Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Eyes on the Sky

Next Swim:  I'm not sure I can make tonight (Wed7/18 6PM), but if you are coming please comment so others know they will have company.
There will be a swim at 6AM tomorrow morning (Thurs 7/19)

Last Swims: Tue 6AM, Wed 6AM
Water Temp: 68
Waves: Calm Tuesday morning, very choppy 2 footers Wed morning
Water Clarity:  Very good Tuesday, Wednesday all stirred up from the storm
Tue Crew: Diablo, Kahuna, Nivens McTwist, Brain, Steve, Tony, Jason, Stephan, Gigi, Bob, Patriarch
Wed AM Crew: Ele, Mama Ele, Cap'n, Diablo, Gumdrop, Showgirl, Flipper, Stephan, Patriarch

When I arrived on the beach last night for the 6PM swim a big front had just blown through.  Air temperatures dropped from 102 to 79 in a half hour.  We could see a thunderstorm over the lake to the north and the bay was full of whitecaps.  Some of the crew was there: Jack Frost, Cap'n, Dave, Not Dave's wife, but we decided to play safe and not swim.

When we returned in the morning the water was quite rough, but nothing we haven't dealt with before, and despite the forecast for possible thunderstorms,  radar showed none in the area.  Most of us did a short swim to garage and back, which was plenty tough in the rough water.  When we got out, to our surprise it started to rain and we could hear thunder in the distance.  Flipper and Stephan were still in the water, but they didn't hear the thunder over the crash of waves.

Luckily the thunderstorm kept it's distance, but this morning was a reminder that sometimes thunderstorms can pop up out of nowhere, so keep your eyes on the sky if there's any threat.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

hi. nice site. i am going to be in town for a wedding and i was hoping to get an open swim in on sunday morning.

any advice to someone unfamiliar with the area on where to go? i'm just looking for something simple (400m to train for my first sprint tri the following weekend).

thanks in advance! - kim

Ben Speed said...

Kim, we always swim out of Klode Beach in Whitefish Bay. It has a parking lot and the walk down to the beach is easy. The shoreline north of the rock piles is sand, so access in and out is easy. Check the blog on Friday, as the Captain and or Patriarch post times for weekend swims. Have a good a swim.