The Best and Worst

Beach: Klode

Water Temp: 69

Waves: 2 feet, rolling no chop

Water Clarity: Still gunky right on shore, much nicer a short way out

Crew: Gabriel, Cap'n, Patriarch

Next swims: 4:30PM Monday, 6:30 AM Tuesday (this will be our 100th swim of the season!)

The worst part of swimming early this time of year is getting my sorry butt out of bed, down to the beach, and wading into cold gunky water. But once I get past the gunk comes the best part, warming up and swimming in clean water while the sun rises.

It appears that tomorrow morning will be our 100th swim of the season. Perhaps we can go out for a leisurely breakfast afterwards to celebrate. Oh, I forgot, some people have to work.

A little gunk, a lot of good water

Beach: Klode

Water temp: 69

Waves: 2-3 feet, very very choppy

Crew: Mike, Gabriel, Cap'n, Patriarch

Water Clarity:  Still gunky right on shore, but the "nice" water was much closer in than yesterday

Next swim: Monday 6:30AM

If there was only some way to avoid the gunk that is washed up in the first ten meters from shore.  At least the big dead rotting fish that was on the beach yesterday was gone today.  The only fishy things were us.  Once we waded through the gunk into the the nice water, we had a very pleasant swim, a good workout in the heavy chop.  A warm, sunny and almost perfect day.

Sludge Fest

Friday Afternoon:
Beach: Klode
Water temp: 73
Waves: Choppy 2-3ft from north
Water Clarity: Stirred up (cloudy turquoise blue)
Crew: The Patriarch, Robin, John, Capt'n

Saturday:
Beach: Klode
Water temp: 69
Waves: Choppy 2-4ft from the south
Water Clarity: Lots & lots of gunk (seaweeds) being pushed onto the beach
Crew: The Patriarch, Brad, John, Capt'n

Next swims: 11AM Sunday Klode

The near shore water at all 4 Klode beaches this afternoon was nearly as black as a cup of coffee. The result of thick globs of seaweeds being pushed ashore by the Lady of the Lake who appeared to be doing a little housekeeping this afternoon.

I would liken the experience to witnessing someone cleaning out the dust from their garage with a high powered leaf blower. If you got too close you were sure to get a face full of dust....get too close to the shore today and you risked getting splashed with a great big blob of sludge.

Just offshore, the Caribbean blue hue of the water temped us to swim out to it. The waves today were a bit bigger and more frequent then yesterday afternoon. An exciting swim adventure awaited us for sure.

We walked the plank at record pace today as the feel of several inches of sludge beneath our feet and the constant splashing of waves filled with seaweeds motivated us all to move quickly out towards the clearer water. As it would turn out though, the clear water was perhaps 400 meters from shore so we conceded at approximately 150-200 meters from shore and opted to swim in water that no longer was thick with sludge.

The swim down to south-south beach was slow but fun. The 2-4ft waves tossed us around and often times provided the unique opportunity to swim downhill and then uphill. The trip back was effortless....in fact I think The Patriarch mentioned that he'd didn't even swim a stroke opting instead to hoist his whiskered sail and catch a ride from a whopper of a wave. ...he did wave as he blew past me....or at least he claims.

Upon returning to shore the Lady of the Lake was kind enough to spit us out along with several more buckets of sludge....and a monster sized fish (salmon?) for us to snack on later.

Today was certainly a unique experience. Very rarely do we encounter anything but pristine water when we swim from Klode. Despite the unpleasant images portrayed by today's adventure I'm confident that they will soon pass. Encountering today's conditions certainly reminds us just how sophisticated the Lady the Lake can be. Warm one day, cold the next...crystal clear one day...

Looking forward to what the Lady of the Lake has in store for us tomorrow. :)

Hope to see you on the beach!

~Capt'n

Calming Down

Beach: Klode

Water temp: 68

Waves: Calm

Water Clarity: good - much clearer and cleaner than the last couple days

Crew: Lindsey, Gabriel, Cap'n, Patriarch

Next swims: Noon Saturday Klode, also 4:30 today

A complete sea change from the last few days.  Clear calm water. Swimming that seemed almost effortless compared to our recent struggles with waves and currents.  We made it to rockwall and back.  

Take a look at Sandie's interesting comments on the previous post.  Since I am now retired perhaps I can get more involved in these issues.     

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. 

4-6 foot fun!

Next Swims: Wednesday 4:30pm Klode, Thursday 6:30am Klode

Last night's swim:
Water temp: 73
Clarity: stirred up nearshore, excellent 50-75 meters offshore
Waves: one foot chop
Current: from the northeast
Crew: The Patriarch, Robin, Capt'n and Sir James arrived later.

This morning's swim:
Water temp: 70
Clarity: stirred up
Waves: 2-4ft early then frequent 4-6ft
Crew: The Patriarch, Gabriel, Capt'n

This morning's swim was an absolute blast!! The waves this morning were rolling in frequently approximately 2-3 seconds apart. 2-4 foot waves at the onset of the swim gave way to eventual 4-6ft launch pads for anyone looking for a little body surfing fun.

Due to the size and frequency of this morning waves we walked the plank from Klode's north beach. Our journey took us northward up to a new landmark we now call Cedar Grove...a small patch of cedar trees that line the beach between the garage and the rock wall. Coincidentally the offshore waves in this stretch also seem to be the biggest and most fun.

Closing In on 100 Swims

Next swims: noon today (Tue), 4:30 PM today, 6:30 AM Wed, all at Klode

The waves are building, predicted to be 2-4 feet by tonight and possibly 5-6 by tomorrow.  It should be fun.

We are only eleven swims away from 100 for the season, we just need the warm water to hold out another week or so, and the forecast appears favorable.  

This morning's swim:

Water temp: 68

Waves: calm

Clarity: perfect

Crew: Gabriel, Cap'n, Patriarch, and Mike joined us a little later

We intended to do a shorter swim to garage and back, but once again it was too nice to stop there, so we probably doubled what we intended.

Last night's swim:

Water temp: 74!

Clarity: excellent

Waves: one foot chop

Crew: Gumdrop, Cap'n, Patriarch, and Gabriel and Steve joined in later.

This was our "day after ironman" swim and we intended it to be a short easy one, but on the way back we ran into Steve on his way to rockpile, so of course we had to join him part of the way.  The conditions are so good it's hard to pull yourself out, no matter how tired you are.