A Pictorial Tale of Two Swims

Next Swims:

        Mon-Fri 6:30 am and 5pm  <--NEW TIME
        Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Thursday 6:30 AM and Wednesday 5pm
Water Temp: 43.8
Air Temp: 50's, and cool
Clarity: crystal
Waves: flat as glass

Kru:  Dragonfly, Showgirl

The details of the amazing Wednesday PM Double Rainbow Swim are in yesterday's comments, and here are a few photos: 

Rainbow pics courtesy of TattooLady

 

The Thursday morning swim went as many do.  Notably, impressively, Dragonfly showed crazy badass-ery by doing a 200 yard skin swim in the 43 degree water.  I swam to the garage in full neoprene.

There was a brief burst of red on the horizon during the swim, but no true sunrise. The clouds stepped up and created their own drama.

Morning photo credit: Dragonfly

Bring it! *

Next Swims:

        Mon-Fri 6:30 am and 5pm  <--NEW TIME
        Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Wednesday 6:15AM
Water Temp: 43.3
Air Temp: 50's, and mercifully no wind
Clarity: amazing
Waves: flat as glass

Kru:  Mermaid Princess, Showgirl

* Bring IT!  Bring your full-sleeve wetsuit.  Bring your booties and gloves.  Bring your fluffy socks and hat for after.  Bring your long down jacket and use it to facilitate changing.

Photo credit:  Mermaid Princess.

There was a lot of pre-swim chit-chat, and plenty of time spent pulling on booties and gloves, followed by a side-seam catastrophe on MP's wetsuit.

And after all that, we finally got in the water and swam north.  The clarity was amazing.  The clouds at the horizon hid an actual sunrise, but there was a momentary explosion of red clouds that was magical.

Today was the maiden voyage of my new Xterra gloves, and I was reasonably happy with them.  This may be a cold-water swim record for me, and even my beloved Flipper Slipper booties didn't keep my feet completely warm.

Nevertheless, I made it to the birches, and MP went a bit further.

The air temperature back at the beach was more of a factor in post-swim shivers than the water, I think.

Back in the parking lot, we continued to re-hash the swim until a car came in, music blaring.  Out jumped a hippy-looking girl holding a............ hula-hoop.  She said she was taking a 3-minute hula break.  She proceeded to do amazing tricks with the hula hoop, and she was still at it as I left.

Constraints

Next Swims:

        Mon-Fri 6:15 am and 5pm  <--shifting to 6:30 sometime soon)
        Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Tuesday 6:15AM
Water Temp: 43.5
Air Temp: 60-ish, no wind
Clarity: amazing
Waves: flat as glass

Kru:  Mr. Anonymous, Showgirl

Shore Support:  chatty guy on the beach

I decided to start putting my wetsuit on in the parking lot as a way to make sure I swam no matter what the temp.  In the mean time, Mr. A rolled in.

The clouds were doing amazing things along the horizon.

And thus, I had half the wetsuit on, plus booties when I took the temperature.  The readout jumped immediately from 51 to 46, and then kept going down to....... 43.5.  

"Sewerpipe," I said.  

"If that," Mr. A said.

Mr. A was lightly dressed in a sleeveless wetsuit, and maybe booties.  I had a full-sleeve + booties, but, for whatever foolish reason, I decided against gloves.  

The water was amazingly clear and flat, and I felt fast in my wetsuit, but.... my hands did not agree with the rest of me.  I swam a tiny bit past the sewerpipe, but the increasing objections from my fingers caused me to turn around.  

I did a tiny skin swim after taking off the wetsuit.

We bundled up and left the scene.

Synchronized Swimming

Next Swims:

        Mon-Fri 6:15 am and 5pm  <--shifting to 6:30 sometime soon)
        Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Monday 6:15AM
Water Temp: 44.8
Air Temp: high 60's, no wind
Clarity: good near shore
Waves: flat as glass

Kru:  Mermaid Princess, Laguna Mike

Shore Support:  Showgirl

I was running late this morning so I was happy to hear voices on the beach as I headed down the stairs.

Laguna Mike and Mermaid Princess were chatting, but not really showing signs of getting in.  The cloudy sky kept the light dim.

