Tuesday, November 3, 2020

It was nice and quiet in Avila Beach this morning. It was cooler with a bit more high overcast and larger waves than on Sunday but the water was still 58 degrees an nice and clear.  I saw Theresa. She had goetten in early in order to make a 9 o'clock meeting so I was by myself. There was a huge raft of sea birds between the ends of the Avila and Cal Poly Piers that the wind was pushing towards the buoy line on the west side of the Avila Pier. I decided to not swim in bird poo and did two laps of the buoys on the east side of the pier.      

Can you spot what is missing from the beach?

The lifeguard towers have been dragged back to their winter locations, 

so we are swimming on our own until next summer.  

Got my mile+ in and ready to head to the beach.

I have a 7:15 AM ZOOM meeting on Thursday but will make it to the beach to swim at 9:00 

niel

 

Sunday, November 1, 2020

 

Sunday was an exceptionally beautiful day at Avila Beach. It was comfortably warm, clear and calm. The water was 58 degrees and very clear. 

That is my thermometer float on the surface and you 

can see the growth on the piling 4 to 6 feet.

Niel. Hillary, Maria and Leslie got in at 9:30 and were joined later by Theresa and Brittany.

My plan was to stick to the buoy line and do a mile. Leslie went directly to the end of the pier. Hillary and Maria swam with me to the last buoy on east of the pier and then headed to the end of the Avila Pier. They went from there over to the third crossbars on the CP Pier where Theresa caught up with them.  They swam to the second crossbars and back to the end of the Avila Pier.  

Hillary at the first buoy

Maria at the first buoy

Niel at the first buoy with Leslie's cap in the background.

Hillary relaxing at the 4th buoy on the east side of the pier.

Hillary's Photos and video link:

https://youtu.be/CCakCQTygg8

Duke stopped by. Besides some impressive scars he seems to be doing well.  It was good to talk with him. 

 

Theresa, Grace and a friend swam from Avila to Pismo yesterday! That is 10k, so they deserve a big hand. The conditions were great and they had a good time, finishing in a bit over 3 hours. 

I'll hope to have photos soon.

I'll swim at 9 on Tuesday and Thursday this week but I'm going to swim earlier on the weekends. Maybe 20% of the crowd on Front Street were wearing masks or acting safely today. I can't be part of that kind of crowd. I'll post what my weekend plans are.

niel    

Saturday, October 31, 2020

 Niel's back and the swimming is wonderful!

It was beautiful at Avila this morning at 9:30. It was sunny with a slight offshore breeze. You can always tell if the wind is offshore because when it is you can smell the hot grease from the Custom House on the beach. The water was flat and glassy with one seal cruising the surfline but no sign of any whales.  I measured a water temperature of 57 degrees from the pier.  

Swimming this morning were Hillary, Brittany and Niel.

I've been out of the water for 5 weeks, 3 with pneumonia and then two traveling, so this was an exploratory swim for me. I planned to go down and back along the left half of the buoy line and be happy if that felt good. Brittany and Hillary did a triangle, Brittany dropped off and Hillary went around a second time.   

  

Brittany, Hillary and Niel getting in. 

Hillary and her flotilla heading off down the buoy line. 

Niel and Brittany at the start

Brittany and Hillary at the last buoy. We split up here, I went back to the start and they headed to the end of the Avila Pier on the second leg of the triangle.

Hillary's 5 minute video with a nice underwater segment is at  https://youtu.be/JaWSXkz2-mw

Hillary's photos:

 

I'll be back tomorrow morning at 9:30.

niel

Saturday, October 24, 2020

 By Hillary:

Grace and Teresa had an early start and were already on the way to the Poly pier when I jumped in. Leslie jumped in just after me. We all did our own thing with Leslie and I finding each other at the end of the swim at bouy 2. Leslie though she was going to get eaten by a shar... er, lifeguard. And we waved at our new swimmer whose name now escapes me (he didn't jump in today), but he is 88 and just got a new neoprene swim cap.

Flat and glassy water, my watch measured 59°F, but it felt colder with the overcast skies. East of the pier the water was a bit brown. West of the pier the water was clear, but the creek mouth smelled like not-ocean. 

There was a whale hanging out with a massive bait ball about 1,000 yards off the piers.

We all met up at the showers, none of us with hot water. 

