Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Rob and I met up at the beach at about 5:15.  There was enough of a breeze out of the NW to put a chop on the water but no white caps.  The water temperature was 59.  AS we were getting ready Dave VanMouwerik stopped by to say hi.  We started talking about the channel swimming season, the recent successful attempts and failures, and wound up talking right through our swim window.  I was great to get caught up. 

I'll be in San Diego this Sunday and Rob has another (his last of this season) assist on a channel crossing attempt so he is a maybe for out swim on Sunday.   Conditions should be nice  so you all should show up and get in.  If I'm lucky there will be time for me to get in the water at Mission Beach on Sunday.

There is a concert at the Avila Resort at 5PM next Wednesday, 10/3.  The last time this occurred the traffic was horrible for those of us just trying to get to the beach to swim so rob and I are going to give next week's Wednesday evening swim a pass.

niel

Sunday, September 23, 2012

We had a nice crowd at the beach today; Chad, Duke, Ruta, Ed, Sylvia, Yvonne, Loren, Amy, Dale, John, Niel and Lee.  Rob's was feeling used up by his recent adventures and was going to nap on the beach.  We also had Beth and Allison with us on their kayaks.  There was a slight breeze from left to right, a small chop and a water temperature of 58.5 degrees.  A small pod of dolphins was working along the buoy line while we were getting ready but we did not see them once we got in.  With a group of this size and with some new swimmers we decided to start simply and make it up from there.  We went out and down the buoy line to the left and regrouped at the end.  Everybody was happy so we decided to head to the end of the pier.  Allison hung with Sylvia and Yvonne and Beth stayed with the main group.  At the end of the pier Dale and Loren headed in along the pier while the rest of us went to the end of the buoy line at the creek.  The water from the creek was much warmer making the top foot very comfortable.  We came back, under the pier and to the first buoy on the left where we had started.  We were in the water for 42 minutes.

niel

Wednesday Evening, September 19, 2012

It was just Andrew and I this evening.  Andrew has swum with us before but lives and swims in the bay area. Work brought him to the Central Coast so he dropped in.  It was warm at Avila Beach, warmer than in San Luis Obispo, with a very slight offshore breeze.  The water was flat, calm, empty and 62 degrees.  It was also kind'a green and cloudy.   We did a big triangle counter clockwise; starting out to the buoy line and down to the creek, to the end of the Avila Pier, from there we swam to Fossil Point before coming back parallel to the beach until we picked up the east end of the buoys.  We continued along the buoys to the pier and came in.  We were in the water for 52 minutes and swam about 1-1/2 miles. 

niel

Sunday, September 15, 2012

Avila Beach was a surprise this morning with dense fog hanging over the water.  It was dead calm and the water was almost perfectly flat and 59 degrees.  From the beach the buoy line would come in and out of view as the fog shifted.  The fog was thinning but still coming and going  when Sylvia, Yvonne and Haley got in about 10:45.  This was Haley's first time with us.  She lives in Santa Barbara and was in town visiting family.  They swam left (east) along the buoy line and came back and went under the pier to swim the line on the west  side. The fog was thinning at 11:15 when Rick, Dale and I got in.  We took the same route and swam to the last buoy on the left.  When we stopped at the end of the line the sun was out and Avila Beach was sitting in a huge hole in the fog.  It was beautiful with bright sunshine and perfect swimming conditions.  We decided to do the triangle route and headed to the end of the pier.  On the leg from the end of the pier to the creek we picked up a following swell.  A breeze out of the east had come up so the last leg along the buoys back to the pier was into a small chop.  
We were in the water for a total of 34 minutes and covered about a mile.

niel

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Avila Beach Was Dirty So We Played At The Pismo Pier

Monday's water quality sample for the west side of the Avila Pier was really bad for enteococcus and fecal coliforms , http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/health/publichealth/ehs/beach.htm,  so we decided to play in the surf at the Pismo Pier instead of swimming at Avila Beach.  The County retested at Avila on Tuesday and the numbers were back below the red zone but the new results were not posted on Wednesday by the time we made the call to switch venues.  Rob, Allison Danilu and I just messed around in the mushy surf having fun in the water.  Danilu had her surfboard and Rob, Allison and I shared Rob's two boogie boards.  It was fun to just mess around in the water with no real goal or plan.

Rob has a mount on his boogie board for his GoPro camera got some really cool shots. 

