Thursday, April 13th, 2023

A Record I'd Rather Not Have Earned - 

As predicted, it has been windy. Tom and I were expecting that the water temperature today would be lower by a couple of degrees but what we got was a 4.5° drop in two days. Ouch! 

I recorded 52.7° on Tuesday and 8.5°C/47.3°F today. 

Otherwise, Avila was its usual beautiful spring self. At 7:15 the air temp was 42°. It was sunny with a few scattered high clouds and no wind. There was a lumpy swell out of the SW that was producing both a shore break and second break further out.  

I wasn't sure what to think as I was swimming out. I was much colder than on Tuesday but I couldn't tell how long the shock would last. I went ahead with the swim I had planned and would see if I decided to cut it short.  My route was the buoy line, to the second crossbars on the CPP, to the end of the Avila Pier, to the third crossbars (quite a belly in that leg), out to the end of the CPP and back to the end of the Avila Pier. My bail out point was the first pass at the end of the Avila Pier. At that point I was feeling evened out so I continued back to the CPP.  Once I was at the end of the CPP my feet had gone from numb to aching so I wasn't sure that pushing on had been the best of ideas but I had to swim back. 

 

At the end of the Avila Pier for the second time. 

An attempted smile by a person who's feet hurt and fingers don't work. 

Tom's Thursday swim report: it is under 50 again… My feet and teeth are telling me 47, 48. Regardless, the water is cold again!  The balmy 52 didn't last long… 5° drop in two days. Air temperature was 59 when I got in at 9:45. The combo of low tide and a bit of a swell was exposing the full length of Avila Rock. Interesting to see. All in all, a beautiful day at Avila. 

I'll be back Saturday morning at 7. 

niel