After my burning cold loop around the rockpile yesterday, I was not super fired up about getting in the water, and really didn't feel like putting on my wetsuit.

To further cement my reluctance, I took the temperature and it went down, down, down to 44.8F.

To cut to the chase, Laguna Mike swam several pool-like laps skin, parallel to the shore, inside the rock piles.  MP swam laps nearly skin, perpendicular to the shore, out to just a bit outside the rock piles.  Though their paths crossed repeatedly, there were no crashes.  They called it quits at about the same time, and were probably in the water for 5-6 long, cold, badass minutes.

The sun never appeared today, but Mermaid Princess shared this freaky pic from yesterday morning:

This next pic, from today, further illustrates the roaming nature of the big white rocks.  A handful of them are starting to break away from the herd, and stealthily travel north underwater. 

Seven Samurai

 Next Swims:

Mon-Fri 6:15 am and 5pm
Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Sunday 8 a.m.
Water Temp: 45
Air Temp: 73
Clarity: Not
Waves: Relatively flat, 1 ft swells
Kru:  Showgirl, Mermaid Princess, Panini, Luna "Sunny" Laguna, Linda the Lamprey,  Dragonfly.   Wetsuit:  Brick.  Shore Support:  Lt. MJ (although she did go in up to her knees)

On a day for sartorial wonders, Brick wore a plaid shirt and pajama pants in a completely different and jarring plaid.  Ultimate grunge.  Mermaid Princess strutted her Bilabong swimskins which looked exactly like faded jeans, suitable for a trip to the grocery store.  I demo'd a few "Running Man" shuffle steps.  Panini donated a swim cap to Sunny, who apparently was sharing a cap with Laguna Mike, "one cap for two people."  

But then it was time to go into the water.  Lt. MJ came down, she said, "just to see if anyone would go in."  Everyone went in!

While Brick put the finishing touches on his full wetsuit gear, the women surged forward as a group.  My feet quickly turned to blocks of ice and I staggered out and made ready for another go.  I believe Sunny Laguna was first, backstroking with great enthusiasm. Linda the Lamprey dove quickly  in the shallows, avoiding the frozen feet syndrome.

Gray sky, gray water, not much incentive to linger.  It wasn't AS cold as I thought it might be, but I still kept my swim prudently short.  

We all took a slightly different approach.  Showgirl did a rock loop.  Sunny Laguna backstroked, Linda did laps back and forth outside the rocks.  Mermaid Princes went almost to Sewer Pipe, I went straight out and straight back.  Panini hesitated for many minutes, then finally plunged for a quick dip.

Brick completed a pretty solitary 45-minute swim - a minute for every degree," he explained.

The sartorial wonders continued post-swim.  MP also had a striped magenta-and-white cabana changing poncho.  "It looks like a Circus Tent!" Panini exclaimed.  Sunny Laguna was prepared with wool hat, full-length hooded DOWN COAT and winter boots, and a good thing, as she shrieked, "The Afterdrop is so strong!"

All 8 of us repaired to a delightful post-swim coffee.

Kwite a Krowd

Next Swims:
Mon-Fri 6:15 am and 5pm
Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Saturday at Noon
Water Temp: Dr. Panini called it 48, averaging macho-meter, mitch-o-meter and duck-o-meter readings
Air Temp: 78
Clarity: plenty of junk inside the rocks but could see bottom outside
Waves: gently 8 - 10" swells, northbound current
Kru:  Mr. Bubble, Mr. Anonymous, the Other Dave, Moondaug, Super Hera, We'Taco, Dr. Panini, Sunny and Mr. Laguna, Rosie, Abby, Courtney, Eleanor & Ryan, Itch, Brick, Sandy, Capt'n, Magic Mike, Kim G.

This has got to be unprecedented turnout for a day when the water wasn't that warm.  My only speculative explanation is that perhaps some of today's swimmers actually believed my last blog post, saying that Autmun 2020 has been cancelled for the remainder of the year.  Easy to believe that when we have such warm sunny weather - the lake doesn't seem to be buying it though.  At least not today.  

