Thursday, September 17, 2009

Always Unpredictable

Next Swim:  6:30AM Friday Klode

Last night's swim:
Water temp: 71
Waves: 2-3 feet
Water Clarity:  Lots of gunk being pushed in to the beach, but a few meters out the water was cloudy with sand, but much more pleasant
Crew:  Gumdrop, Cap'n, Patriarch

We were looking forward to playing in the giant waves that he forecast predicted would be building throughout the day, but once again the forecast was wrong.  They were still big, but smaller than the morning.  But the warm (71) degree water made for a very comfortable swim.

This morning's swim:
Water temp: 68
Waves: 2-3 feet , rolling and regular
Water Clarity:  same as last night
Crew: Gabriel, Cap'n, Patriarch

We should have known something was wrong when we quickly and effortlessly reached the rock wall.  Even though it wasn't apparent from shore, there was a huge current pushing north, which we found out when we turned around.  After swimming what seemed like forever, I looked up to shore to see we had barely moved.  The trip back was serious work, and when we finally got back to shore we faced the next challenge.  With the water warmer than the air and the onshore breeze, we started shivering very quickly.  It helps to have lots of dry clothes at the ready. 

3 comments:

Kahuna said...

There is a Village Meeting regarding Atwater Beech tonight (Thursday) at the Shorewood Library or Village Hall starting at 6:30. I'm going to try to stop by. -- Sandie

JJ4 said...

Any Friday afternoon plans?
John J

Kahuna said...

I went to the lake meeting. Lots of interesting information about mussels, phosphorus levels, what lake weeds like, and the levels of e coli in one gram of gull grap (you don't want to know). I met Dr. Harvey Bootsma, with the Wisconsin Aquatic Technology & Environmental Research Institute at the Great Lakes WATER Institute, who told me, yes the buoy off of Atwater Beach does record water temperature, and there is a website that posts that data, it is just that most people don't know where to find the data! I told him several of us have looked for it. So send him an email, thank him for the work he is doing to study the lake so we can preserve it and improve it, and ask him to tell us where they hide the Atwater Beech water temperature data. His email address is: hbootsma@uwm.edu. -- Sandie