Saturday, October 20th, 2023

 

More Sun, Less Surf and Happy Swimmers

Jodi, Paula and Niel at the 2nd crossbars on the Poly Pier

 

Thursday's fog and big, messy surf were gone today. At 6:45 it was 50° and clear in Avila Beach with a nice sunrise coming up over Fossil Point. There were some 4'  sets but they didn't halve the power of Thursday's surf and were well spaced out.  Between the sets were periods of 2 to 3' waves. The water temperature was +/- 57°

 

Swimming this morning were Paula, Niel and Jodi. We went out to the first buoy on the east side of the pier, crossed under the pier and swam to the second crossbars on the Poly Pier. Then we did a loop to the end of the Poly Pier, to the end of the Avila Pier, to the 4th buoy on the east side and back along the buoy line to our starting point.  Paula went in from the end of the Avila Pier. There was a long period swell with a decent lift during the entire swim. Between the ends of the Poly and Avila Piers there was a push coming from the beach.  Since there was no offshore wind this was really strange. It was strong enough to push us to the right (offshore) on the way to the Avila Pier.

Somebody forgot to start my watch for me so I have no plot of today's swim. From experience this route is about 3,200M.

I'll swim tomorrow at 11.

Gear Report -  Orca Safety Buoy

I really like this buoy. It has a double screw cap on the bladder which makes inflation and deflation really easy. It also set up to hold a hydration bladder. There is a mesh pocket on the back with a Velcro closure. The pocket has an opening at the bottom for the hose and two elastic loops along the side of the float to hold the hose. I'm not sure I'll use the pocket for a bladder but it is handy. Paula found a tennis ball in the water at the end of the Poly Pier so I had a handy place to stash it. My only issue is that the fittings on the belt seem to be a bit flimsy. Similar to most floats the Orca has an adjustable flat nylon strap that come off of the float and and attaches to the waist belt. The Orca uses a   

to attach the line from the float toe the belt.  Theirs is not as sturdy as the one in the image. 

On Tuesday the slider broke as I was coming in through the regular sized surf. I still had the belt and my camera and thermometer, I picked up the float on the beach and now run the belt through the loop of the strap from the buoy with no plastic fastener.  The float seems to be very well made so Orca may have had calm swimming in mind with this design.    

niel