Fluffy!

The Sunset That Wasn't

Beautiful sunset pictures...that's all I see from LA swim chums and it's buggin big time. So I expressly tied myself to a chair all day to keep me from swimming in the morning. I was bound (almost literally) and determined to swim later and take my camera to capture one of our beauteous sunsets. Arrived at the cove near 3:30 and saw Dana heading off in her signature "itsy bitsy teeny weeny (black and white) polka dot bikini" and a few others on deck. After trudging through the shrubbery on shore and shallows, got my glide on and did the large loop (A-Q-1/2-B-A). Slight marine layer with sun...thought it should make a great photo. Improved viz at the yellow sticks where a HUGE yellow tail and some smaller adult sized one were hanging. Ding Ding Ding...dinner! Have never seen one that big in person! Nothing else much but for the little juvy senoritas...they're so cute wiggling their little black tails. Out by the 1/2 looked at the temp gauge on my watch and it said 71.7F and other than a few gentle rollers, lake-like flat drill-tempting calm with barely a ripple in shore worth mentioning. Afterward, a fellow asked if his teenage daughter could swim with someone and since I already had gone and saw Vic, Chris and Hovik chatting getting ready for a launch, made the hookup...Hailey was super fly fast! Those little age-groupers man, what are they feeding them?

After my R&R in the jacuzzi, went back down for the sunset session and...nada, zip, zero, nyet, oh crap, no sunset, nuthin but marine layer...drat, double hockey sticks! On the up side of things, ran into the sistas going for a dip in the briny blue. It was a negative tide by now and at boomers the tide pools were accessible...here's what I snapped:

photos taken with Canon PowerShot G6

evening light

WKB and CFTC swam tonight at 6, dipping gingerly into 65 (inside), 68 past takeoff... clean clearish to the 1/4... lots of sea lions, more swimmers and oh, that glow from below... I do love a warm summer dip in the evening, the lighting was spectacular. Good company too. Saw Marta on deck x2. Hovik too. Tons of kelp on shore. Very close (too close) encounter with a giant sea lion on the way in about 3 feet deep, no kiddin. This gal trucked 26 wheelbarrows of dirt from one side of my yard to another today so this dip was just exactly what I needed to even my ballast. Mighty C's thanks for the glorious swim yesterday, you too Fred, LFTC, Amber, Marta, Doug on the fly and Leonard... one of my favorite swims ever with a nice fast pace and clear water. lucky me.

everyone and their mother's

the fringe players, the posers, the fair water swimmers, the fraidy cats, the hard partying too hung over to swim swimmers are in the drink today and have found out ways to let me know, i think i saw sky writing earlier: BEST SWIM EVA*** but i came inside immediatley. i knew what what was coming. anyway, since i am not swimming today i have been thinking about our weekends that will be MC-less for a short while. I suggest that someone step up to fill in their mighty fins and be the force that pulls us together while they are away. off the top i suggest marta as she has everyone and their mother's email and phone info. (tis a good and organized thing marta:)) plus, she pays attention to detail. i'm more qualified as a coordinator or recruiter and cami's personal manager so i'm busy doing those things. any takers or ideas? i love swim weekends with you all, i live for them so we have to keep on going despite the mc's selfish desire for a vacation in italy.
okay, they totally deserve it, it will be the best vacation evar!
input please!
lftc-out

Sweet Sunday Swim!

Well done -- all who braved the shark infested, algae clogged, warm inviting sea today! It was Sunday and we must swim and celebrate things...  We had such a big group we lost part of them on the way to the 1/2. Claudia Rose, Ralph and their crew headed to the caves for a birthday loop through the cave, while Laura and her team sped off to the 1/2 with Fred, Leonard, Cami (yes!), Marta, Amber, Bill and me... We spotted Doug at the 1/4, then did a stick tour and over to the Marine Room to see what looked like a cloudy sandstorm underwater -- no viz! Laura and Cami refused to get too close to that muck, so we all headed quickly out and away -- to the A.

On our way, we met Doug again at the 1/2. He thought we just hang out at buoys drifting about all day, but NO.  Decided we'd all head to the A, sans Fred and Amber who headed back... then in for an impromptu picnic with Claudia, and her crew and Laura, even David, Allie and her friend all together. We had such fun with Cami, Zander and Wylie too...  shared some food, some sunshine (I overdosed on sunshine today) and sea love!   Missed those who couldn't be there...♥

What a great send off... the Mighty C's will miss all our swim peeps, but will try to get in the warm Mediterranean sea as often as we can... and think of you all!