Patriarch and Capt'n have told me that, in the old days, they wouldn't even consider swimming in water colder than 60.  

Capt'n poured the Pitsch and asked for a toast; Sweet Jesus! was Itch's response.  Very apropos as we were taking the Killepitsch Kommunion.  OMG! would be another way of saying how most of us felt.  Stated yet another way - Jesus is Just Alright, per the Doobie Brothers in 1970

I don't care what they may say
I don't care what they may do
I don't care what they may say

Jesus is just alright, oh yeah  

Pre-Dawn Magic

Next Swims:

        Mon-Fri 6:15 am and 5pm

        Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim:  Friday 6:15

Water Temp: 55 (rounding up)
Air Temp: 60 
Clarity: Pretty fair
Waves: flat, slight rise and fall on return

Kru: Tatooed Lady, Showgirl, Mermaid Princess (MP fka Pool Noodle), Luna "Sunny" Laguna, Panini, Dragonfly

Shore Support:  Squeeze o'Showgirl

Could there be a more glorious way to kick off a Friday?  With a hiatus yesterday because of work/elbow issues, I was keen to get back in the water.  Driving over the Hoan in pre-dawn darkness, the Northwestern Mutual was not even visible, a Ninja blending into the background, only its name floating 40 stories high.  

I was a few minutes late to the beach. The combined sea/sky entity was opalescent, one of my favorite descriptive words:

                                    

Apparently my mood was a shared one.  Rounding the corner of the path,  animated disembodied voices floated up to me, chortling and full of glee.  

A few minutes later, I was able to see them more clearly:

Mermaid princess looks cold - before she even got in the water for her skin swim!

Tatooed Lady was first in and headed north.  At the rocks she turned and looked back at the rest of us lolllygagging on the shore.  I went next and Luna Laguna right behind me.  Luna seems to inspire multiple nicknames and all related to Celestial bodies, an enviable quality!  I think of her as "Sunny" because that's her personality.

Stepping in didn't feel too bad - I didn't have that recoiling feeling, not when I put my hands in either. I was skin (no choice) because my sore elbow would not let me don a wetsuit and gave trouble even getting on cap and goggles.  But I knew the cold water would be therapeutic.

With my initial plunge I didn't even feel cold.  I felt the blood rushing to the surface of my skin, warming me, and the water was warm and comforting past the rocks, as usual, and even warmer the further you went, beckoning insidiously. With each breath I watched a redeye sun peep a few more degrees over the horizon.  The neon pink and orange barbies of TTL and Luna floated on ahead.  The surface was gray, green and smooth, gently reflecting a play of colors and shapes, dark wood; green, red and orange leaves.  Shore sounds were distant and muted.  I reveled in this solitary amphitheater, free of any troublesome thoughts about work, or thoughts, period. 

I turned at Birches,  better to quit while ahead.  Heading back, I still couldn't put too much pressure on the elbow but felt the basics of my stroke technique return in a most hopeful way.  As one does, I began to dread the return to shore and the inevitable "Afterdrop" a term given us by the San-Francisco-Bay-swimming Fred, which basically means that while in the water you are ok,  it's only after you get out the you get really cold. Wikipedia has this to say:

Afterdrop is a continued cooling of a patient's [sic] core temperature during the initial stages of rewarming from hypothermia. Afterdrop is attributed to the return of cold blood from the extremities to the core due to peripheral vasodilatation, thus causing a further decrease of deep body temperature. 

But, as Fred says, hypothermia makes all your problems go away.  

 Post-swim, Sunny Luna and Showgirl were rapping back and forth about ear plugs, gloves and other swim paraphernalia - where did they get the energy?  I needed to channel available resources into  wriggling out of my wet suit while maintaining towel coverage -  accomplished easily when  the brain is not compromised.  The Mermaid Princess was equally absorbed.  The Tatooed Lady was last out, wtih an epic swim to just past Rock Wall.  Panini did a long therapeutic immersion as well.

Getting into the car always feels a little awkward - return to gravity, after floating in Dreamland.  But then - the endorphins - and all things Earth-wise feel possible again - even exciting -