Eating the Sand

 Last Swim:  6 a.m. Tuesday

Next Swims:  Likely 6 a.m. Wednesday.  For the next few months, any weekday will be game for a 6 a.m. swim, especially if flat water is forecast.

Evening swims:  Not sure if these are at 5, 5:30 or 6 - post in the comments section if you would like to go at this time. (by time, I mean Evening as opposed to Morning.)

Saturday and Sunday noon; 8 a.m. and noon

Water temp: 54 degrees F "but feels colder" per Lydia the Tattooed Lady 

Air temp: About the same, intense sun

Kru & Gear: Lydia the Tattooed Lady (full wetsuit), Showgirl (sleeveless + sleeves), Dragonfly (sleeveless + sleeves) Moondaug (full wetsuit) 

Waves:  Just not flat - leftover action from yesterday's giant waves

Water:  Almost completely opaque and quite stinky in patches

The city shimmered in the sunrise, and the harbor was glass.  So often the early promise as viewed when driving over the Hoan is not delivered at Klode cove, where a bit of swell churned in from the northwest.  Yet the air was perfectly still, a bonus, with the plume from the Milorganite plant going straight up.

It appeared they expanded the fenced off perimeter around the sinkhole at Big Bay. This 70-foot deep Bad Boy was caused by a failing 90-year old Whitefish Bay sewer and officials don't want anyone near it.  More photos can be seen on The Milwaukee Journal Facebook page.

This brought back the memories for TTL, who recalled a sinkhole on North Avenue some years back that swallowed a car.  The escaping driver was so freaked out, they left the car running....and it ran for hours, til it ran out of gas.  Makes sense to me.  Priorities.

There was nothing technically wrong with today's swim....despite some swell from the NE, it was fairly flat.  I was planning on about 1,600 yards, i.e. turning at Mudslide (about 800 yards), but somehow TTL, Showgirl and myself all met up there and decided to press on to the Cute Chairs "near those white sticks" said Showgirl.  "Otherwise known as birch trees?" asked TTL. The Chairs (which I have yet to actually see this year) are about 1,000 yards from Klode.

"To bad choices," said TTL, and we pressed on.  I knew this was not the right call for me since I was already cold.  Then we engaged with further chitchat at the Chairs (or 1,023  yards by my watch.)

"There's a xxxx by mudslide," said Showgirl.

"Oh yeah," said TTL.

"It's weird," they agreed.

It wasn't til we were back ashore that I realized they were saying not "it's weird" but "it's DEER" - they saw two deer bounding about mudslide.

I knew I was in for the desperate struggle, so I shoved off homeward.  Unfortunately ended up taking a wide detoour inshore, getting washed up so far on the beach that I was eating the sand (position 4, below.)  I had a bit of energy towards the end, but my hands were starting to claw with the cold.

I checked last year's blog - both air and water averaged 8-10 degrees warmer last year!  I am definitely blaming the cold for why "struggle" is fa feature of my swim descriptions so often this year.