Ciao!
(◠‿◠｡)★¸. • * ¨ `*♥¸. • * ¨` ☆ ¸. • * ¨ `*♥¸. • * ¨` ☆ ¸. • * ¨ `*♥¸. • * ¨` ☆ 
~Cary

facebook quitter/downward dog in a thong and no sainthood for lftc

i looked into facebook, i really did but got stuck at the log in, besides, david has a facebook page, was horrified to see a picture of me in a two piece laying on the beach and never looked again so i'm going to use this blog as my only means of staying connected with you facebook frea..i mean facebook friends..my life is swimming anyway, i only swim, i love only the swimmers (aside from my tiny family), i talk only of swimming and non swimmers avoid me since my vocabulary is sprinkled with words like: viz, swell, upwellings, surge, murk, blooms, red and juicy, bouys, sharks and so on.  i recently informed dana and hove that i used to read, now i watch the web cams and stare at wavewatch all day. oh how my life has changed but anyway:

 i have one little story to tell you. recently, some boy swimmers that i'll not name (i decided to have the boys remain anonymous, not everyone loves my acerbic wit- and one time *** in his larger and saggy boy panties-my eyes still hurt from that one) have taken to lifting weights in the athletic club in only their speedos and nothing else, no shirt, shoes, not even a tea towel for god's sake. well, one time the hottest of the boys wore black ankle socks but they matched his thong so i'll cut him some slack. i have taken to walking into the club with my eyes down, no looking around in case the speedo boys are doing deadlifts or lord help me, any kind of yoga pose, say downward dog. don't get me wrong, i'm all about the naked bod, these boys are handsome, very fit and totally worthy of any kind of speedo, swimmers are the most naked people around and i myself avoid pants whenever possible but come on, in the gym? under flourescent lights? without any kind of shaving or waxing? puleeze. so i tell my beloved david this story who finds nothing wrong with it, after all, chicks love the package, right? um, no. he tells me that he had the same experience! however, he can't relate or understand why i was afraid to look around. when i questioned him further, district attorney style, he confessed that his experience involved a very young woman in a teeny tiny bikini stretching on a yoga mat right by the giant mirrors. it wasn't horrible, it was a beautiful sight and clearly she's a shy but intelligent girl, probably works with dolphins or whales and is pending sainthood after her stint in the peace corps. you guys know me, i'm sure you have heard the things that come out of my mouth, not shy or intelligent sounding and so far from sainthood that it's not even f**king funny. we can never go back to the athletic club together. he's totally cut off. but, alas, i will have to face the speedo boys again until someone speaks up. can i hand them a towel at least?
lftc-out

All alone at the B buoy

Steve,Phoenix, and DD took the plunge and made our way to the B and back around 5:00 pm. Not a soul in sight. Well, the tri geeks were in full force marching to the 1/4 and 1/2 all suited up. Good viz, no foamy green stuff, warm water, and nice rolling surf arising. And even some sun. Steve had to go out again with talia as she was late and made him go!! So he got to double dip!!

Get in the water, enjoy the lack of people scared away by the S word!!

Wednesday - Algae at the Marine Room

Wednesday late afternoon swim with the Heatland Gold swim team. Those middle schoolers made me feel like a turtle in a dolphin pod. My daughter dug her feet in and steadfastly refuted all adult and peer pressure to swim "in all that scary seaweed". Even Coach Kevin couldn't sway her. So we left her on behind on the benches. She is his new poster child for "Stubborn". Makes me so proud.
The REST of us had a great swim to the Marine room and back. It was high tide, so the seaweed wasn't an issue. Instead, the algae was downright disgusting! We noticed a little of it on the water surface at the half mile buoy, then swam into Algae Soup in front of the Marine Room! Retreat!!! 3/4 mile is just a warm up for those kids. They were playing around, doing all 4 strokes all the way back to the cove. From above, they must have looked like 20 clones of "Dori", the Ellen Degeneres character in "Finding Nemo".
Anyway, water temp was 68. Clarity was patchy 5-10 feet.

