2fer for you

two swim reports, back to back: saturday, claudia, diana and lftc met to swim with claudia on her first training swim for the bering straight. (oh my god) we had the best paddler, don, along side and conditions were superb, flat, smooth as silk, clear and 60 degrees. we swam to the 'round house' when diana and i decided to go back as we are not training for the bering straight. claudia kept going and we quickly lost sight of her. when we were at the end of the pier but way, way out we feel this deep current below and there they are, dolphins! there were so many we just stopped pointing them out, we were completely surrounded. a sea lion was racing behind them and we just stayed put in awe. it was fantastic but a little eerie too, we were way out in open water and nature was right in our faces. we love nature but just not too close, dolphins too but not so close, man, your getting blow hole spit on me. we decided to go in, way in, like right behind the surfers so the guards could see us but on our way were stopped again by some kind of wild sea lion frenzy, jumping and leaping while birds circled overhead. something unfortunate was happening to snack fish i think. we motored on under some big swells, the dropping kind and finally hit the tower and kind of wandered back in. we waited for a few minutes to see claudia just returning and bolted home to hot showers. we swam about 3 miles in 1 hour and 35 minutes, diana's feet were numb and i was frozen. we hobbled out. but, the swim was fantastic and claudia is a rock star swimmer.
second report for sunday: the mc's, dianadarling, lftc, janiegirl and leonard pulled it together after some where is and who is and when is to swim in beautiful seas, not even a ripple to mess with. swam to the 1/4 and while i felt good and could stay in place behind the wetsuits and fins, i was feeling worn out. every time the swift group paused for even a second i was all happy and raced up to join them and they'd dart off again like they were being chased. i rerouted diana to the marine room so we could talk about how mean the wetsuits and fins are for being so fast (not really, we just swam in a relaxed manner, kind of sidestroking really, that's how relaxed)) after a minute we had a visitor, a lone harbor seal. he swam all around us and at one point he was popping up between dd's ankles. it was a fabulous show and he swam with us all the way back to shore. kind of cold today, my watch read 59 most of the swim but there were some cold spots to be had. awesome swim, great partners, fun in the sun! thanks to everyone for swimming, i am a better swimmer for swimming with you all!