Sunday, September 9, 2012

We had 10 swimmers today; Sylvia, Niel, Monte, Jennifer, Dale, Amy, Duke, Dave, John and Gerry.   The water was flat and 59 degrees.  There was an occasional 3' wave and very little wind.  While I was taking the water temperature there was a small pod of dolphins along the east end of the buoy line, but they moved off by the time I got back to the beach.  There were a lot of sail boats maneuvering off of the end of the pier, a race forming up, so we decided to not argue about right of way issues with them and stayed to the buoy line.  We swam the the ease end of the line and then continued straight on to just off of the rocks of Fossil Point.  We returned back to the buoys and along the line to the pier, under the pier and to the last buoy at the creek.  Then back to the pier, under, to our starting point and in to the beach.  This was a 1.5 mile swim.  With all of the regrouping, visiting and joking (the water was very pleasant) I had us in the water for a total of 52 minutes. 

niel

Wednesday Evening, September 5, 2012

Kind'a strange conditions due to a tropical storm to the south; scattered clouds, cool or warm depending if the sun was out, humid, a steady breeze blowing from left to right and the water had the liquid metal look it gets when it is bright but cloudy, greenish and shinny.  The water temperature was 60 degrees, sort of.  There was a pod of 5 or so dolphins swimming back and forth between the buoy line and the shore on the left side of the pier.  Rob and I decided to stay on the other side just to avoid and territorial misunderstandings.  We did half of the large triangle, swimming out along the length of the pier to the end, then to the end of the buoy line at the creek and back to the pier.  The water temperature played some serious games with us.  It felt real warm until we reached the buoy line, where the temp. dropped 5+ degrees.  About 200 M short of the buoy at the creek the temperature shot back up and the water tasted more fresh and metallic.  There was another cold spot in the middle of the buoy line just to keep us guessing.  

niel

     

Monday, September 3rd, 2012 Labor Day

This was not the last swim of the summer for us!

We had a nice crowd today and conditions that were a lot like yesterday.  the water was 1 degree warmer at 57.5, still nice and clean but with a wind chop out of the SW.  The surf was larger, with sets of 3 to 4 foot waves.  Swimming today were Niel, Rob, Dale, Sylvia, Susan and her friend Marta, Bonnie and Duke!  Allison was paddling her kayak and Danilu was with us on her SUP.  There were a lot of people fishing from the pier so we decided to begin like yesterday; out to the buoy line and down to its' left end, where we would decide what to do further.  Sylvia and Bonnie decided to head to the end of the pier while the rest of the group went back along the buoy line.  Danilu and Allison stayed with the largest group.  At the pier Duke and Rob went in while Niel, Dale, Susan and Marta swam to the west end of the buoys at the creek.  When we regrouped at the creek Allison headed for the end of the pier to pick up Sylvia and Bonnie while Danilu accompanied us back along the buoys.  We stopped short of the pier and came in.  
While we were setting up the pot luck Al McVey and Duane and Linda Leib dropped by.  Duane has not been swimming with us since a shoulder injury that he is still dealing with.

We will see Wednesday evening if the water warms up even more.......

niel

Sunday, September 2, 2012

We had 11 swimmers today.  It was overcast, cool and calm while we were getting ready.  The water temperature had fallen to 56.5, which is over 10 degrees below what it was last Wednesday evening and but only a bit below normal for this time of year.  Nobody was too excited about getting in after all of the warm water we had enjoyed in August.  We decided to go down the buoy line to the left end, see how people were feeling and plan the rest of the route from there.  At the buoy Sylvia, Bonnie, Rick, John and Dale decided to swim back along the buoy line while Niel, Rob, Brad, Bo and Amy headed towards the end of the pier.  Allison was accompanying the group and went with the group that went to the end of the pier.  Before we got in the water there had been a very slight breeze out of the east which was now changing to a strengthening wind from the SW, so those of us heading to the end of the pier were working directly into an increasing chop and current.  While we were regrouping at the end of the pier swimmers were drifting east at a pretty good pace.  We continued to the last buoy on the west side of the pier near the mouth of the creek where we met up with John who had swum the length of the buoy line.  We swam back along the buoys, passing Sylvia and Bonnie where heading west to the creek, under the pier and to the buoy on the east side where we had started.  Rob and I came in while Brad, Amy, Bo and John continued to the last buoy on the east side before returning to the pier.  I was swimming for 44 minutes.

