Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Inaugural Flat Rock Swim

Last Swim:  6 a.m. Wednesday

Next Swims:  In general, M-F 6AM and 5?/5:30?/6? PM.  Sat/Sun 8AM and noon

If you want to swim at a different time, post a comment, and maybe someone will respond.

Water temp: 56F  per Lydia the Tattooed Lady 
Air temp: 70?  by the time we suited up, I was breaking a sweat
Kru: Lydia the Tattooed Lady, , Showgirl, Lt. MJ, Hurricane-FON, Fin-Fyn (swimming SKIN!) 
Waves:  Rollers out of the south
Water:  100% cloudy

Beach Air: a bad combo of seagull poop and dead gobies

The view north, which is not where we swam.  
(photo credit TTL)



The beach air was smelly and warm-ish, and the waves were gently out of the south.

There was hemming and hawing about a north vs. south.  South, we decided. South.  Then a last minute discussion ensued regarding the vast amounts of e-coli that are being released into the lake due to the Great WFB Sinkhole Debacle of 2024.  Still we went south.

We gathered up at the sewer pipe.  After brief chit-chat we decided to  swim a bit farther and go to flat rock.  (a bit farther meaning about 500+ yards.)

After a cozy stand-up on a rock that was definitely NOT flat, we spotted the genuine Flat Rock, and finally arrived on it.  

My watch had 1288 yards if you want to find this amazing landmark (watermark?) yourself.  

Flat Rock is currently covered in slippery green stuff, so only Fin-Fyn was brave enough to stand up.

And speaking of Fin-Fyn.... she swam skin, which is pretty badass. Everyone else was in varying degrees of neoprene.

After a bit of lollygagging, we got back in the water and swam back to the smelly beach.

8 comments:

Kahuna said...

I agree with the other commentator. Lake temperatures were averaging a good deal warmer as of this time last year. Current temp conditions also see odd, given the articles I was seeing this spring saying Lake Michigan water temps were at or near a long-time high, due to a warm winter and spring. See: https://www.mlive.com/weather/2024/05/great-lakes-water-temperatures-running-near-all-time-highs.html.

Weird too how uniform lake temperatures are overall on the "in color" Lake Michigan temp map. No real warm bands at all yet anywhere.

Maybe some thermocline needs to get established, before we start experiencing a bit warmer water temps?

Also, when is King Triton swimming in the evenings during the week? 5? 5:30? 6:00?

jamie said...

looks like a second wave of dead gobies are fast approaching.....drat! first wave is hitting prime ripeness with the tandem black flies to boot....double drat.
thinking 5:30 for pm swims, I'm still in spring mode so no pm swims just yet but very soon.
water 54 today so i imagine turnout will be low.

Bikes matter said...

So when is Itch going to be allowed to be an official blog poster (asking for the sea witch)?

Kahuna said...

I'm for reading posts from King Triton. I think that's a tweek/permission that the administrator of the blog needs to make, and that's either Capt'n, or Capt'n and the Patriarch.

How bad are the gobies? Do we want to organize/declare a "beach clean up" event, where (the willing) come to the beach with garden rakes and shovels, and rake up and bury the dead?

Serious Athlete said...

Anyone goin for 8 tomorrow? I suppose I intend to find out how bad the gobies are

Lieutenant MJ said...

No visual evidence of gobies (for me anyway) this morning. But there was definitely olfactory evidence...of something...

Kahuna said...

Cause of the smell? Anybody checked to see if Ricky Raccoon has disenterred himself on Southbeach, or been disenterred by something or someone? Zombie Raccoon on the rampage? "He's coming for your garbage, AND YOUR BRAINS!"

Serious Athlete said...

Whoof. There were definitely smells and definitely many a dead gobie washing ashore