Smooth, calm and not so clear...

We had a great swim, though, as Bill said, the viz was, well, NOT horrible... so there you have it.  Not horrible, not clear, but we did swim!  The red tide has been way too fond of the cove... The life guard posting on the board was perfect:  Swim: smooth, calm, warmer and brown...

We headed off to the quarter with our new swim friend, Daun who's training for a triathlon and Hove from the Cove, Hovik -- a real treat.  Daun headed back at the quarter, we sliced through the brownish haze to the half, then Hove headed back to the cove... 

It was patchy, but not as dense after we left the half and headed to the Marine Room. It was actually clear there, so we swam along the shores for a while, greeting a couple of leopard sharks. Finally we headed towards the caves and back. Toni was right, it was much clearer all the way from the shores along the caves than out at the quarter and half buoys.  We got buzzed by a life guard jet ski that nearly ran us down over towards the caves...  had some excitement... the grey clouds melted away and it turned out to be a lovely day.

Hope to sea ya' Sunday at noon!!!
~mer-cari

Getting Back To Normal

Rarely have I seen such commotion over Fluffy! Close the beach? What's a mermaid to do? Well I waited until 2pm Thursday...they said it would be open by then and LG John, said it was down graded to a a strong advisory (I think mostly due to the rising surf). Upon first glance, past the Channel 7 News wagon, no one was in the water, no kayaks, no SUPs, no paddle boards and no swimmers. Five lifeguards were hanging out at the shack and 2 more roving around up top answering questions about the shark sightings and the surf. When I came down, John greeted me with "okay, now were getting back to normal" (Boy do I have him fooled LOL). Eric and John gave me the low down re the conditions upon hearing my intent to swim to the Marine Room. Strong surf and current, with occasional 10ft faces, waves breaking at the buoys, watch the rips, stay away from any rocks...basically Winter conditions with Summer temps. I got about 69.8F at the 1/4 buoy. I figured with 5+ guards and me, the only swimmer, my odds were pretty good...took my fins just in case.

The looks on peoples face and the occasional comments were cracking me up as I prepped for going in. Just as I got down on the sand, a HUGE wave came in...I glanced back up at Eric and John, yikes!!..."just wait for the set to pass and go for it" There is such power and majesty, soaring emotion and absolute calm finality about the Ocean. You can fight him, but you won't win, he'll tear you apart...or you can peaceably caress and stroke him and have the most amazing experience of your life...yes, I'm still talking about the ocean :o)

I won't say it was the 'best swim EVAR' but it was what I needed. Made it over to the Marine Room from the 1/2 in record breaking speed and found, amazingly enough, there was good viz with all the usual critters (what??) Who knew? Coming back was a challenge, but loved playing in the waves at the 1/4 and at Take-Off. Bottom line...Loved it! When I got out I saw Harry going out for a body surfing session, Ken checking it out and Cy came down with his fins. Later, ran into Anne coming down for some fun in the surf...yes, we ARE getting back to normal again (never saw hide nor hair of Fluffy by the way).

PS: Laura, the red tide is long gone!

brave, strong and fast

Oh we were so brave today... lots of chatter about the-man-in-the-grey-suit and feeling encouraged by our mighty lifeguards dismissive answers to our fears, LFTC, Diana Darling, The Mighty C's, Leonard, RUTH! and I took off under grey but clearing skies into very clear on the inside waters. 69+, beautiful fast swim to the 1/4, then on towards the tower, threading the needle between our two sailboat yachts which turned out to be quite far from each other and on to the Shores where Cary and Bill continued as planned to the tower onto sand, and Leo and Ruth! followed suit, while the three of us kept the water warm and chuckled about frosty chicks, creepy old men and boundaries.... once we had exhausted our knowledge of all of these things the Mighty C's came skipping along, and finally Ruth! and Leo came back to us too and we all headed home. A forceful chop-in-the-face type of return "are we getting anywhere?" exclaimed LFTC at one point not far from the Evil White House, but alas, we plodded on ... once we hit south of the 1/2 buoy the Neptune settled down a bit and Cary and Bill called us all over for a huge fish ball of Sargo which are my favorite fish in the world... so calm and still and beautiful... then onward and inward. Sorry I had no time to end our swim as a team but had to jet. Thanks all of you for another fabulous swim, Im so lucky to have you all in my swimworld!