Hey, what happened to the 11th swimmer?  After we were back on the beach, Jerry Gross returned form his run and then swam the buoy line for 30+ minutes on his own. 

We will swim tomorrow at 11 with a pot luck lunch afterwards.

niel 

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

This was the best swimming day of the year.

Rob and I scored huge on the conditions Wednesday evening; the water was 67 degrees (I had to check it twice to be sure), the ocean was flat and windless with no swell, the water was amazingly clear (when I was taking the water temperature I could see the bottom under the pier) and empty of critters except for a few gulls.  I did a toe test and it felt so nice that I decided to go without my wetsuit for the first time in a year.  Allison was along to paddle with us.   We swam the buoy line, starting left and then back under the pier to the creek and back to where we got in.  The top 18" of water didn't have any 'bite' to it, so my legs and chest were comfortable, but with each stroke my hands would pull up some deeper water that was a more normal temperature.  Maybe if I had switched to breast stroke I could have stayed completely in the toasty layer.  There were also some spots where the temperature dropped but they weren't large.  Rob wasn't real happy with the increased visibility, he doesn't want to know what is down there, but it was strange and fun for me to be able to see the bottom moving along under us all of the way out at the buoy line.  I was in for 28 minutes and got a little cold after I got out, I'm such a clod water wimp, but this was a rare and special opportunity to experience conditions like this at Avila Beach.  I'll have to try and remember this if we see some sub 50 degree water temperatures this winter.



Byron was sitting on the beach when I came back from taking the temperature, so we got to visit with him both before and after we swam.  He experienced a bad bike crash on the 17-Mile Drive in Carmel about a week ago.  He still looks pretty rough but a lot better than the day after photo.  He came up on a car that had parked in the bike lane (to take pictures of some deer) and with traffic on his left, forest on the right and not enough space to stop he hit the pavement rather than the back of the car.  Besides the abrasions to his back, arms, hands and chest he experienced some serious injuries to his face, exposing his jaw.  He was treated in the ER in Monterrey by an excellent plastic surgeon and looks like he will have a complete recovery.  
I'm sure that he would enjoy hearing from those of you who know him.  
We will have to add him to the Injured Reserve list along with Duke and set up a special spot for the walking wounded. 

niel

Sunday, August 26, 2012

It was sort of eerie at Avila when I got there a little after 10 this morning.  Everything was still; there was no wind, the ocean was completely flat, the 'waves' would not have come up to your knee, there were not many people on the beach and there was not a bird, seal. dolphin, whale, otter or any other sea creature to be seen.  I actually checked my watch to see if I had somehow managed to arrive several hours early.  I got a water temperature of 59.  The water was extremely clear and clean looking.  From the pier I saw Allison on her kayak and spoke to her briefly.  She had had a group of seals following her but they had taken off to find someone else to play with.   Rob, Susan and Yvonne were already on the beach and were followed by Sylvia, Ronnie (who found us on the net and is doing an Alcatraz swim in a couple of weeks), Amy and her friend John who is new to swimming in the ocean and Gerry Gross.  Rob was not going to swim. He had crewed a successful Anacapa Island to Oxnard crossing Saturday and worn out.  Joining him on the beach were Dale and Al McVay  and Rick and Rhonda.  With two swimmers who were both new to us and ocean swimming I decided that a route up and down the buoy line would be best so if anyone became uncomfortable the beach was only a short swim away.  Everyone did fine and enjoyed themselves.  We had people swimming a lot of different speeds and so group became stretched out but Allison did a great job of working back and forth along the line, keeping track of everyone and lending navigating assistance as required.  The water was especially clear for Avila Beach,  which was even more unusual because the visibility is typically better in the winter when there is less plankton.  While swimming under the pier I could clearly see the base of the pilings in the sand and count the shells on the bottom.  