California Whiteheads and LSD

Catchy eh? Sunday our pod of 10 with two sidelined (Cary and Canning Offspring) decided to wait it out in the temperate lagoons before embarking on a maiden voyage to the quarter. On deck were: LFTC (in whitecap), Phoenix (in whitecap), Dianadarling (in whitecap) ... see a pattern?... Leonard (in whitecap), Marta (in whitecap) Bill and CFTC in blue and green. .. and Amber in a severely shredded wetsuit... severe enough for me not to notice the color of her cap. She may be on to a new style but I'm not thinking so. Took off from take-off and rallied at the A in perfectly silky 68-69 degree overcast conditions to the 1/2 then the 'evil white house' cast its spell on me and Dianadarling where we lingered using all refined swim techniques to conquer her current and eventually, gasping, made it to the throngs of leopards waiting for us. WOW, leopards in the house! EVERYWHERE, bat rays, sting rays, shovel nose guitarfish, someone saw an angel shark or horn shark or something brilliant! Marta, Leonard and LFTC escorted me towards the tower where my duckies were playing with their grandpa on the beach while the rest of the pod returned to the Cove.

Monday LFTC and CFTC dipped into fabulously clear and choppy whitecapped waters from takeoff to A to right shoulders around all the pins, literally washed from the right pin to the 1/4 with no effort at all very very strong southbound current and clear-to-the-bottom then high tailed it on in from the quarter. Strange, mystical, overcast, long-slow-distance swim yesterday, still feeling all swimmy on the inside and eternally grateful for my swim family.

Sweet water

Okay so I'm getting used to lake swimming again. The water in Schroon Lake (upstate New York) is warm and sweet. And the mountains in the distance are beautiful. To the north you can see the Adirondack high peaks from the water. I'd like to just swim out and out and out but I don't dare because of boats and jetskis. I've started swimming along the shore past houses and docks. I don't go very far though. I hitched an escort with some kayakers yesterday which was great. If I had an escort I'd swim across the lake and back. I think it may be 1.5 miles across here - maybe more. Schroon Lake is 9 miles long and varying widths depending on where you are. I wish I had a swim buddy!

Saturday Grey...

Temps warming up again, nice quick swim with TFTC, B&C of the MC's, Steve and life-guard Carl... we were safe and secure, swimming fast with Carl and the team.  Off to the Marine Room to say hey to the leopards... they were there and looking good, along with the little leopards, soweet!

Bill was getting chilly (he needs some of my insulation!) and so we headed back. We were also doublely excited because we were off to the airport to pick up Emily -- hurray! Home for a short week after successfully mastering her Russian Language program in Vermont.  So glad to have her here for some fun... we tried talking her into swimming with us, but she's gotten so used to pools that she thinks there are creepy crawlies in the sea... no way, but she won't be convinced... anyway we all went to the cove Sunday for a walk and saw Kevin and Maritsa (one of the Italian twins) so that was nice... still grey, so we wandered about and then headed home for some fun fam-time... nice.

Missed LFTC, and we all agreed, maybe a 15-20 minute rule if someone's meeting, don't wait past that time, just so no one worries about car crashes or something crazy... good idea, LFTC. Missed you swimming, but glad you and DD had a good one.  Wish the sun would come out... what's with the June Gloom in AUGUST?

~Cary

Saturday Swim

Conditions were very good, I'd say. Not awesome, because of the marine layer. Vizability was good inside the cove, worsened outside the cove until the .25. Then clear-ish to the bottom all the way to the Marine room, where it was very clear and teaming with leopards, rays, and (according to Cari) a skate! Saw many schools of fish along the way. TFTC, the Mighty C's, new guy Steve D, and retired lifeguard Carl swam to the marine room at a fast pace. But while TFTC was on shore depositing some trash the MCs started back and we never saw them again. What happened to ya'll? It felt very secure swimming with a former lifeguard. Carl connected with his old buddies on deck before we swam and I just knew they were keeping track of him, which meant they were keeping track of our whole pod, which is just fine by me.

