Saturday, August 1st, 2026

All Foggy, Half Sharky - 

Paula, Jodi and Niel at the Avila Pier

Paula, Jodi and Niel got in the water a bit after 7. The swimming conditions were excellent; the air temp was 55°, the water temp was 62°!, there was thick overcast with visibility of 1/4 to 1/2 mile, no wind, 2 to 3 foot surf and a one foot SW swell. There are four of the wildlife/shark warning signs between the stairs we take down to the beach and the showers. Two of them were folded up (no warning) and two were unfolded, showing the 'Beware of Wildlife' warning. So I guess that it was a half sharky day.  

We decided that the appropriate level of caution given a half sharky warning was to not swim to the end of the Poly Pier, which makes no sense but what are you going to do? Our route took us around the reef buoy, to the end of the Avila Pier, to the third crossbars on the Poly Pier, in along the pier to the second crossbars, stayed to the right of the kelp beds and the otters at the base of the Poly Pier, came in to the buoy line and at the pier decided to add a bit more by swimming around the pier before getting out.

There was no sun when we got out so we hurried through our showers and headed off to the rest of our days. 

This coming week I'm planning on swimming at 7 on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

niel