Here is the video: https://youtu.be/74GpGwtSA5k  

Saturday, October 10, 2020

From Hillary

 

thursday, October 1, 2020

 I'm going to be out of the water for a while. In the meantime we'll start with this one by Leslie. 

Theresa and I had a wonderful long swim today that was marred by one absolutely disgusting event.    We were swimming out between the Avila and the cal poly pier and decided to check out all the cool boats out there, when we got to the first one, we smelled heavy raw sewage.  It was awful!! no way it wasn't from that boat and recently dumped, we were right there and saying how disgusting it was when the guy came out of the boat and looked sheepish according to Theresa..after the swim I drove to Harbor Patrol and reported it.  They said there probably wasn't much they can do after the fact, but they would go out there and have a discussion with him, if only to inform him that it is FREE to dump your tank there..

The boat is called the HONU and its from Sausalito.   If anyone runs across that guy feel free to let him have it.  I thought about taking our presidents advice and drinking a bottle of Chlorox or Lysol, but probably Pine Sol would taste better.  

I'll tell you our route, it was perfect conditions today, flat, warm, clear, sunny and no problems from the marine animals.    We also had a Duke sighting before we got in, its his first day back in the water since his arm injury and it was great to see him, he was swimming with Brittanys husband Chad.

We went out to the 4rth buoy at fossil point, to the end of Avila Pier, then over on the boat tour. the other 2 boats were fine, no smell and nice people on the 3rd who said hi to us.  Then we headed over to the creek buoy, back to first one, then back around the avila pier to 4th buoy at fossil point, from there we were feeling pretty good and the water was still flat and nice, so we did buoy sprints back to the pier and then took a warm down lap back to creek buoy and back under the pier to our home buoy and in.  No idea what kind of distance that was but we were in over an hour.  

Just wanted everyone to be aware of the moron out there.  

Leslie

Friday, September 25, 2020

Grace, Theresa and Leslie did a weird route because of the large surf. The surf was super high and it looked like we were swimming in rolling hills. We went to the end of the pier, to the creek buoy, and back to the first buoy. Back around the pier to the 4th buoy on Fossil Point then back to the first buoy and out and back around the pier. A three pier swim I guess. It was crazy out there today but clear and not too cold. 

I'm headed into SLO now for a tetanus shot.

Leslie  

Leslie says that she stepped on a piece of glass up near our chairs but she is too modest. I think that that looks like a puncture wound from a white sharks triangular tooth. I think that she fought off the big predator with her teeth and nails and doesn't want to worry the rest of us.

niel 

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Thick, low clouds but no fog made for fine swimming conditions today. The water was glassy and clear, there was no wind, nor birds or bait balls and no shark warnings. The water temperature was 58.5°F but felt like about 56 at the start and was comfortable after the first quarter mile. Niel, Hillary and Theresa decided to got out and left along the buoys, to the end of the Avila Pier and to then decide what looked interesting.  At the end of the Avila Pier we decided to go to the third set of cross bracing on the CP Pier. Once there we decided to swim to the end of that pier and from there liked the idea of swimming back along the length of the CP Pier to the second set of cross bracing and from there to the west buoy line and home.

A couple of other early morning swimmers at the west buoy line. 

You couldn't see the hills but navigation was not going to be a problem

The Cal Poly Pier.

You can just make out the three sets of cross bracing that we use as navigation points.

We never swim to the first set on the far right that is closest to 

the shore as it is rocky and kelpy over there. 

I don't recall ever swimming this exact route before. It has some nice long legs:

1,000M from the 4th buoy to the third cross bracing on the CP Pier.

Another 400M to the end of the pier.

700M back along the pier to the second set of cross bracing and 

650M from there to the Avila Pier.

I got so lost in my head thinking about my stroke that I ran into another buoy.

Niel, Theresa and Hillary's foltila at the 4th buoy.

The flotilla is a raft made from a yellow water noodle that holds her GoPro, 

two flags and a shark and flamingo hula dancers, 

an orange bladder with water and a yellow ducky bathtub toy 

that has a thermometer in its tummy.  

Theresa, Hillary's flotilla and Niel at the end of the Avila Pier. 

Hillary got these shots of Theresa under the end of the Avila Pier 

At the end of the CP Pier

Theresa and Hillary.

When we got back to the Avila Pier Hillary and Niel came in while Theresa adid a lap around the pier. 

I'll be swimming on Thursday morning at 9. 

niel