Wild and Crazy Group on Sunday...

Busy, happy times at the cove!

Water still fairly warm, though it felt lower than 67 today. No viz, but still beautiful...Such a group -- Ruth, CFTC, Wendy and her friend Alexis, Leonard, Carol, Shane and Annamarie made it along with the C's... Toni missed us and Phoenix jumped in behind and of course caught up with her blazing speed swim.  Gorgeous swim out the the 1/4, then A, B, 1/2, back to the A and then in for a nice picnic. Roger dear was there to meet us on the grass and Toni made a lone swim and then found us on the grass (she totally missed that we were waiting up on the grass for everyone to assemble). We kept waiting and looking, but in the summer chaos and crowds we never saw Toni go out to sea... so glad we could meet up for a little picnic following the awesome swimming.  Even Doug and Marta stopped by for the festivities... Phoenix shared her special home brewed marmalade and Toni made a yummy granola (that I need the recipe for). Cami's cookies were devoured and we had lots of chips and guacamole, hummus, fruits and chocolate -- we swim for food?

Amazing art -- thanks to Cami!

They're the cutest!

Here's a couple of pics of the day... and oh, Cami made the most gorgeous birthday card for Toni and I... here's a peak at her artistry! We missed those that couldn't make it, but are always ready to swim next weekend!

Ruth, Bill, Cary, Leonard and Marta
By the time I started taking photos,
nearly everyone but these die-hards were gone!

Check those smiles!

Summertime and the swimmin' is sweet.

kayaks by the dozens

Weekend wonders...

Saturday was a packed pod -- LUCKY 13 as Laura noted (see 1/2 buoy to be sure)... We had so many I lost count, Laura, Cami, Wendy, Toni (hooray!), Ruth, Steve (he's feeling good!), Tayla, Hovik, Diana, Cary, Bill, Carol, and the guy in the yellow swim hat, to whom I haven't been introduced. Please let me know his name.

Great swim, nippy waters, we're think low 60's and some of the brave (Ruth, Steve, Diana, Cami, Laura - awesome bravery!).  After our photo op, we raced out to the A and then to the Tower -- NICE SWIM!  Laura was out doing her thing with some writing instrument so we missed her for a few moments somewhere out there... eventually she was located, looking totally innocent.

Here's some great pics that Laura's very sweet friend, Darcy, took of all of the Lucky 14 pod!
Happy Day.

Let's line up everyone, come on, we can do it.

Such beautiful mer-folk.

Are we there yet?  We forgot to get a photo of Darcy!

Thanks for the swim...and Laura, please thank Darcy for taking the photos.
~Cary

swam at the shores for al...

swim report sunday 12:30, cftc, leonard, ralph, claudia, al, RUTH!, lftc-we missed the mighty c's so much, they elected to swim early but it was shocking to not be with them on a weekend. Anyway, shores side for al, (it's okay al, just go with us here) at low tide in pretty flat seas, light wind chop and super clear, you could count shells on the sea floor. a hunting we will go-for leopards and we found some big ones at the marine room. we turned back to swim to the pier, i guess, it was supposed to be the mysterious blue bathrooms (i have never seen them, i think these folks are tricking me into distance) but we passed them and some of us kept going and going and going. finally al decided to head back and i offered, selflessly i might add, to accompany him while the rest moved on like machines. claudia came back with us too, probably to accompany me. i wasn't on my game today, i blame the mighty c's, they threw me off with their shocking news. (i totally forgive you guys) cami and leonard RULED the sea today and lead the swim, way to go you two! we had some lovely snacks ater the swim, cami's hi maintenance cookies and ralphs peanut butter pretzels, fruit and chocolate chip scones. all yummy. no champagne as it was too chilly, even in the sun we were cold. all in all a fantastic and fun swim with amazing swimmers whom i adore! i'll shower with any of you any time!
nothing too funny from me so i'll tell you this:
a rabbi, a blonde and a horse all walk into a bar.
the bartender say to them, 'what, is this some kind of a joke?'
lftc-out