Thursday, August 5, 2010

Wednesday Evening, August 4, 2010



Wednesday was just another beautiful summer evening at Avila. While it is hot and probably humid anywhere east of Bakersfield, at 5 PM in Avila it was sunny and t-shirt and shorts comfortable, with just a bank of fog on the surface of the water way out there. There was some small chop on the water but the wind was dying and the surface was laying down. The water temperature was 60. The water has gotten more cloudy lately, but it is not yet close to being the brown plankton laden soup of summers past. The predator report consisted of 8 fishermen on the pier and two pelicans that were occasionally diving on a snack. Just before we got in a small pod of dolphins cruised down the buoy line on the left of the pier, we saw one seal head while swimming and after dinner Kris and I watched an otter play in the surf straight off of the steps where we gather. Swimmers were Niel, Lynne, Joel and Rob. We went out parallel to the pier on the left side, around the end, to the last buoy at the creek and retraced our route back to the beach. The water had completely flattened out and at 60 degrees felt wonderfully relaxing. I felt stronger the longer I swam and put in a push along the length of the pier coming back in. We were in for 40 minutes.

Everyone should keep thoughts of flat and warm seas in their mind this weekend for Dave Van Mouwerk, who will attempt the 12 mile swim from Anacapa Island to the mainland.


niel




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