A Beautiful Day for a Swim at Avila Beach and a Bit of Drama -
At 10:30 it was 60° in Avila Beach and there was a wall of fog that started at the boardwalk and hid the buoy line. There was a slight SE wind and swell. The water temperature was 57°. David Cheney and I would swim while his wife Alex would play in the waves.
I wanted to do another 4K swim and David wanted to go a bit shorter so we took my three triangles route and David would come in before I did.
Niel and David
The fog began to clear when we were suiting up and we swam in sunshine. The swimming conditions were glassy until noon when the regular west wind came up and pushed up a small SW swell.
While swimming the west on the west buoy line we encounter a swimmer in trouble. A man was hanging onto the third buoy and was a picture of exhaustion. His arms were wrapped around the buoy and his head was down on his arm. He was wearing a wetsuit but no goggles or cap. David spoke to him and he waved us off. Neither of us liked the idea of dealing with a panicked swimmer so we continued to the 4th buoy and watched him from there. We could not see the #2 lifeguard tower well enough to know what the guard was doing. The guy left the buoy and headed for shore, swimming hard for about 50M and then stopping to tread water. We watched him do this five times until he reached shallow water and then we continued our swim.
On the third lap David went in from the end of the pier and I completed the third triangle.
This coming week I'll will swim on Thursday and Saturday at 7 and on Sunday at 11.
niel