Tuesday, July 25th, 2023

 At the reef buoy. 

Unusual water conditions this morning, There was no wind, the water was clean, 60° and looked pretty flat but there was a sneaky swell out of the SE, similar to what we get in the winter when a storm is building.  At 7 it was like a small chop with a very short period but a lot more push than a wind chop. It built up as I swam getting larger but keeping the same short period, so it was more difficult to swim in. Near the end of my swim it got easer because the swell had grown in size to the point where I was starting to ride up and over it instead of getting slapped around. I could still feel the push of each swell. 

The warm water was nice so I did a third triangle, which took almost 2 hours of swimming and is my time limit if I don't bring some nutrition along.  At the end I felt like I was still swimming well but my brain was getting grumpy, a sure sign for me that I'm running out of fuel.

I'll be back Thursday at 7. I think I'll bring a bottle to tow along and see if I do better at this distance with some fuel during the swim.

To tow a bottle during a swim I use an Ultimate Direction bike bottle, an old one that has a large ring cast into the cap. I thread one end of a piece of ski rope through the ring and the other end around the nylon belt I wear to hold my camera and thermometer. The rope is about 6' long so the bottle is back there past my feet and I barley notice it.

If I'm staying along the buoy line I can use this rig with a snap to tether a couple of 32 oz. bottles to one of the swim zone buoys and tank up every time I pass by.  

    

niel