Glad Somebody’s Doing It

Report Re:  7/20/25 noon swim.

Upcoming Swims:  See below "typical" schedule.

Kru:  Good sized Kru this noon, including Sandy (Beach Name “Sandy”), Bobber, Brick, Itch, Super Herra, Luna, We’Tack, Fin Fin, Katie (first timer?), Jason, Lauren, Kahuna, others (my apologies if I missed your name, please add in comments). 

Water:  One degree less than 70.  Tan to brownish near shore, bright blue out there.  Waves 1 to 3.  A moderate current from the North.     

Air Temp and Weather:  Partly cloudy, breezy from the East.

Typical Weekly Swim Schedule:  The Typical Schedule for group swims is M-F 6 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.;  Sat. & Sun.  8 a.m. and noon.  All swims (unless otherwise expressly indicated are at Klode Beach (WFB).  Check blog comments, for additional "impromptu" group swims, or changes to the schedule.)     

You Are Reading This, and You Have Never Gone for an Open Water Swim with the Lake Michigan Swimmers Before, But You Are "Kru Curious"  

Folks who are interested in open water swimming in Lake Michigan are always welcome to come swim with us.  To see the answers to frequently asked questions about swimming with us, scroll down past the pictures in the rignt hand column, and click on "Kru FAQ's." If your question is not answered at that webpage entry, put your question in the comments, and a member of the Kru will probably reply to your question shortly.    

Bloggers & Commenters Welcome:  If you swim, please consider posting a blog piece, or at least a comment, regarding your swim/experience, especially when you swam, and what the temperature and water condition was (that's very helpful to others who may be contemplating a swim

What’s the Spawn ‘O Kahuna Up to These Days?

If you are interested in the above question, read on; if not you can skip the rest.

Some of you remember my youngest son Gus (a/k/a “SonAKahuna v2.0”), pictured below. 

Above, Gus looking at me with his usual pre-swim expression of “I not only intend to swim faster than you Dad, I intend to crush your soul out there.” 

Gus is currently living out East, working on a Ph.D in microbiology, but he was in town briefly this week, to ship out on the R/V Lake Guardian, the EPA’s largest research vessel on the Great Lakes.  At 180’ long, it is the well-stocked floating lab for Great Lakes research. 

Gus has sailed and done research on the Lake Guardian a couple of times, and I asked him what the Ship’s and his mission was this time on their approximately 10-day voyage around Lake Michigan.  Here’s what he told me:

This voyage is monitoring the health of the water column and the benthos (lake floor) in Lake Michigan.  It is run by the EPA, which is responsible for monitoring the health of the Great Lakes.  Since the boat is already out and about, they invite other researchers on who are studying the Great Lakes.  On this cruise, there are teams from the EPA, NOAA, Buffalo State, Wright State University, UW-Milwaukee, and Cornell.  I am studying how the density of zebra mussels changes bacteria in the sediment (under the mussels), on the mussels themselves, and in the water column above the mussels.  The density has big impacts on the metabolism of bacteria, which affects the availability of nutrients like carbon and nitrogen, which trickles up to larger organisms like plankton, the fish that eat this plankton, and the humans who use Lake Michigan for drinking water (or open water swimming).  The main purpose of this survey, from the EPA perspective, is to map zebra mussels’ coverage of the lake and their impact on the health of other life that lives on and relies on the lake floor for food and habitat and assess the health of the sediments/lake floor.

Gus gave SheWhoMustNotBeNamed and me a tour of the ship, while it was in port on Thursday, to re-stock.  Built, in 1980 as a research vessel, it’s no luxurious “Carnival Cruise Ship,” but it is a pretty impressive thing, to see all of the equipment and labs on the ship.  Below are some of the pictures I took on the ship. 

Above, proof that Gus actually is one.

                                         

Above, lots of Lake Michigan water samples to be processed, and Gus showed us how they store some of the micro-organisms collected in a container cooled by liquid nitrogen, cooled to about -321°F.

Above, the big heavy robotic scientific thing that they lower over the side, that goes down to the bottom of the Lake, and collects the samples.

Gus showing SWMNBN a screen on the Lake Guardian, showing some of the recent data they’ve collected about temperature, turbidity, and a bunch of other stuff.

Above, Gus and a colleague working on collecting samples at the stern of the Lake Guardian.

Above, Gus and SWMNBN near the bow of the Lake Guardian.

But What about SonAKahuna v1.0?  

How about the other spear-side "Spawn ‘O Kahuna"?  Is SonAKahuna v1.0 doing any important aquatic research these days?  Well, maybe.  He completed hiking the CDT yesterday, so to celebrate, he stopped by the Sip ‘n Dip Lounge, a tiki bar in Great Falls, Montana.  Once ranked by GQ Magazine as one of its “top ten bars in the world,” patrons get to enjoy a drink at the bar, while watching local mermaids swim in the huge glass tanks behind the bar.  Who knew?