We will swim Wednesday evening at 5:30, Sunday at 11 and also MONDAY, LABOR DAY at 11.  After  Monday's swim there will be a pot luck lunch.

niel

Wednesday Evening, August 22, 2012

In the water this evening were Rob, John, Niel and about 10,000 sooty shearwaters.  While we were getting ready and talking about where to swim the birds showed up and began feeding on a concentration of bait fish that was about a mile offshore.  We walked down to the water and stood there trying to determine if and where the bait ball was moving towards so we could be somewhere else and if we wanted to go ahead and get in.   The birds didn't come any closer to shore but did move east and west.  After about 20 minutes of watching we decided to do a short swim on the west side of the pier.   The water temperature was 60 degrees and much cleaner than last Sunday with a slight breeze from the east, so the conditions were inviting, we just didn't want to find ourselves too close to the feeding frenzy.  We got started, swam under the pier and headed west staying farther inside the buoy line towards shore than usual.  We stopped frequently to keep an eye on the location of the birds.  The water temperature went way up as entered the outflow from the creek near the last buoy.   It was so warm that swimming out of it on the way back felt like I was just getting in.  We crossed back under the pier and just hung out in the water for a while, it was so comfortable bobbing around in the swell.  By the time that we had dried off the birds had dispersed.  There were whales around Avila earlier in the day but they were not to be seen this evening.  

niel

Sunday, August 19, 2012

It was sunny and warm in and out of the water today.   The water was 60 degrees and much cleaner looking than it has been recently.  There were almost no sea birds to be seen, only one seal cruising the shore break and no sign of the bait fish we saw on last Wednesday evening.   Swimming today were Monte, Jennifer, Rick, Niel, Rob, Amy, Adrian and Gerry.  This was Adrian's first time swimming with us.  We did the triangle route clockwise and kept well away from the pier today, as there were a lot of fishermen with lines in the water.  There was only a slight breeze so the water was flat except for near the end of the pier where we were more exposed to a small swell from the SW.  With both 60 degree water and plenty of sunshine it was very comfortable out there today.  After we were back on the beach I could see a series of large splashes in the water that were probably 2 miles +/- off shore.  Even with my binoculars I could not tell what was making motor home size fountains in the water but it had to be either whales breaching, or a Russian submarines......  I wish that they had been just a bit closer.

Rob and I will be swimming Wednesday evening at 5:30. 

niel

Wednesday Evening, August 15, 2012

It was sunny with a slight offshore breeze.  The water was 59 degrees and has become cloudy with plankton.  There were a few pelicans diving on the east side of the pier but there was no organized feeding going on.  There were 2 or 3 Humpback whales in pretty close, between the Avila Rock and the buoy line.  Rob's friend Cliff was going to join us.  Cliff has multiple channel crossings (Catalina 2X, English Channel once) and was interested in seeing what swimming is like here.  Dave had come by to relax on the beach so he and Cliff had lots of channel swim stuff to talk about.  We decided to go in on the east side of the pier, cross under, do the west half of the triangle and decide if we wanted more when we were at the end of the pier.  Allison would accompany us in her kayak.  When we grouped up at the end of the pier Allison pointed out a whale that was close by, off of the end of the pier.  This is the first time I have seen a whale while swimming!  We decided to head in towards the middle of the buoy line on the east side, swinging wide to avoid the fishing lines from the pier.  While we were drying off a large flock of birds came around the end of the pier from the west.  they just kept coming and began feeding on some bait fish near the buoy line.  The birds just kept arriving until this was the largest bait boil I have seen, covering almost the length of the buoy line and from the buoys in to the sand.  I could see a dozen or more seals and a whale working the fringes of the bait ball.  We were able to walk down to the water and pick up small fish, 4" or 5" long (sardines, smelt?) that were being washed up on the shore.  People were lining the railing along Front Street to watch the spectacle.  I'm very glad that we were already out of the water. 
I'll be back on Sunday.  Rob will be in Long Beach for the Naples Island Swim this weekend.

Cliff's wife, Cliff, Rob, Allison and Niel just before the birds arrived.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

58 degrees, not much wind and whales!

Swimming today were Rob 2, Sylvia, Yvonne, Rick, Amy and Dale.  On the beach soaking up the sun were Niel, Rob, Dave and Gerry.  Allison and Beth were out kayaking and  accompanied the swimmers.  The group did the triangle going clockwise.  It is a good thing they had the kayaks along because a couple of jet skis came way too close at high speed. Where's a harpoon when you need one? The whales showed up about 3/4 of the way towards 

Avila Rock when the group was getting in the water.  There were perhaps 3 of them and they were working slowly to the west.  You could easily see their spouts and backs when they surfaced.  45 minutes later when the group was getting out of the water the whales were off of the end of the Avila Pier.  Allison and Beth went out and were able to get a close view.

We will be swimming Wednesday evening at 5:30.

niel