LFTC admittedly flaked on us, we waited almost an hour for her winning smile and lilting voice to accompany us; but were waiting anyway, for Carl to park and then hobnob with the other guards. Come to find out, she swam earlier with DD. No harm, no foul; we all got our swim in.

post?

why am i the only one posting? come on you guys, i know you're swimming!

leopards and guitar fish, leopards and guitar fish, leopards and...

leopard facing south, guitar facing north and neither caring about the other. more leopards in the back.

cruising the bottom.

alexis's first marine room adventure.

guitar fish

the marine room was jam packed with guitar fish and leopards today, alexis had good luck on her side!

the mighty c's and their boat!

a big boy guitar fish!

she's so happy!

the tail of our friend.

sorry for the poor quality shots, i just point and click, all pictures a surprise but you get the jist of our swim today, sunday. play day, cruise day, picture day, we played tour guide too for alexis.

cove to pier and then some

swim report for saturday, the epic cove to pier and back for bill's birthday! the players: the mighty c's, dianadarling, phoenix and her hotness, carol, leonard, talya, the one and only barefoot, no pants swimmer, marta, RUTH! and lftc plus the lone kayak guy who was kind enough to come along in case one of us flailed but come on, this group does not flail. we had a bumpy launch with some forgotten stuff on deck, some broken goggles and whining about the bitter inside temp but we made it out and simply cruised. yours truly led this swim and i'll tell you why-i was chasing the kayak guy pretty hard (i was so going to be on his boat the instant i saw anything scary, i had to stay!) and i thought my beloved crew was right behind me, working it, heart pumping and lungs on fire right along with me, when the kayak guy turned to head back we both discovered that not only were YOU ALL not behind me but you had stopped to smell the flowers! or see the pretty boats or something, i was too far ahead to turn back and now i was alone. insert some scary jaws tune here. alone! after my yell to 'swim!' i decided that oh man, i'm alone at sea i better swim to that pier so off i went, to the pier where i waited, still alone at sea. i did eyeball the chain ladder but it was too cold under the pier and the chain was gross with slime. i bobbed. phoenix and talya exited at the pier and the rest of us took off. spectacular, epic swim for the birthday boy and the group. thanks to bill for planning it, encouraging everyone to attend and making it happen without a hitch. and thanks for the kayak guy! you are all amazing athletes and even more amazing friends. our picnic was great too!
lftc-out

Beauty day

Thursday, RUTH! and Carol had a lovely swim in our private Cove. No one around. Sunny, blue skies. Viz wasn't bad, and it was warmer than yesterday. Or else I was braced for the worst. Some nice swells. Oh, yesterday on my swim I would swear I saw a bunch of tiny baby shark-shaped fishies way down below. That's the scientific name for them, by the way. I checked.

Then into the cave - pretty strong surge - pushing and pulling. I told the kayaker guide to get lost while we were in there and he complied. All done with the utmost courtesy of course. Carol got sucked through and I followed against my judgment because of the timing. Just at the turn through the rocks the surge reversed and I'm on my side trying to fight Mother O. Gave up but no problem because of short turnaround - and I was surging forward again - forward and to the left though. So I'm through but just can't seem to get out into that little cove bit. Very grateful for the high tide. Not a scrape.

Then home sweet home. A lone swimmer stopped me just outside the cave to ask where I got my cool orange dorsal-finned cap. A friend gave it to me!! Yesterday the kiddies were eyeing it longingly as I exited. I'm a fashion plate, at last.

Thanks to Carol for being the best swim buddy!

shocking but true

steve looking very cool.

steve and RUTH looking very cool..

too dark in da cave

there were some guys on this beach a second before this was taken, they are climbing the wall up on the left. weird, like spiderman climbing..

contemplating what?

awww! i'm gonna miss this face!

couple of swim reports for your pleasure: the day these photos were taken was tuesday, august whatever, the water 69 degrees and compared to the next day: a cake walk, stealing candy from a baby, easy peasy, shooting fish in a barrel and so forth. the next day? WTF? inside my watch recorded 57, out near the fog shrouded caves, 60. again, WTF? no viz but who cares? pretty decent surface but who cares? walking in was like being back in the deep winter, standing there, avoiding any splashes, all body parts clenching (it's at least good for your core, people) dreading getting your face wet, feet numb and then, the mad dash to the always warmer outside but this time it didn't get much better on the outside. i have to rate the temp as holy shit cold, maybe the inside as freaking freezing. remember getting out and touching someone who screamed like a girl at your body temp? it's a good reminder for us winter swimmers, we musn't get too comfy. 
but no matter, the swim were fabulous, the company fabulous, i'd rather be in the cold wet than anywhere else.
surfline states:
Strong NW winds over the past few days and the associated upwelling have dropped water temps along the coast.
lftc-out