started out. I kept fading right as this would have me run into the CP Pier by default instead of the Port San Luis Pier which would be another 1200M.  When the pier came into view I was lined up with the third crossbars so I turned left and swam to the end of the pier. After my in and out along the pier the conditions had not improved so I lined myself up with the swell at my back and the sun on my right shoulder and headed for the Avila Pier. I kept the swell on my butt and faded to the left and when I saw the end of the Avila Pier I just needed a kink to the right to hit the end of the pier. My shoulders were feeling really good today. I would not have attempted this swim in these conditions if I didn't feel like I had plenty of reserve to do a longer swim than I had planned.   

The poor visibility made this a risky swim and it should not to be attempted by anyone who is not very familiar with the territory and the water conditions. That and that I also have many years experience navigating in open water made me feel comfortable doing this swim. However, even thought I was confident that I would not get lost, I was still putting myself out in open water in poor visibility. An encounter with a boat in today's conditions would have been extremely serious. 

Duke and I will be getting in at 11 tomorrow and look forward to a swim report from Jodi.

niel